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No Winds of Winter in 2017. Most likely 2018.

Creamium

shut uuuuuuuuuuuuuuup
A long time ago Martin said he wouldn't provide updates anymore on Winds' progress... maybe he should stick to that. Everytime he tries to give an estimate, it's just more salt in the wound. He doesn't even sound all that confident about 2018, sooo yeah '19 at the earliest lol.
 

Aiii

So not worth it
He should just give his Winds of Winter script to Elio and Linda, they'd finish it in three weeks I assume. As much as I don't like them they'd get it done.

I would rather have no book.

There are plenty of actual writers that can ghost write a book outside of some hardcore fans.

Last time a fan wrote a published work we ended up with 50 shades of grey.
 

Retsudo

Member
Eiichiro Oda will finish One Piece before GRRM finishes these fucking books.
I stopped caring a long time ago, or so i thought, but every piece of news like this that comes out, manages to shrivel whatever little hope was buried inside me.

Maybe finish the fucking books, before writing a bajillion spin-offs George?
 
It's a real shame that ASOIAF most likely won't be finished. I bought the 4 book series when that was all that was released up to that point. I would spend some weekends reading for 24+ hrs just addicted to those books. A Game of Thrones, A Clash of Kings and A Storm of Swords in my opinion, are fantasy masterpieces.

It started to fall apart for me with A Feast For Crows. When I read that book, it felt so lifeless compared to the first 3. Like I was reading a book from a different author. It totally soured me on the rest of the series to the point where I really don't care what happens anymore. If the final book does actually get released in the future, however unlikely, I will finish the series. Unless that happens, I think I'm done and just stick to the show.

I have started on Sanderson's Stormlight Archive. I feel like The Way of Kings is a masterpiece and I can't wait to read the rest of the series. Sanderson is such a talented writer and I have so much confidence in him. He is releasing Oathbringer I think this fall, super excited to get caught up on the series!
 

Kuraudo

Banned
"Most likely" is hugely overselling his confidence. Sounds more likely that we could be getting the Fire and Blood book first instead (which I'd actually prefer in some ways).
 

Aiii

So not worth it
It's a real shame that ASOIAF most likely won't be finished. I bought the 4 book series when that was all that was released up to that point. I would spend some weekends reading for 24+ hrs just addicted to those books. A Game of Thrones, A Clash of Kings and A Storm of Swords in my opinion, are fantasy masterpieces.

It started to fall apart for me with A Feast For Crows. When I read that book, it felt so lifeless compared to the first 3. Like I was reading a book from a different author. It totally soured me on the rest of the series to the point where I really don't care what happens anymore. If the final book does actually get released in the future, however unlikely, I will finish the series. Unless that happens, I think I'm done and just stick to the show.

I have started on Sanderson's Stormlight Archive. I feel like The Way of Kings is a masterpiece and I can't wait to read the rest of the series. Sanderson is such a talented writer and I have so much confidence in him. He is releasing Oathbringer I think this fall, super excited to get caught up on the series!

Coming out in November. Sanderson is great because he literally has progress trackers to tell you how far along he is and is upfront om delays and explains them.

Of course no author is under any obligations to do things like that, but I love how Sanderson interacts with his fanbase.
 
Coming out in November. Sanderson is great because he literally has progress trackers to tell you how far along he is and is upfront om delays and explains them.

Of course no author is under any obligations to do things like that, but I love how Sanderson interacts with his fanbase.

Ha I didn't even know he did that. Thanks for the heads up.

Nice, I have a few months to catch up. November will be a perfect time to curl up and read Oathbringer.
 
It's a real shame that ASOIAF most likely won't be finished. I bought the 4 book series when that was all that was released up to that point. I would spend some weekends reading for 24+ hrs just addicted to those books. A Game of Thrones, A Clash of Kings and A Storm of Swords in my opinion, are fantasy masterpieces.

It started to fall apart for me with A Feast For Crows. When I read that book, it felt so lifeless compared to the first 3. Like I was reading a book from a different author. It totally soured me on the rest of the series to the point where I really don't care what happens anymore. If the final book does actually get released in the future, however unlikely, I will finish the series. Unless that happens, I think I'm done and just stick to the show.

I have started on Sanderson's Stormlight Archive. I feel like The Way of Kings is a masterpiece and I can't wait to read the rest of the series. Sanderson is such a talented writer and I have so much confidence in him. He is releasing Oathbringer I think this fall, super excited to get caught up on the series!


Dance with Dragons is definitely a better read. Not as good as the first three, but it has more POVs that matter
 
I wish he would be more informative on why it's taking so long. Why does he keep saying "months away" since 2015?

He's trying to estimate the speed at which the ideas will occur to him. It's impossible.

Oh, you can say, "The last book took me three years, and I'm half way done with this one, so surely 18 months will do it!" but you might spend a year writing a whole plotline only to realize it doesn't work with some other plotline you had in mind so you to scrap the whole thing and start over. You can't predict that shit.

That's why the comments about his computer and typing speed amuse me so much. Guys, the typing isn't the hard part. It's thinking through these impossible knots you tie yourself into. "I need the reader to learn this piece of information via an argument between Tyrion and Sansa, but for plot reasons Tyrion can't learn that information himself until the chapter before, and he and Sansa are a thousand miles apart on the map. If I insert a time jump in between chapters during which Tyrion is making the trip, then that means Bran will have spent that gap trapped in the woods and he would have starved or frozen to death by then...

If really is a fun mental exercise to write a longform story, if you've never had reason to do it - very quickly you find yourself resorting to tricks that you yourself loathe in movies and TV shows. Characters running into each other by blind chance, characters happening to overhear the exact piece of information they needed because they happened to be walking past the exact right people in the hallway at the exact right moment ... that's stuff you have to do when your plot turns into a traffic jam half way through. And the bigger your story is, the more easily things get jammed up. How many characters have speaking parts in these books? It's in the thousands, right?
 

kruis

Exposing the sinister cartel of retailers who allow companies to pay for advertising space.
Dance with Dragons is definitely a better read. Not as good as the first three, but it has more POVs that matter

It could perhaps have been a good book if the editors and Martin hadn't decided to make the book shorter by moving a climactic battle to the next book. So you'll have hundreds of pages of Martin moving the pieces on his literary chessboard but there's no pay off. And far too much of the book reads like the travelogue of a drunk, depressed dwarf. And of course Martin is still expanding the scope of the series even though he should have been narrowing that scope for the end game.
 
He's trying to estimate the speed at which the ideas will occur to him. It's impossible.

Oh, you can say, "The last book took me three years, and I'm half way done with this one, so surely 18 months will do it!" but you might spend a year writing a whole plotline only to realize it doesn't work with some other plotline you had in mind so you to scrap the whole thing and start over. You can't predict that shit.
I mean this is what happened in 2002-3.

That's why the comments about his computer and typing speed amuse me so much. Guys, the typing isn't the hard part. It's thinking through these impossible knots you tie yourself into. "I need the reader to learn this piece of information via an argument between Tyrion and Sansa, but for plot reasons Tyrion can't learn that information himself until the chapter before, and he and Sansa are a thousand miles apart on the map. If I insert a time jump in between chapters during which Tyrion is making the trip, then that means Bran will have spent that gap trapped in the woods and he would have starved or frozen to death by then...

If really is a fun mental exercise to write a longform story, if you've never had reason to do it - very quickly you find yourself resorting to tricks that you yourself loathe in movies and TV shows. Characters running into each other by blind chance, characters happening to overhear the exact piece of information they needed because they happened to be walking past the exact right people in the hallway at the exact right moment ... that's stuff you have to do when your plot turns into a traffic jam half way through. And the bigger your story is, the more easily things get jammed up. How many characters have speaking parts in these books? It's in the thousands, right?

You're not describing something that typically takes a writer 7 years to figure out, especially after spending 6 and 5 years respectively figuring out the structure of previous books.
 

TCRS

Banned
I'm past caring. If the author can't be bothered neither can I. I'll just remember it as a great story that got muddied during the last book and then was never finished except in the edgy mcedge TV show.

R. Scott Bakker was also five years late with the sixth book of The Second Apocalypse but after it was released last July he promised book 7 will be out by July 2017. And he delivered.
 
Has he relented on the idea that someone might finish the series after his death yet? Just give it to Sanderson, we'll have it by next week.
 
Has he relented on the idea that someone might finish the series after his death yet? Just give it to Sanderson, we'll have it by next week.

Why do people keep mentioning Sanderson who would never do it and not someone like Abraham who has a relationship with GRRM?
 

Aiii

So not worth it
I mean this is what happened in 2002-3.

You're not describing something that typically takes a writer 7 years to figure out, especially after spending 6 and 5 years respectively figuring out the structure of previous books.

Problem GRRM has is that he is a discovery writer trying to write an opus that requires outlining and planning. Something he did not do, he let the characters get him to the conclusions he had in mind up to and including the third book. Then he had a understanding of the endgame and no idea how to get there for the next four books and that is when he crashed, because the characters aren't taking the course he was expecting them to take.

Discovery writing just isn't very suited for a series on this scale.

This is also why he loves writing the lore and short stories so much. Just a small adventure where he can set a character loose in the world he loves, simple, concise, easy to get out.
 
Problem GRRM has is that he is a discovery writer trying to write an opus that requires outlining and planning. Something he did not do, he let the characters get him to the conclusions he had in mind up to and including the third book. Then he had a understanding of the endgame and no idea how to get there for the next four books and that is when he crashed, because the characters aren’t taking the course he was expecting them to take.

Discovery writing just isn’t very suited for a series on this scale.

This is also why he loves writing the lore and short stories so much. Just a small adventure where he can set a character loose in the world he loves, simple, concise, easy to get out.

Plus maybe he realizes Dany should be dead by rights by now and that having her as his favorite character is making things messier.
 

Kadayi

Banned
Dude is a legendary procrastinator. He only ever writes at home, using some archaic word processor and despite all of his Mea Culpa's about delays to the 'fans', you only need to give him a sniff of a convention appearance and guys on the plane eager to get his ego stroked.

Plus he's heavily invested with those two rat fucks at Westeros.org who have been happily sucking on the GOT money teat by getting him to waste his time on these supplemental history books. If his publishers had any sense, they'd of made Martin give those two nitpickers the boot years ago.
 

Jinroh

Member
If he thought he was two months away from completion in 2015 he probably hasen’t, or barely worked on the book since then. If he was motivated to finish it, the book would have released a long time ago.

I have zero hope for the last book to ever be released.
 

Mediking

Member
All I remember from Winds... is something really messed up happens to one of my favorite characters...

...

Wow.

Its all coming back....
 

Tacitus_

Member
Problem GRRM has is that he is a discovery writer trying to write an opus that requires outlining and planning. Something he did not do, he let the characters get him to the conclusions he had in mind up to and including the third book. Then he had a understanding of the endgame and no idea how to get there for the next four books and that is when he crashed, because the characters aren’t taking the course he was expecting them to take.

Discovery writing just isn’t very suited for a series on this scale.

This is also why he loves writing the lore and short stories so much. Just a small adventure where he can set a character loose in the world he loves, simple, concise, easy to get out.

He's also a slow as fuck writer on top of that. He types with one finger! And on a machine that's probably older than your average gaffer.
 

m4st4

Member
Why doesnt he work on the main books first before writing the supplemental stuff?

1407128789502.gif
 

takriel

Member
7 years for WOW, huh?

1400 pages in 7 years = 200 pages a year.

That's 200/365 = half a page per day, or one page in two days.

Yeah...
 
It's a real shame that ASOIAF most likely won't be finished. I bought the 4 book series when that was all that was released up to that point. I would spend some weekends reading for 24+ hrs just addicted to those books. A Game of Thrones, A Clash of Kings and A Storm of Swords in my opinion, are fantasy masterpieces.

It started to fall apart for me with A Feast For Crows. When I read that book, it felt so lifeless compared to the first 3. Like I was reading a book from a different author. It totally soured me on the rest of the series to the point where I really don't care what happens anymore. If the final book does actually get released in the future, however unlikely, I will finish the series. Unless that happens, I think I'm done and just stick to the show.
I feel the same way, especially about the fourth book. I actually gave up on it half way through... None of the characters I cared about were featured for any amount of time, and it just seemed to go on and on about nothing of importance. Considering how much I loved the first three, it was actually shocking how badly I disliked the fourth.

If the series ever finishes I may re-read the whole thing.
 

Aiii

So not worth it
I feel the same way, especially about the fourth book. I actually gave up on it half way through... None of the characters I cared about were featured for any amount of time, and it just seemed to go on and on about nothing of importance. Considering how much I loved the first three, it was actually shocking how badly I disliked the fourth.

If the series ever finishes I may re-read the whole thing.

Look up ”A Ball of Beasts" a fan-edit of books 4 and 5 in chronological order, it reads a lot better and helps the fatigue of uninteresting characters by mixing it up with the rest.
 

Sillverrr

Member
I started this series... a decade ago I think? Such a rollercoaster ride. The last few books, which I've had to wait patiently for, have not lived up to the first three. Even so, I'm still invested in this world, albeit nowhere near at the same level I was.

It's obvious GRRM is struggling with this beast, and TBH I'm more interested in exploring different authors now. Sadly, I haven't discovered anything to rival the first half of ASOIAF. It makes me realise just how talented GRRM is, which makes it hard for me to stay angry at him for an extended period of time!

I remain hopeful, if not overly optimistic, for this book in 2018.
 

RedShift

Member
Remember when GRRM got all pissy at JK Rowling for not showing up at an award show she won over ASoS, when she missed it to work on her fifth book because fans were impatient after like a year? Good times.
 

John Dunbar

correct about everything
it's understandable people are upset they're not getting the book any time soon, but all the whining about the show ruining the books makes no sense. does it no longer make sense to read lord of the rings or harry potter just because they made movies out of them? there's more to books than just the story.

if grrm one day does finish the series, and that is a big if, it no longer matters that the show ended before the books. some random guy twenty years later is not going to pick up a paperback of a game of thrones and think "i hear this was pretty good, but i remember they made a television series out of this that ended before the books were all written, so i am not going to read this."
 
He's secretly been writing WoW and DoS back to back, so that WoW will release next year and DoS in 2019.

Uh, GRRM openly mocks this idea in the very post the OP is about.

it's understandable people are upset they're not getting the book any time soon, but all the whining about the show ruining the books makes no sense. does it no longer make sense to read lord of the rings or harry potter just because they made movies out of them? there's more to books than just the story.

if grrm one day does finish the series, and that is a big if, it no longer matters that the show ended before the books. some random guy twenty years later is not going to pick up a paperback of a game of thrones and think "i hear this was pretty good, but i remember they made a television series out of this that ended before the books were all written, so i am not going to read this."
People will care if they are finished at all and the quality of said finishing books, all of which is still very much up in the air.
 
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