GAME OF THRONES [Book and TV Discussion (US Pace)]

ixoy

TheIrishGrover wrote: »

The only way that book would come out before Season 3 is if Season 3 was nine YEARS away........... maybe!

I'm worried it's going to take him even longer now - he seems to be spending a lot of time talking about "Game of Thrones" in interviews and the like rather than writing the next book...

Dades

Yeah, George is definitely distracted with the series (I wasn't serious about this year!)

Though I really can't imagine he'll take the same time as he did for AFFC. He has the pressure of the TV catching up with him assuming it keeps getting greenlit.

JohnK

Dades wrote: »

He has the pressure of the TV catching up with him assuming it keeps getting greenlit.

While thats true, hasnt he already told the producers how the whole thing will end so he doesnt actually need to churn out the books in advance of the series although it would be a complete cluster**** if the series ended up passing him out and revealing his plotlines in advance of the books. I cant imagine that situation going down well with his publishers.

TheIrishGrover

Plus, I hate to say it but, he's no spring chicken........ and he's not exactly thin.

Anyway, possible spoiler for future books.

io9.com/5916127/has-theon-greyjoy-revealed-the-biggest-game-of-thrones-secret-of-them-all


Last warning...

............. Game of Thrones

This is the rarest of spoilers, insofar as it seems to apply both to the TV show and the as yet unpublished books. Theon Greyjoy actor Alfie Allen reveals he asked George R.R. Martin the answer to one of the saga's biggest unsolved mysteries, and his answer certainly drops some potentially massive clues:

.......You know, I asked him about who Jon Snow's real parents were, and he told me. I can't say who, but I can tell you that it involves a bit of a Luke Skywalker situation. It will all come to fruition eventually. The whole thing with all the fight over proper succession is partly inspired by the War of the Roses in the late 1400s, and back then, to ensure pedigree, the monarchies were kind of inbred. It's definitely ****ed up, but it definitely happened back then, so that's why there's incest with the Targaryen line. It's toned down, though.......

Let's assume Allen knows what he's talking about when making the Star Wars analogy. For this to be a Luke Skywalker situation, you'd kind of have to think that Jon Snow's father — the one parent he thought he was sure of — isn't who he thought he was. Also, his father is a monster on the scale of Darth Vader. At the risk of adding 2 and 2 together to make 1,000, his sudden segue into discussion of the Targaryen line might be relevant here. (I'm not going to say any more, since my Morning Spoilers remit doesn't necessarily cover spoiling the books as well, so I'm going to keep this relatively vague.) But, of course, this is all massive speculation, so I'd advise drawing your own conclusions.........

I mean, I don't know how many grains of salt to take that with. We've all heard various theories similar to this and, to be honest, I don't think we'll ever find out. I think those theories are quite fantasy cliche and, say what you want about his books, they're never cliche.

Sleepy

He mentioned in a blog post that he has been working on The Winds of Winter and he pushed out a fair few chapters from Dance to it so there's a good chance he could already have 10-20% of the writing done already. Remember: he published the first 3 books in around 4 years so finishing Winds within 2 years doesn't sound unlikely to me given the headstart he has and his acknowledgement of the "Meerenese Knot" that he's finally written his way out of in Dance.

WindmillWarrior

Sleepy wrote: »

He mentioned in a blog post that he has been working on The Winds of Winter and he pushed out a fair few chapters from Dance to it so there's a good chance he could already have 10-20% of the writing done already. Remember: he published the first 3 books in around 4 years so finishing Winds within 2 years doesn't sound unlikely to me given the headstart he has and his acknowledgement of the "Meerenese Knot" that he's finally written his way out of in Dance.

I keep telling myself similar reasonings in regard to this. Not sure I believe myself though!

conor.hogan.2

Lord of the game of the walking dead!

Throw in a bit of crystal meth and we have 20 years of excellent television ahead of us.

Tenger

TheIrishGrover wrote: »

Plus, I hate to say it but, he's no spring chicken........ and he's not exactly thin.

Anyway, possible spoiler for future books...............

I mean, I don't know how many grains of salt to take that with. We've all heard various theories similar to this and, to be honest, I don't think we'll ever find out. I think those theories are quite fantasy cliche and, say what you want about his books, they're never cliche.

IMHO this 'spoiler' by Alfie is in reality just an opinion on how the unveiling of the truth will actually be received.

In its day the Vadar/Luke reveal shocked audiences, perhaps George hinted to Alfie that a similar reveal would happen. Not in terms of facts but in reception?

jayteecork

Here, check out this artwork.

It's by the late Jeffrey Jones and was commisioned for a special limited edition of a Game of Thrones in the year 2000.

This is the front cover of that version.

http://www.raggedclaws.com/home/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/jeffrey-jones_a-game-of-thrones.jpg

I think it's so awesome but I can't think of what scene in GoT it represents. It's hardly Dragonstone cause Dragonstone is not visible from the mainland.

I'd love to know! Maybe Jeffrey Jones just painted a random fantasy picture for his commission.

5starpool

Sleepy wrote: »

He mentioned in a blog post that he has been working on The Winds of Winter and he pushed out a fair few chapters from Dance to it so there's a good chance he could already have 10-20% of the writing done already. Remember: he published the first 3 books in around 4 years so finishing Winds within 2 years doesn't sound unlikely to me given the headstart he has and his acknowledgement of the "Meerenese Knot" that he's finally written his way out of in Dance.

I wish he had found a much shorter way to untangle that particular bloody knot.

ixoy

5starpool wrote: »

I wish he had found a much shorter way to untangle that particular bloody knot.

And honestly, what he came up with, wasn't worth the wait... Dunno how that conclusion took seventy eight years (or whatever it was).

5starpool

Twas a bit pathetic alright. She *has* to make it to Westeros in the next book though, and now that she has her own airplane effectively, that shouldn't be a problem for her personally anyhow.

TheIrishGrover

5starpool wrote: »

Twas a bit pathetic alright. She *has* to make it to Westeros in the next book though, and now that she has her own airplane effectively, that shouldn't be a problem for her personally anyhow.

Not sure if this can be put here as it concerns Dance of Dragons end. Please delete if it shouldn't...... Seriously, don't read if not finished DoD

Well, Daeny had to faff about for a good while in Mereen pretty much just to give time for the dragons to grow I suppose. As for her getting to Westeros: I would imagine that it will be somewhere in the final third/quarter of the next book. My concern is that it will end up being THREE more books instead of two. Daeny's gotta round up her troops, get her fleet, re-win her khalisar's support and potentially more with the help of her dragons (As long as people don't think it too similar to the end of Avatar), gather her fleet, meet and plan with Tyrion, actually sail for Westeros, have her first battle in westeros, potentially meet with that relative (cousin? Can't remember), has got to have many battles etc in order to claim the throne if that's the path he wishes to take (although the dragons and her armies and a war-weakened westeros might speed that up a bit), then have at the walkers (It is A Song of Ice and Fire after all)


And that's just Daeny. You also have Bran, Tyrion, Arya, Stannis, Ceircei, Jamie, John Snow etc.......... It's gotta be three, the more I think about it.

ixoy

Here's the thing with Dany's storyline that bugs me a little and it's a spoiler for those who haven't read ADwD:

Is she really much better off, other than some cranky dragons, than she was in "A Game of Thrones"? She still has little else to her name. It really feels like her character arc hasn't progressed all that much over five books - something that was rammed home watching the TV show. Lots of wandering around and shouting about how she is the Dragon blah blah.

TheIrishGrover

Well,

She faffed about a bit until she got her unsullied, then she did a bit of ass kicking and faffed about for about 25,000 years in Mereen. Now, I presume this was in order really to give time for the dragons to grow up as it looks like that's been pretty much erased now. (Obviously there'll be some fallout but most of the politicking will be over and done with...... It better be) I suppose she still has her unsullied (Does she? I must reread DoD after I finish Otherland) and now it looks like she's going to get her khalisar back. I suppose it's now that she starts rounding up the troops: Unsullied, Khalisar, gathering the other khalisar as now we presume she is[/] their messiah.

Dades

^^ Is anyone better off? :pac:

I'm hard-pressed to think of a character who is in a better place that they were at the start of the books!

Antar Bolaeisk

TheIrishGrover wrote: »

Plus, I hate to say it but, he's no spring chicken........ and he's not exactly thin.

Anyway, possible spoiler for future books.

io9.com/5916127/has-theon-greyjoy-revealed-the-biggest-game-of-thrones-secret-of-them-all


Last warning...

That kinda ties in with the idea of

Jon being Rhaegar and Lyanna's child

It's something that's been theorized long before there was a tv show and seems to be one of the better theories floating about.

ixoy wrote: »

Here's the thing with Dany's storyline that bugs me a little and it's a spoiler for those who haven't read ADwD:

Is she really much better off, other than some cranky dragons, than she was in "A Game of Thrones"? She still has little else to her name. It really feels like her character arc hasn't progressed all that much over five books - something that was rammed home watching the TV show. Lots of wandering around and shouting about how she is the Dragon blah blah.

It did seem like he hit the big red reset switch on her with her losing pretty much everything from Meeren.

Dades

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-w98pNAi9A

Tym

t did seem like he hit the big red reset switch on her with her losing pretty much everything from Meeren.

Or

:cool:

She stands to gain everything.

ancapailldorcha

I've just finished the third book. Did anyone else find themselves unsure whether or not to keep going with the series? I have book 4 but when

Tyrion kills Shae and Tywin

it didn't shock me at all. It just seemed a bit random. I'm unsure whether or not it's worth continuing as it started off so well but I'm stating to see a pattern reoccurring.

ixoy

ancapailldorcha wrote: »

I've just finished the third book. Did anyone else find themselves unsure whether or not to keep going with the series

After Book 3? No - "A Storm of Swords" is to my mind the best of the series so far.
After Book 4 / 5 I felt a lot more disappointment but never felt I'd stop.

Sleepy

Re-reading them at the moment... Books 4 and 5 are a lot more subtle in their plot development. It seems like so little is happening compared to the fast pace of the earlier books but on my third read I'm beginning to see a lot more in them than I did on first read...

ancapailldorcha

ixoy wrote: »

After Book 3? No - "A Storm of Swords" is to my mind the best of the series so far.
After Book 4 / 5 I felt a lot more disappointment but never felt I'd stop.

I'll probably plough on. I read the first 3 quite intensively. Haven't touched any of my games in ages even! I'm just afraid he's going to keep chalking out book after book just to keep selling them rather than writing with a larger story plan in mind.

ixoy

ancapailldorcha wrote: »

I'm just afraid he's going to keep chalking out book after book just to keep selling them rather than writing with a larger story plan in mind.

He's got an ending in mind - just nothing else, according to recent interviews. So in a sense he is making it up a little as he goes along. It's not too surprising that he took so long to resolve the Myrennese knot as a result. He describes himself as a "gardener", who lets plot lines grow out and he shapes them rather than an architect who maps the whole thing out.

ancapailldorcha

I was thinking of giving it a break for a few months but now I've started "A Feast for Crows". It's good he has an ending in mind. I was afraid it'd become tired and stale but if he's got an overall plan or an idea then it should be ok.

Tar.Aldarion

Just finished the most recent book there, was great, I don't like waiting.
I took my time reading it!

As part of my birthday present today I got a related bag. The passage inside the dragon is about Viserys Targaryen dying from the vat of gold. Reads quite well with the missing words ending with 'Fire cannot kill a dragon' at the tail.

Tym

Just finished the most recent book there, was great, I don't like waiting.

Personally, I thought it was the best of the books. Mind you I was reading for the characters, and they seemed to become richer when the plot took a back seat.

ancapailldorcha

Is "A Dance with Dragons" worth reading? I'm finding "A Feast for Crows" to be a real chore.

sin0city

ancapailldorcha wrote: »

Is "A Dance with Dragons" worth reading? I'm finding "A Feast for Crows" to be a real chore.

I'm really p*ssed off that I'm going to be finished it soon!

ancapailldorcha

Cheers, good to know it picks up.