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Woohoo! Bk 5 of Ice and Fire series
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I can't believe it finally has a date! Martin takes a long time on his books. I don't think this is the final book but I am not sure.
I believe the series is slated for 7 books, with two more following Dance with Dragons. Wikipedia lists "The Winds of Winter" and "A Dream of Spring" as the titles, with "forthcoming" as the expected publication date.I've wanted to read this series for a very long time, and will read A Game of Thrones to join in the discussion next month, but I HATE waiting years between parts of a series and will often put the entire thing off until I know I can read through it uninterrupted. I didn't do that for Harry Potter and found myself forgetting details and got very frustrated.
The book is not done yet, and amazon's release date is an estimate done by amazon and not Martin.http://georgerrmartin.com/if-update.html
Well Random House has announced a Sept release as well. http://www.randomhouse.com/catalog/di...We'll see, we'll see.
Nathan, do you have any inside scoop for us? Has Martin himself said it's not done yet?
In the last book, he had said that it was meant to be one book, but then he realized it would be too confusing to go back and forth, so he'd save Dany and her story for Dance With Dragons. The good news being since already much of that had been written it wouldn't be too long before it came out. I know Martin's web site hasn't been updated in ages, but thought it exciting that Amazon and RH had a release date.
So if you know anything, do tell!
The book after is title Wind in Winter, so there's definitely another book after that.
Sometimes I wish I'd be more patient and not start a series until it's all completely done.
God, I haven't even read A Feast for Crows yet and I'm getting all excited about this one. Kinda getting ahead of myself here, but just reading JRRM's website, and the character names.. Jon! ARGH. Tyrion! Oh god.
I put off reading this series a long time, for exactly the reason Brooke mentioned, but I finally got sucked in a few months ago. I despair of the last books getting written. If it took him this long for a book that was "mostly finished," what are the chances we see books 6 or 7 in this decade?Hope springs eternal, though, and I'm very excited about this. Also coming out in September, evidently, is the newest Steven Erikson novel--the Malazan Book of the Fallen is an excellent epic fantasy series as well.
The only thing about these books I don't like can be Martin's attitude. One time I went to his website (this was a few years ago) and he was telling everyone to leave him alone and he'll do it when he does it. Which I don't really care that he said that, but why act like that towards fans? So now I only buy them in paperback and I'm not going to read them till they are all out. Here is an article from Entertainment Weekly where a fan asks him about this:http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20161...
He says something about not knowing how to tell people any different. So anyways.. I just wait now for a new book to come out whenever it does.. and I just get it in paperback because who knows when the next one will come out anyways.
i am skeptical. i haven't seen anything on his website or his blog (http://grrm.livejournal.com/) indicating that he's finished.
Hi, guys. I'm Meghan, a 23-year-old college student. Realized I hadn't introduced myself yet.Correct me if I'm wrong, but at least with regards to Random House...they've had September slated for 'Dance with Dragons' for two years now. They just change the year when GRRM says he's not getting done. When 'Feast for Crows' and 'Dance with Dragons' were conceived, they were supposed to be one book, split into two, released within a year of one another. Obviously, that hasn't happened.
I'm with Heather - I'm very skeptical that GRRM is going to have a book by September, although I'll be down at the bookstore when it opens if that's the case. I do love this series, and some of the best vantagepoints (Tyrian, Catelyn, the wolf boys, etc.) are going to be in this book.
Might I suggest to those who get fussy at waiting years in between books to alternate series, and also to come back and reread books? I am always missing things (I confess, I'm a bit of a speed-reader, dying to get through to the end and all that), and a good reread gets me back in the mentality in time for new books.
Nice to chat with you all again!
Hi Meghan! Nice to meet you!Oh, I didn't know Random House has done this before. Boo. Every 6 months I check Martin's site and Amazon to see what's what, and had never seen anything before on Bk 5 so I thought this was for real.
Oh well. I've got plenty of other books to read in the meantime! I'll check Random House again later this summer.
I think Tyrion is my favorite character. And I'm just like you - I speed-read dying to know the end!
I would watch George RR Martin's blog and website in the next couple of weeks. If it IS coming out in September, it's supposed to be turned in to his editors by mid-June, before he leaves for his appearance in Spain (per his LiveJournal). So I'm guessing within the next couple of weeks, we'll know!
Brooke! - Don't do it! - Save yourself before it is too late!The series is amazing, one of the best I have ever read. But just pause a second. Think of yourself. You may be young and idealistic now. But imagine yourself ten years older, having invested a large amount of your emotional capital into an epic fantasy series with terrible cover artwork, where the author dies before completing the final book. Then imagine, yourself as a bitter, twisted wreck, wondering how the story would have ended had only the author actually lived long enough to finish the series.
That's all I'm saying - maybe it is better to wait until the series finishes (at this rate, around 2015).
Ty - is that a Robert Jordan reference?To answer Lori's earlier question, no I don't have any insider info. I just keep up with Martin's website and blog. Amazon posted false release dates on A Feast for Crows several times.
As a kind of consolation, here's some interesting news for those of you who haven't heard:
http://grrm.livejournal.com/11326.html
I agree with TY. Who knows when this series will finish.
ASOFAI is one of my favorite series and yes it's tough waiting for each subsequent novel. I was disappointed with the last three books of Stephen King's Dark Tower series. The first four books were awesome, but after his accident, he seemed to rush out the remaining books and the result was not good. And, yes, everyone wants to compare this series to Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series. After writing eleven books, Jordan sadly died from cancer before he could finish it. So, yes, there's the frustration of waiting up to five years between books from GRRM. And it's also possible (heaven forbid) that he dies before finishing them. But if I honestly ask myself, having read the first four books, if I would have rather not read them at all and waited for the series in its enterity to be written, I would easily say no. some stories and some characters resonate in your mind and heart and affect things you do, say (or even write). Thus, I'm glad I've read all these books and will pine away for each subsequent volume in the hopes Martin won't die, won't quit and won't compromise in this most excellent fantasy series.
Hmmm, I probably won't see that on TV. Movies rarely do justice to books - since we are all readers here I think we can all agree that part of the problem is it's so much better in our imaginations! But we'll see. I had some major problems with LOR but all in all Jackson did the best job ever of translating a book to a different medium.
Robinson.. I did try that with these books, but I found it was so long in between that I began to forget some things that happened, and so would have to re-read the series (and the books are long). Did that happen to you with this series? Or did you just remember everything?
Angie, I read the first three books back-to-back about eight months ago and then decided to take a break. Two weeks ago, with the anticipation that DANCE was coming out, I decided to finally read FEAST. So I didn't forget too much of the series. I guess I'm lucky in the timing. Had I discovered the books several years ago, I would have definitely forgotten much more. I had this problem with Clive Barker's children book series ABARAT. I read the first book when it came out and enjoyed it, but when the second book came out, I couldn't get into it because I couldn't remember any of the characters. I don't think I'd have the same problem with FIRE AND ICE though because I'm a tad more passionate and invested about these characters. I have a good feeling DANCE will indeed come out in September. the question will be, how much will I forget between it and the following book, which will probably come out in 2025 :).
Lori - I couldn't disagree with you more about LotR being the best ever book-to-movie adaptation. I wouldn't say it's the worst but there are many which are much more faithful.Sense and Sensibility
Fight Club
Interview with the Vampire
Sin City
Through a Scanner Darkly
even a couple of the Harry Potter movies, just to name a few.
Also, I'd say that if I wanted anyone to produce a SoIaF series, it would be HBO. Shows like The Wire, Carnivale, Deadwood, and Rome all show that HBO is capable of telling a sprawling and epic story with a subtle hand.
Nathan - haha I haven't seen any of those movies! Except for the first 2 HP movies, which while faithful, I found missed the magic of the books completely. So yeah, lack of faithfulness might drive me crazy, but LOTR for me captured the magic and visuals. The visuals especially - the setting of Middle Earth. Some of the characters altho not all. The monsters were terrific. Gollum was superb.Totally agree about HBO! That gave me great hope.
I also really enjoyed LOTR. I thought they did a great job. But Nathan is right, not exactly true to the book. I do also think Sin City was a great adaptation.
Don't get me wrong - as I said in a previous post, some of the changes in LOTR pissed me off! Especially what they did with Faramir, he was so pure in the book, but in the movie he also coveted the ring, I don't know why they had to do that.*growl*
I thought the same thing about Faramir! They totally changed up his character. And I didn't like the ending in the Two Towers movie. That was all different. It was enjoyable as a movie but I don't know why they ended it that way.
Is this the final book? I seem to recall it's supposed to be, anyone know?