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Rants / Debates (Serious)
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George R.R. Martin is my bitch
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Listen if you want even greater epic fantasy read the series The Malazan Book of the Fallen. The first is hard to get into at first, but once in, my god. The 10th and final book has just been released.As for GRRM, I'm so disgusted. I can understand writer's block, but he has never addressed this stall except with arrogance of get off my back. Basically I'm not your bitch. At this point I've forgotten everything, and have no interest in rereading. I want to wait until the whole darn series is done. He might die before it's completion! At least Jordan left copious notes, and Sanderson's final books of The Wheel of Time are better than the last 6 of Jordan's.
So yeah, Martin has basically been telling us to fuck off, and as a fan I don't like that attitude, I'm not his bitch either and no longer a fan at all. At the very least, he could have communicated with us fans.
Well if truth be told, I'm going to start seeing if it's my library system so I can put a hold on it. *blush* It will be tempting if I see it at Costco...
BunWat wrote: "I read Game of Thrones, I was kind of meh about it so I never read any further."Yes, that.
I more or less will fall on the Gaiman side of the argument. I don't feel any author owes me anything. I've avoided some of the frustration by pretty much ignoring Martin and all of his shenanigans. I have plenty of good books to keep me occupied until the next book in the series comes out.
However, I fervently hope that Martin gets off his ass and finishes things up. I really enjoyed the first three books, the fourth was ok.
Meanwhile, I'm really looking forward to the HBO series.
Yeah me too about the HBO series! I agree about the 4th book, wasn't a worthy fellow of the first. I got tired of all the undead dead. Dying means nothing!While an author may not owe us anything, he does need to recognize his fans have made him what he is. It's his rudeness to us that peeves me. He's spent the last 5 years basically telling us to go fuck ourselves. Just for that I don't feel like buying the book.
BunWat wrote: "I like my books self-contained. Makes me irritable if I can't just read a book, if I have to sign up for a subscription to a whole slew of books or I can't understand what's happening, well then thanks but no thanks..."I'm the opposite. Maybe it's because I read so flipping much, that standalone books tend to frustrate me sometimes. You spend a half hour (or more) of your time trying to learn about the characters, their world, etc. with all of the groundwork, then the book climaxes and you're on a downhill slope to finish and then you have to start all over again in a day or two with a new book.
I like series better because when I pick up the next installment, I'm not having to start all over again with the world-building and learning the characters.
Although, I do prefer my series to fall somewhere in the 5 to 10 books max range. The longer ones can be tedious when you realize close to half of the books feel like filler, or the author striving to reach a quota.
Nothing in the Malazan series is filler. Jordan's WoT? Hahaha. A big yes. Meandering all over the place.
I have a friend who's been trying to get me to read WoT for a while. Worth the investment?
Myles wrote: "and an inordinate amount of spanking..."Now is this punishment-type spanking or BDSM/bedroom type of spanking?
Just thinking of punishment spanking reminds me of two different discussions that I have participated in (in two different groups) over the last 48 hours regarding Jamie spanking Claire in the first book of Outlander. A few of the women in this group will know what I'm talking about.
It didn't bother me as much as it seems to other people. It was completely and historically accurate for the time period. The man also relaxed his stance on it as he grew to love his wife out of respect for her, although not necessarily out of a huge change in his belief system.
That he has a fetish for wanting to control his women?
Re: Jordan - Forget about the spanking, what about his harem? THREE women/lovers and they all love each other!And amen about Sanderson. He's doing a knock-up job. Bringing the focus back to the main characters, moving the plot along FINALLY! It's better than Jordan's writing. THe only reason I stuck it through the last 5 books is because the world-building and concept is incredible.
Myles, I'm gonna keep whispering in your ear: Malazan. Malazan. Malazan. First book: Gardens of the Moon
Sounds like a good time?
I have no idea what any of you are talking about.
Go take your shirt off and sit in the corner. Someone will come around with the beads eventually.
Your bd/sm talk has me worried they will, ahem, be the wrong kind of beads.
That's not my department. I'll stick with spanking and erotic reading material. Someone else can deliver your specialty beads.
THEY'RE NOT MY SPECIALITY BEADS.I'm getting the hell out of this room. It's scary in here.
Mod
I used to be a fan until I grew tired of reading messages on his website and blog telling us about his travels around the world making appearances at conventions, his book and TV show recommendations, his fawning over the New York Giants, his promotion of the new books he was editing and the tie-in products to the “A Song of Ice and Fire” series he was selling, and his touting the upcoming HBO series of “A Game of Thrones”, instead of actually writing and finishing the series.
Like many anxious fans, I believed that Martin had both a responsibility and an obligation to finish his series. Neil Gaiman disagreed. In response to a letter from a fan asking about an author’s responsibility to deliver product, and whether or not Martin was letting him down by not finishing his story, Gaiman blogged a response in May 2009 saying that “George R.R. Martin is not your bitch.” Gaiman’s argument was that buying a first book in a series is not a contract with the author. Sometimes writers need to step back and recharge their batteries and do other things; the bottom line being that the writer is not working for the reader. I disagree, but who am I to argue with Neil Gaiman? I just quit reading him.
George R.R. Martin’s first book in the “A Song of Ice and Fire” series, “A Game of Thrones”, was published in 1996. Book two, “A Clash of Kings”, came out in 1998 and was followed by book three, “A Storm of Swords”, in 2000. The series was the best epic fantasy that I’d ever read: the writing was great, the plotlines were fantastic, the characters unmatched. Fans were hooked and happy. Then the drought came and output dried up. Reliable news about the future of the series was scarcer than a snowman in the desert region of southern Westeros. Book four, “A Feast for Crows”, which turned out to be just half a book since it didn’t continue the storylines of all the characters, wasn’t published until 2005. The long awaited book five, “A Dance with Dragons”, after a number of false starts, is finally scheduled to be released this year on July 12, 15 long years after the release of book one. That’s good news, but is it cause to be happy? There are still two more planned books scheduled in the seven-volume series, so you do the math to estimate when Martin will finally finish his tale. My most optimistic estimate is 2021, or 25 years after the start of the series.
So, is George R.R. Martin my bitch or doesn’t he owe his fans anything in terms of production?