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Perhaps. But, shouldn't he be more concerned with making the work GOOD. After all, if the quality declines wouldn't that be the memory of the fans...?
But, ultimately, HE'S the one doing the work, he gets to do it on his schedule.
No, I don't think anyone would expect someone to become a writing hermit. But I'm not a hermit and I work 7.5 hours a day 5 days a week. I think a solid work ethic would mean you would dedicate yourself to your task. And 20 years to write 4-5 books is a touch long.
Martin fell victim to the same thing that befells most all fantasy writers. Not having a tight command of their story. Things drag on too long, too much indulgence, after a while it all starts to feel a tad repetitive, hell I don't even remember what happened in the 3rd book other than that one massacre involving some main characters.. It's like a fantasy version of '24'.
Yeah, Tor brought back Wild Cards; it's one of the things Martin's currently working on in addition to A Dance with Dragons. He's mostly just doing the editing, but he did have a short story in Inside Straight, the first book of the new triad. The other two are Busted Flush, which came out late last year, and Suicide Kings, due out late this year. Then the series continues in late 2010 or early 2011 with Fort Freak. And the first three books from the 1980s are being brought back into print, the first with all-new additional stories.
Martin fell victim to the same thing that befells most all fantasy writers. Not having a tight command of their story. Things drag on too long, too much indulgence, after a while it all starts to feel a tad repetitive, hell I don't even remember what happened in the 3rd book other than that one massacre involving some main characters.. It's like a fantasy version of '24'.
"A Storm of Swords" turns the entire story on its head. It is the climax of the first three books and sets up the rest of the series. Martin's grasp is nearly unmatched amongst his peers. Twists always have foreshadowing and make sense and everything has consequences.
His desire to avoid flashing back constantly as he comes up on the finale is a fair point and the series will be better for it. There are no spinning wheels in the series. Brienne's story in AFFC is about as close as he gets, but even that had a good thematic purpose, and showed us more of the world and the lives of the average country folk in Westeros and gave us hints as to a possible "dead" character's return.
I have to disagree with you entirely. This is a story that he thought was smaller than it was. Can you imagine condensing the first three books into 2? And skipping 5 years and then only having one book to wrap up Dany's invasion, all the stuff with the Others, etc. etc?
Yeah, Tor brought back Wild Cards; it's one of the things Martin's currently working on in addition to A Dance with Dragons. He's mostly just doing the editing, but he did have a short story in Inside Straight, the first book of the new triad. The other two are Busted Flush, which came out late last year, and Suicide Kings, due out late this year. Then the series continues in late 2010 or early 2011 with Fort Freak. And the first three books from the 1980s are being brought back into print, the first with all-new additional stories.
There were defintely clues but there were also meant to be clues. Even on the first read the reader is supposed to get an uneasy feel about the whole situation. We see the situation through Cat's perspective who is very worried for Robb's safety. Cat has plenty of misgivings regarding the whole situation with the Westerlings and Freys. She keeps urging Robb to keep Grey Wind at his side. I personally didn't see the red wedding coming but it was quite clear something was going to happen and given that this is Westeros it was bound to be something horrible, bloody and deadly. Given that happines in Westeros rarely lasts there was no way it would work out happily ever after for Robb/Jeyne and the Starks. Or for anyone else for that matter.
And more on topic. I too hope Geore RR Martin will soon finish his book. I get the feeling AFFC and ADWD were both very difficult for him to write as has been pointed out. I therefore hope that the next books wont take quite so long as I would like them finished in mine and George's lifetime.
His latest blog post suggests he is making some good progress on the final stretch of ADWD. From a guy who is generally tight-lipped and pessimistic, I take that as a very good sign.
There were defintely clues but there were also meant to be clues. Even on the first read the reader is supposed to get an uneasy feel about the whole situation. We see the situation through Cat's perspective who is very worried for Robb's safety. Cat has plenty of misgivings regarding the whole situation with the Westerlings and Freys. She keeps urging Robb to keep Grey Wind at his side. I personally didn't see the red wedding coming but it was quite clear something was going to happen and given that this is Westeros it was bound to be something horrible, bloody and deadly. Given that happines in Westeros rarely lasts there was no way it would work out happily ever after for Robb/Jeyne and the Starks. Or for anyone else for that matter.
Well I mean specifically the involvement of Tywin and Roose Bolton in the proceedings.
Don't give up on Robb/Jeyne just yet. It is still possible she will have his child since the one we've supposedly seen post-abortion has some distinct differences in appearance to that given in previous books. I'm all about the secret child theories though such as:
Lyanna and Rhaegar totally got married and banged and had a little Fire/Ice baby. Why else were the Kingsguard at the Tower of Joy when Rhaegar was dead and The King and Rhaegar's heir were trapped in King's Landing? Add in the 'bed of blood', Ned's supposed infidelity being completely out of character, etc. . . Jon is totally a Targaryen and is going to have sexy little dragon babies with his aunt Dany
I personally didn't see the red wedding coming but it was quite clear something was going to happen and given that this is Westeros it was bound to be something horrible, bloody and deadly. Given that happines in Westeros rarely lasts there was no way it would work out happily ever after for Robb/Jeyne and the Starks. Or for anyone else for that matter.
Exactly. You can feel something bad will happen, but not on that scale ...
I wonder how the current Brotherhood Without Banners' hunt for Freys will end. I do hope old Walder Frey survives long enough to see Zombie Catelyn.
Dany can't have babies, or at least Mirri Maz Duur said so before she died. That magic thing she did on Drogo left him a vegetable and her unable to have children.
I'm agnostic about Jon's parentage-- I can see cause to believe the popular theory, and I can see cause to believe that it's a red herring set up by GRRM to catch people thinking with their genre conventions-- but whatever the truth, I don't believe for a second that it's leading to the ending proponents of the popular theory seem to expect. That's way too conventional for aSoIaF.
I'm not convinced that is what will happen, there are still way too many variables to make a guess at something that big. However, Jon being their (trueborn) son makes more sense than just about any other suggestion I've seen. "Promise me Ned!" and all. Also if you think about the story being conceived originally as a trilogy, it makes a lot of thematic and plot sense to have them end up together. IT is absolutely a trope of epic fantasy, but Martin doesn't do away with many of them entirely, just puts a twist on them. They may end up together but she is barren, or we learn his parentage but it remains a secret/he dies before anything can be done about it, etc. Look at characters like Arya who could easily exist in other epic fantasy stories, and Dany herself is pretty much a straight up walking and talking fantasy Cliche.
Also mind you that the trilogy should have been all written and released 10 years ago by his original estimate, so we would have had a lot less time to theorize and pick every little hint and detail out of the tapestry he is weaving before the end.
Martin didn't re-write the rules of epic fantasy, he is just a lot more creative in how he interprets them.
There are so many things that (and lots of other evidence) could mean, though-- it's only the careful juxtaposition of elements that makes it seem like it has to mean what people think it means. The question is whether that juxtaposition is because GRRM is dropping true hints, or laying a false trail.
IT is absolutely a trope of epic fantasy, but Martin doesn't do away with many of them entirely, just puts a twist on them.
This is true-- what I'm asking is whether the twist is that it's true, but it doesn't mean what it would ordinarily mean, or that it's suspected within the universe but turns out not to be true?
They may end up together but she is barren, or we learn his parentage but it remains a secret/he dies before anything can be done about it, etc.
My own pet theory in this regard is that it's true, but meaningless because he won't forswear his oaths, extending the pattern of his staying true to his duty in the face of ever-larger incentives.
Martin didn't re-write the rules of epic fantasy, he is just a lot more creative in how he interprets them.
I'm not sure this is a greatly meaningful distinction. But it doesn't really matter.
The biggest reason I sometimes doubt that it's true is not that it's a trope, but that it's an obvious resolution, as suggested by the fact that people have suspected it from the beginning. Think of how surprising the answers to the mysteries in the spoiler box above were. Jon's parentage is an even-longer running mystery than that-- why foreshadow its resolution so heavily in the first book? I also like the idea of the whole mystery being a McGuffin- Ned slipped once, and he really is a run-of-the-mill bastard son.
The timeline doesn't work out for Ned's slippage, which is one of the major pieces of evidence there. I have found a great many people who never caught on to the hints of the RxL=J theory, so I don't think it is really that heavy-handed.
Also, Jon's oaths may come to an end if they defeat the others or the wall falls, or any number of other reasons. I don't think he will forswear, but I don't think he will die on the wall as an old man either.
There is no way in hell that Jon is Ned's kid if solely for the fact that it is rather out of character for Ned to have an affair of any sort even if he had only seen the wife a few times.
