A Song of Ice and Fire/Game of Thrones Spoiler-Filled Discussion

[Ayelbourne]

Eduardo wrote:

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New sample chapter from The Winds of Winter:

http://georgerrmartin.com/if-sample.html

We know from the bits from Arianne II, which Martin read at a convention about a year ago, that Arianne is at Griffin's Roost. So, she traveled from Sunspear to Griffin's Roost within the span of two chapters. Back in ADwD, a journey like this would've taken 12 chapters.
So, here's to hoping that Martin finally ramps up the pace.

[Deckerd]

Publication date is now 2015.

[137th Gebirg]

Ugh...

[Captaindemotion]

Ayelbourne wrote:

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We know from the bits from Arianne II, which Martin read at a convention about a year ago, that Arianne is at Griffin's Roost. So, she traveled from Sunspear to Griffin's Roost within the span of two chapters. Back in ADwD, a journey like this would've taken 12 chapters.
So, here's to hoping that Martin finally ramps up the pace.

Apparently there was a Tyrion chapter online, in which Victarion finally reaches his destination. So yes, if that's right, GRRM has indeed ramped it up. Write like the wind etc.

[Brendan Moody]

Both Arianne chapters, plus the Victarion chapter where he finally reaches Slaver's Bay and the Tyrion chapter set at the same moment, were originally written for ADWD and moved out of it during the editing process. So if he's picked up the pace, it happened during the writing of ADWD, not since then. And I'm not convinced that two travelogue-heavy Arianne chapters during which the most significant event is Storm's End being captured, offstage, are a hopeful sign in terms of narrative momentum. At the very least, the opening chapters are going to overlap the end of ADWD, and move at that pace for a while.

I don't believe Martin has changed his stance on the publication date, which is that 2013 is out of the question but he's still hopeful for 2014. Personally I think 2015 is more likely, but we'll see.

[Shurik]

There's also a Theon chapter, set before the battle between Stannis and Boltons/Freys, so chronologically it takes place before the last Jon chapter. It was also a chapter originally written for ADWD.

[Brendan Moody]

There are also chapters for Arya, Sansa/Alayne, and Aeron Greyjoy written for ADWD but moved to TWOW, though none of those have been read at conventions or made available as samples yet. Which means that virtually all of the 200 manuscript pages Martin had completed as of the middle of last year was stuff he'd already had when he started work on the book.

[Scout101]

Two more years, and he essentially has had the first 200 pages or so already finished for a year? Yikes...

yeah, his odds of finishing the series before GoT show ends are slim to none. Kinda steals his thunder if the tv show spoils his end before he gets to write it. Even if they go in a different direction than he does, it's not really a positive for him...

[Shurik]

Well, he doesn't give updates on his progress anymore, except "I'm working on it" ... So who knows, maybe he writes 50 pages a day or maybe he got stuck with the next Meereenese knot. Yeah, we'll probably get the end of the story from the TV show.

[Brendan Moody]

The consequences of the TV show catching up to the books would certainly be interesting, though I'm less certain than some that the show revealing the ending is particularly likely.

Turning to the current season rather than hypothetical future ones, Martin has announced that his contribution to this season, episode seven, has been retitled from "Autumn Storms" to "Chains."

[Kegg]

^
It all depends on the related question, how many seasons will the show run for. Two seasons for Storm of Swords... which suggests anywhere between two and four for the presumed combination of A Feast for Crows/A Dance with Dragons. And then anyone's guess how many seasons the last two books are, and this is all assuming the show doesn't get cancelled for whatever reason at some point (or deal with cast disputes - the've already had to write off notable minor characters, after all).

[Brendan Moody]

^Agreed. There's also the possibility of the TV series taking a year off between seasons, as HBO shows sometimes do. I think Benioff and Weiss have said they anticipate an eight or nine season run, which suggests they expect to spend more than one season on at most one of the four post-Storm books. They may also be thinking of combining Feast and Dance into a single season (perhaps with a little spillover into the seasons preceding and following)-- even given their combined page count, it's hard to imagine getting two years' worth of satisfying story out of those books, let alone more.

[Kegg]

^
I sure hope they are considering condensing those two novels into one season - I think the highlights of AFFC and ADWD could be worked into one solid season (and it would inevitably lose much of the padding), but I don't know how likely that is.

[Brendan Moody]

The question is whether Benioff and Weiss' solution to the pacing problems of those two books is to condense, or to contrive more "dramatic" variant storylines to make them fill multiple seasons naturally. Their approach to the Daenerys material in season two suggests they might be open to the latter. And they have to be thinking about how to avoid catching up to the books; I imagine that taking a freer hand with adaptation of Feast and Dance would feel preferable to making things up entirely based on the few details of Winds and Dream Martin has shared with them.

[superdeluxe]

Three eye raven teaser:

http://www.eonline.com/news/377746/g...aven-is-coming

http://youtu.be/RN7e_Oo0Bis