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Time: George R. R. Martin interview, “I am going to finish these books!”

studyguy

Member
Honestly, I take this stuff in stride, wouldn't at all be the first fantasy title I waited ages to for in order to read the conclusion. The black company hasn't had a sequel in like 17 years for instance. Last time I read Cook had 2 more books planned for the series and he was like "yeah I want to finish them, let me just get a few things out of the way in other writings" that was in 2005.

Been waiting for Rawn to finish the Exiles trilogy's third book over 20 years now.
 

GhaleonEB

Member
"I loved writing short stories. I haven’t done them in many years, but there is something to be said. I am never going to write again a gigantic seven-book opus that takes 30 years!"

Given that he said himself he started in 1991, that means completion date of 2021. Thanks George!

There's 0% chance he's done by then. I think he was rounding down. :lol
 

Kaladin

Member
I'll never read the series so that doesn't matter to me.

If you're here, you should. Wheel of Time is a massive 15 book series that Robert Jordan wrote 12 of and his wife gave his notes to Brandon Sanderson to do the final three.

It suffers a bit in the middle of the series but recovers nicely in the last couple he wrote and Sanderson's novels are a great finale trilogy with the last being like an entire book of the last few chapters of Game Of Thrones.
 
"I loved writing short stories. I haven’t done them in many years, but there is something to be said. I am never going to write again a gigantic seven-book opus that takes 30 years!"

Given that he said himself he started in 1991, that means completion date of 2021. Thanks George!

We will be lucky if the next book is out by 2021
 

Bisnic

Really Really Exciting Member!
Is the next book supposed to be the last? If not... well, better hope the last one is over before he goes senile or else you're going to have an ending that have literally nothing in common with the one from the show.
 

Famassu

Member
Nah, you probably won't George.

Seeing all your future plot lines and big moments happen on screen is sapping your desire to finish the books and you'll keep delaying them indefinitely.
The show barely resembles the books since, like, the 4th season. So many things have been changed that even if some big event is in the future books that was already in the show first, having some characters still alive or doing different things on the other side of Westeros, the books should/could make a lot of scenarios play out completely differently.

Not to even mention the books will have a lot of things that the show never even hints at.

Is the next book supposed to be the last? If not... well, better hope the last one is over before he goes senile or else you're going to have an ending that have literally nothing in common with the one from the show.
Come on. GRRM isn't the paragon of health, but people in their late 60s & early-to-even-late 70s can still be perfectly able-minded and far from senile, so long as something like Alzheimer's doesn't destroy them.
 
Is the next book supposed to be the last? If not... well, better hope the last one is over before he goes senile or else you're going to have an ending that have literally nothing in common with the one from the show.

Nah, The Winds of Winter is supposed to be the sixth book, and then A Dream Of Spring is supposed to be the last. So I'm not too optimistic.
 

yyzjohn

Banned
We will be lucky if the next book is out by 2021

Yeah I know, and quite frankly I don't care anymore. It's so long between books that you feel compelled to go back and re-read all the previous books before the new one. I don't have the energy to go and re-read all that stuff again just to get ready for Winds of Winter when and if it ever comes out. There's too many other great novelists out there.
 

Iksenpets

Banned
There's 0% chance he's done by then. I think he was rounding down. :lol

Just needs to hit 34 years to get that rounding down benefit! That's... actually still only barely plausible. Like, if he announces Winds is done next week, then maaaaaaybe.

Basically, he's fucked. I'm at the point where I just hope he gets far enough along that something coherent can be made out of the unfinished manuscript after the fact.
 
The show barely resembles the books since, like, the 4th season. So many things have been changed that even if some big event is in the future books that was already in the show first, having some characters still alive or doing different things in on the other side of Westeros, the books should/could make a lot of scenarios play out completely differently.

Not to even mention the books will have a lot of things that the show never even hints at.

The fact that the show is going on its own kind of disenfranchised me from the series. I read up to a Dance with a dragons and then stopped.
Didn't like a Feast for Crows much at all personally. However, the first 3 were very good.
 

Malo

Banned
Who finishes their works first? Togashi with Hunter X Hunter or Martin with A Song of Ice and Fire?

Place your bets!
 

Creamium

shut uuuuuuuuuuuuuuup
It's been 6 years since Dance. Over the span of 4 years he put out the first 3. I don't think we'll be seeing the end of this series.
 

Famassu

Member
The fact that the show is going on its own kind of disenfranchised me from the series. I read up to a Dance with a dragons and then stopped.
Didn't like a Feast for Crows much at all personally. However, the first 3 were very good.
You should give it another chance, at least try to read it with the combined reading order of AFFC + ADWD.

AFFC is a slightly different kind of beast but not to its detriment unless you expect the book to immediately be able to continue dishing out events on the dramatic & wordly scale of the Red Wedding, Purple Wedding, Battle of the Wall and such without much regrouping & build up to it all. I found AFFC to be a really good book about the fallout from everything that happened in ASOS (& prior), showing the state of Westeros among common folk after all the spilled blood and starting to build towards future conflicts & important events. As with ADWD, its biggest flaw is the amount of cliffhangers & it not quite working as well as a standalone book as the previous books, but otherwise I don't think there's much of a dip in quality (if any at all).
 

Aiii

So not worth it
Well then. Intentions are good George. Lets hope your body and mind will work along with the twenty years or so it will take you to finish the job. Best of luck.
 

Famassu

Member
You should add Kentaro Miura to that list with Berserk. Honestly I think both manga will finish before we see Winds published.
Miura releases Berserk chapters about as quickly as Martin has released/read TWOW sample chapters.

And aren't we, like, "a little over half-way through" Berserk or something, according to Miura? At least we know TWOW is presumably the penultimate book with the finale following it if all goes well. Who knows where Berserk will still go before we get to even the TWOW point of Berserk.
 

Acidote

Member
I would sign a contract that said he's publishing Winds of Winter by 2021, knowing he won't write A Dream of Spring.
 
I went on a date a couple of weeks ago with somebody that works at one of the big sci-fi / fantasy publishers. She told me that it's basically accepted that Martin is done with The Winds of Winter, but he's not giving the draft to his publisher for review because he's not happy with it. Take of that what you will, but I found it kind of interesting.
 

Hari Seldon

Member
To be honest I'm probably not going to buy the next book and just wait to read it when the final book comes out (if ever).
 
If he does finish them, they will likely be terrible.

I wonder how deeply he regrets ripping up the plan and starting from scratch on the fourth book.
 

4Tran

Member
And yet again Martin reminds us that a Song of Ice and Fire is not the kind of series that he should be writing. It's too complex for his writing style and methods and since he's not willing to change them to meet the demands of his books, they take forever to come out (and are trash on publication). I've pretty much given up hope that the rest of the series is going to be any good.

Just keep good notes and name the person to finish your series before you die. Make sure it's someone who is a robot at writing and not slow though.
Martin doesn't keep notes though.

"I loved writing short stories. I haven’t done them in many years, but there is something to be said. I am never going to write again a gigantic seven-book opus that takes 30 years!"

Given that he said himself he started in 1991, that means completion date of 2021. Thanks George!
I'd be on Martin's side here a bit, but a Song of Ice and Fire is only ~1.7 million words so far. It's a lot, but not excessively so; and certainly not to the point of excusing the sheer amount of time they take to write. Hell, I'm currently reading a writer who has written about 22 million words since 2006.
 

HStallion

Now what's the next step in your master plan?
Miura releases Berserk chapters about as quickly as Martin has released/read TWOW sample chapters.

And aren't we, like, "a little over half-way through" Berserk or something, according to Miura? At least we know TWOW is presumably the penultimate book with the finale following it if all goes well. Who knows where Berserk will still go before we get to even the TWOW point of Berserk.

We are most likely 70 percent done, if not further, with Berserk going by what Miura has said. He also is releasing content for Berserk about 6 months out of the year for the last several years. He is far more consistent then GRRM.
 

gutshot

Member
I went on a date a couple of weeks ago with somebody that works at one of the big sci-fi / fantasy publishers. She told me that it's basically accepted that Martin is done with The Winds of Winter, but he's not giving the draft to his publisher for review because he's not happy with it. Take of that what you will, but I found it kind of interesting.

I doubt it is done but it's definitely true that he has become even more of a perfectionist, which is probably at least part of the reason for the delays of both ADWD and TWOW. He even admits in this interview that he feels a lot of pressure to make these books "great".
 

4Tran

Member
I went on a date a couple of weeks ago with somebody that works at one of the big sci-fi / fantasy publishers. She told me that it's basically accepted that Martin is done with The Winds of Winter, but he's not giving the draft to his publisher for review because he's not happy with it. Take of that what you will, but I found it kind of interesting.
I'm not surprised. Hell, Martin should have done the same with the a Dance of Dragons draft as well.
 

zashga

Member
It's been evident for a while now that GRRM ran out of steam between books three and four. Ever since then, it's been long waits for mediocre books. I'm still kind of hopeful the series will conclude with a bang, some day, but I'm not really expecting anything anymore.

The first three books were really amazing, though. I'm glad to have read them even though the series effectively stalled there.
 
I post this on every "GRRM working the books, honest!" thread because it bears repetition:

The entire Star Wars prequel trilogy was conceived, written, produced, and released before GRRM will finish.

The entire Star Wars sequel trilogy, which NO ONE EXPECTED TO EVER GET prior to the Disney buy-out, will be conceived, written, produced, and released before GRRM finishes.

The entire Harry Potter series was conceived, written, and released.

The entire Harry Potter film adaptations were conceived, written, produced, and released.

The entire Lord of the Rings film trilogy was conceived, written, produced, and released.

The entire Hobbit film trilogy was conceived, written, produced, and released.

And its lookings more and more likely that the entire Stormlight Archive, ten books (yes, thats right, TEN) each of equal length to the longest books in ASoIaF, will be finished before GRRM. And that author started in 2010 FFS...
 

trembli0s

Member
Z0kZ7gt.jpg

Simply fantastic
 
I doubt it is done but it's definitely true that he has become even more of a perfectionist, which is probably at least part of the reason for the delays of both ADWD and TWOW. He even admits in this interview that he feels a lot of pressure to make these books "great".

*reads draft*

"Nope, don't like it. Better spend five years writing something twice as terrible."
 

Sethista

Member
more and more I htink I made the right decision to not read the books and focus on the series, sure is not as complete and rich, but I will get to see it all in 2 years time.

And I think its incredible how GRRM created something that people care so much about, they would put him first in line for a futurama like technology where we converse the heads of some people forever, so he could finish his 168 years of stories he has.
 

4Tran

Member
It's been evident for a while now that GRRM ran out of steam between books three and four. Ever since then, it's been long waits for mediocre books. I'm still kind of hopeful the series will conclude with a bang, some day, but I'm not really expecting anything anymore.

The first three books were really amazing, though. I'm glad to have read them even though the series effectively stalled there.
I don't think Martin has run out of steam. I think that he still has lots of great ideas but also has a hard time trying to articulate them. His writing style has a lot to do with it: he writes a whole bunch, and then it ends up not meshing very well with where he wants the overall story to go so he ends up having to redo it.
 

Ghostofst4rm4n

Neo Member
Miura releases Berserk chapters about as quickly as Martin has released/read TWOW sample chapters.

And aren't we, like, "a little over half-way through" Berserk or something, according to Miura? At least we know TWOW is presumably the penultimate book with the finale following it if all goes well. Who knows where Berserk will still go before we get to even the TWOW point of Berserk.

We are most likely 70 percent done, if not further, with Berserk going by what Miura has said. He also is releasing content for Berserk about 6 months out of the year for the last several years. He is far more consistent then GRRM.

I'm sure we will see the end of Berserk. At least it's what I keep telling myself and waiting with bated breath on new chapters.

With GRRM and GoT, I am not sure all of the moving pieces he has set in place have conclusions he could be happy with today. And if the show, contrary to what he says is having an impact on what he writes, then who knows how many times he is going back to the drawing board.
 
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