Is HBO’s Game of Thrones Ruining The Books?

You know, I have no respect for all these “Johnny Come Latelies” who became Game of Thrones fans because of the HBO show.  I’ve been a die-hard fan of this series since 2000, before it was it was a pop culture juggernaut.  I know what it truly means to be a REAL fan of A Song of Ice & Fire:  Suffering.  Seeing beloved characters die in horrific ways.  Waiting years, and years, and YEARS to find out what happens next.  Patiently reading Martin’s blog, wading through post after post about football and the Jean Cocteau Theater and other such nonsense, hoping beyond hope the guy is actually getting stuff done so I can find out what is going to happen with my favorite characters.

Being a writer myself, I can totally sympathize with the guy.  I know how hard it can be to write a book, especially one that is as epic as what George R.R. Martin has created.  After all, it took me 4 years to write Earthman Jack vs. The Ghost Planet, and that was after spending about 6 years mulling it over off-and-on.  Of course, I wasn’t a professional author who made a living off his books either, I was just doing it in my spare time.  Martin churned out a Song of Ice & Fire book every 2 years until Storm of Swords, when he hit a rough patch.  A Feast For Crows took him 5 long years to write, and then A Dance With Dragons took ANOTHER five years.  Martin said the story just got too big and he had trouble figuring out how to get all his characters to where they needed to be (a.k.a. the dreaded “Meeraneese Knot.”).  When Dance With Dragons was finally released, there was hope that the 6th book, The Winds of Winter, would come out quicker than its predecessors, especially since Martin proudly announced he’d figured out most of what had been vexing him in terms of his plot.

However, we’re going on year 3, and still no word on when Winter is Coming.  (See what I did thar?  Damn, I’m smart!)  This wouldn’t be a big deal, at least not for book fans, if it wasn’t for this dang HBO show.  Already, the show has caught up with the books on many fronts in its fourth season, which means that season 5 will likely start getting AHEAD of the books and spoiling revelations for book readers.  And in some cases, its even gone outside of the books and spoiled some things we hadn’t previously known.  Check out this tidbit from MTV about that:

There are millions of dollars invested in the series. There are thousands of jobs on the line. There are countless fans who have been dazzled and wowed by the world of Westeros as rendered by HBO. These things can’t be at the mercy of Martin’s deliberate pace. They have to be at the mercy of Benioff and Weiss, the creatives at the helm of the HBO series.

“Game of Thrones” is its own beast now. Even if it’s always tied to “Ice and Fire,” even if they always share DNA, they are two separate properties. There are already significant differences between the two stories: Characters who die or exist on “Thrones” that don’t die or exist in “Ice and Fire,” and story lines that are accelerated or wiped off the board entirely.

The White Walker ending of “Oathkeeper” is the best example. This is a scene that does not even exist in “Ice and Fire.” It’s little more than a sneak peek at the threat beyond the Wall, but it’s much more than we’ve glimpsed in “Ice and Fire.” It’s more than Martin is ready to give us.

And that’s not to say that Martin can’t or shouldn’t tell his story at his own pace. He has to move at the speed that works for his creative process, and fans of his novels have to accept that. But “Thrones” can’t wait for him anymore.

As a fan of the series, this is getting disconcerting, because for at least 4 seasons, I got to watch the show with knowledge that nothing was going to be spoiled for me as a book fan.  However, the tables are now turning, and the show is outpacing the books, and there is nothing Martin is doing to stop it.  Even if Winter comes out next year (which, in all likelihood, it won’t), there’s no way he could get the final book out before season 6 of the show.  And now, rumor has it that book 7 might not be the final installment…

“I remember when he called me, years and years back, to confess that his little trilogy was…well…no longer a trilogy. He predicted four books. I said Seven Books for Seven Kingdoms. Then he said five books. I said Seven Books for Seven Kingdoms. Then he went to six. I said… Well, you get it. Finally, we were on the same page. Seven Books for Seven Kingdoms. Good. Only, as I recently learned while editing The World of Ice and Fire (another awesome thing you must buy when it comes out!), there are really technically eight kingdoms, all having to do with who has annexed what when Aegon the Conqueror landed in Westeros. So, maybe eight books for Seven Kingdoms would be okay.”

That was from Anne Groell, Martin’s editor.  Of course, that suggestion of an eighth book is pretty vague there and Groell went on to confirm that Martin is only under contract to write seven books. Then again, would his publishing company really say no if he decided he wanted to extend the series to eight? Yeah, I didn’t think so.  But that little bit of non-confirmation is just one piece of the “will he or won’t he” puzzle. Jane Johnson, Martin’s publisher in the UK was recently quoted as saying:

“I know there’s been some speculation that A Song of Ice and Fire may run to more than the seven books we currently have under contract, but in all honesty only George knows how many books there will be in the series and he’s not saying: indeed at this stage of the writing, with the many branching pathways of the characters’ stories still to intersect, he may not know. As an editor I can say that it feels as if there’s a lot to tie up in just two more novels – albeit very long novels – but if George continues to kill off characters in his usual ruthless fashion it could easily be over in the planned seven books!”

I personally didn’t see how Martin was going to wrap everything up in just 2 more books when I finished Dance With Dragons.  I’d always feared he might need 8 books to fully tell his story, which, if recent writing trends from the man continues, means 15 more years of waiting to finish the saga.  And let’s face it, Martin ain’t getting any younger (or thinner).  He is, though, getting richer, so you’d think he’d want to crank these puppies out so he can focus on his other interests without the ire of fans hounding him constantly.  I know writing is a creative process, and it can take time to do (and even more time to do well), but Martin’s pace always seems to be interrupted by him traveling or working on other projects.  I don’t think its unreasonable to ask him to focus on A Song of Ice & Fire until he’s able to complete the series.  That’s not trying to make him anyone’s b**ch, that’s just common courtesy for fans.  If J.K. Rowling had done this type of thing with Harry Potter, we’d never hear the end of it.

I’m getting to the point now where I may have to stop watching the HBO show because I don’t want the books to be spoiled for me.  Bennioff and Weiss have done a fairly good job of sticking to the books so far, but they’ve also made some extremely questionable alterations.  However, they know what Martin has planned, so they are most likely going to roughly stick to his outline as the show progresses, and the books may even be influenced by the show going forward.  This is really disconcerting to me, because as enjoyable as the show is, it can’t really compare to the awesomeness of the books.  And if Martin should need to extend the books to 8, and everyone already knows how the series ends because the TV show outpaced it, will people even bother reading the remaining volumes?

It a sad, disconcerting situation, my friends.  In some way I envy the TV-fans who’ve never read the books.  Because for us die-hard lovers of the books, winter is coming, and there is nothing we can do to stop it.

What do you think?  What will you do if the show outpaces the books?  Maybe we could all get together and hug each other as we weep, with Martin laughing maniacally at our collective tears.

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