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

Any idea of where the filming of Thor 2 will fall into this schedule? I honestly figured he'd be too busy to do any more AGT for a while.

 

All the episodes of season two have already been filmed.

 

Do we have episode names to go with that?
Really curious what these are.
On this show, bookwalkers usually can tell what's gonna happen from the title alone.

And he's getting the bic mac right away? The producers must have had a lot of faith in him.

 

"Blackwater" is the only episode title that's been revealed so far. GRRM wrote the episode and announced the title.

 

I'd want to say Discworld, but since each book is a self-contained story (albeit with often quite strong continuity to earlier books) it doesn't seem fair to compare it to something like ASOIAF, which clearly has an overarching narrative.

This said:

Oh, that's simple.

By having several plots moving simultaneously.

This is sort of the point of having many POV characters, isn't it? The problem with ADWD is less having so many POV characters and often not simply knowing when to give them a chapter or not. Bran has two or three chapters that advance his story enormously, Tyrion has a dozen and almost all of them are just there to kill time (with the exception of him meeting Aegon Targaryen, I can't help but feel you could cut every single one of his chapters and pick up his story in the next book and the reader would be up to speed with him by the end of his first chapter). Victarion spends his chapters en route to a destination he still doesn't reach - he could have used one chapter, at most. Generally when a POV character doesn't have anything worthwhile to add, best to keep them out of the reader's eye, and so on.

 

For some reason a book series that disposes of its cast with each new entry sounds very appealing right now

 

Oh I agree. I'm currently reading China Mieville's Bas-Lag 'series' (on the second book, The Scar), and it's nice to indulge in series with lots and lots of bizarre fantastical world building with the knowledge that the plot is actually going somewhere and the next book will be about unrelated characters and problems.

Eh. I hope Martin tightens his belt, narrative-wise, for the last two books. I don't mind them each being as long or longer than ADWD, but tons and tons of stuff had better happen.

 

Aren't there rumors of three more books instead? Even so, he's almost going to have to do this much more quickly given the number of threads he has to bring together to wrap it all up... it's going to take a long time to get us to the point where Dany's dragons can beat back the hordes from the north!

 

Season 2 start day has been announced!

4/1/12!

http://winteriscoming.net/2012/01/game-of-thrones-season-two-to-debut-april-1st/

 

Alternate Cover at Best Buy, you also get a free stark key chain if you pre-order:

 

I saw those. They are pretty sweet. I just wish BB wasn't so damn expensive.

 

I've been asked twice about being an extra while wandering around Belfast, because of my "appearance", with season 2 coming back here and jobs prospects being poor at the moment, I might look into it.

 

Very cool. Be sure to let us know if you do it.

 

I will, but I've never watched the show or read the books, just got "spotted" while in the city last year.

 

I finished ADWD tonight, so I'm all caught up and waiting with everyone else.

I thought the stuff set in the North was all very good, and most of the rest of the Westeros stuff was also good. However, Meereen is a giant narrative drag; I just don't give a rat's ass about that place.

 

I see Peter Dinklage got the Best Supporting Actor Golden Globe last night for playing Tyrion Lannister... yay!

 

Mereen was a bit of a drag, yes, but otherwise my favorite part of ADWD was the plot that took place in Essos. At the moment I'm kind of "Westeros-ed" out... We've "visited" all the cool places there, it seems, whereas Essos is a grand unexplored continent.

The massive world building/history on display in Tyrion's journey is my favorite kind of fantasy writing. Really excellent stuff. And the Valyrian history is so interesting - I'm sure GRRM will reveal more in the last two books.

 

I hate Best Buty with a passion but those covers and the Stark keychain are almost, almost enough to make me want to cancel my pre-order with Amazon.

Are those for the DVD or the Blu-Ray editions?

 

I personally haven't heard anything about 3 new books, just two (The Winds of Winter and A Dream of Spring), but I wouldn't be surprised like you said... Heck, winter has barely started by the end of ADWD. Given the strange length of seasons in Westeros (and the number of plot threads), there's enough meat there for 4 more books, easily. *oy*

Cheers,
-CM-

 

I sincerely doubt Martin will go for three more books. It'll be two if only so he doesn't have to worry about the HBO series catching up to him.

On another note, in all the talk about A Dance of Dragons I think it's gone undiscussed that Martin's prose is exquisite.