Is it worth starting to read uncompleted Fantasy Series?

Buford T. Justice XIX

lordgoat wrote: »

It's a hard no from me. Why wait, there are loads of books out there to pass the time. I'll start reading a series when I have a publish date for the last book. They ones I have started and am waiting for:

GRRM - but i'm actually happy to just watch the tv show and leave it. Way too many unnecessary pages and characters.

Rothfuss - this i will read. I'd rather he came out and broke his 3 books thing if it got him out of the bind he has written himself into.

Weeks - Lightbringer - simply as he changed the number of books in this series! Looking forward to going back to it.

Wheel of Time - I was young and foolish before I realised how poor (imo) this series is. Path of Dagger is one of the worst books I've ever read.

I watched the first series and left it because the best characters were left out of the series, I thought. I loved the buildup with Rob on the wall and the training and life there:(

Greyfox

Buford T. Justice V wrote: »

I watched the first series and left it because the best characters were left out of the series, I thought. I loved the buildup with Rob on the wall and the training and life there:(

A song of ice and fire is a brilliant book series but the game of thrones tv show is far far superior, Martin does characters better than anybody else but when you consider some of the slow parts like much of a feast of crows your better off finishing the books after the tv show. People only have a certain amount of patience, waiting 2 years for the next book is manageable but if your invested in the characters anything more and it's too painful a wait.. find something else in the meantime

Fian

Greyfox wrote: »

A song of ice and fire is a brilliant book series but the game of thrones tv show is far far superior, Martin does characters better than anybody else but when you consider some of the slow parts like much of a feast of crows your better off finishing the books after the tv show. People only have a certain amount of patience, waiting 2 years for the next book is manageable but if your invested in the characters anything more and it's too painful a wait.. find something else in the meantime

I read the song of ice and fire books (those that were published) in 2005. Been a long wait since for the series to finish.

I enjoyed the TV show more because I had read the books I think -0 I mean more than i would have had i not read them. Having said that I think the TV show suffered because it followed the books to the extent it did. GRR Martin seems to have completely lost control of the plot and the characters and has no idea how to draw it back together to a conclusion.

The TV show also expanded its scope (not quite as wide as the books) too broadly to be able to elegantly draw it all back together in this season, so the ending is going to be more abrupt and truncated than it should have been

I will be delighted if they prove me wrong and I end up being embarrassed by this post. Will find out in 4 weeks time.

lordgoat

Buford T. Justice V wrote: »

I watched the first series and left it because the best characters were left out of the series, I thought. I loved the buildup with Rob on the wall and the training and life there:(

I enjoy the TV show but it's no means perfect. It does cut out a lot of boring and imo pretty time consuming characters. I'm thinking Dorn, the younger siblings in Stark and Lannister and Lady Stoneheart. The show did nail how annoying Theon is so top marks there. Oh and Sam too.

Fian wrote: »

I read the song of ice and fire books (those that were published) in 2005. Been a long wait since for the series to finish.

I enjoyed the TV show more because I had read the books I think -0 I mean more than i would have had i not read them. Having said that I think the TV show suffered because it followed the books to the extent it did. GRR Martin seems to have completely lost control of the plot and the characters and has no idea how to draw it back together to a conclusion.

The TV show also expanded its scope (not quite as wide as the books) too broadly to be able to elegantly draw it all back together in this season, so the ending is going to be more abrupt and truncated than it should have been

I will be delighted if they prove me wrong and I end up being embarrassed by this post. Will find out in 4 weeks time.

In no way a big fan of GRRM but I disagree with pretty much all of this. I am very confident GRRM knows exactly how the series will end. I think he may have some juggling to do around time and pacing and moving the story along as it was easier to do this when main characters were on different land masses. That said I fully expect the book ending to be far more complete and fleshed out than the TV show.

Since the show has surpassed the books I think the scope has narrowed considerably. It's a rush to the finish line. The ending will be pretty much the lord of the rings. Hell he's made no qualms about loving how Tolkien wrapped up that series. So you have the night king = Sauron and Cersei/Kings landing = re taking the shire.

Pretty confident that Dany will die, Jon Snow will piss off on his own somewhere akin to Frodo, Sansa will be top of the pile (or at least queen in the north). The only things of interest to me are Bran and the what is his purpose (which I think will be dealt with far better in the book) Also expect Arya to die no way she comes out alive after killing big bad. Cersei to kill her.

Fian

lordgoat wrote: »

In no way a big fan of GRRM but I disagree with pretty much all of this. I am very confident GRRM knows exactly how the series will end. I think he may have some juggling to do around time and pacing and moving the story along as it was easier to do this when main characters were on different land masses. That said I fully expect the book ending to be far more complete and fleshed out than the TV show.

Fair enough, though he has repeatedly described himself as a gardener rather than an architect, which suggests he waits to see how the story will grow rather than planning it out. I also think he would just bang out the books to get everyone off his back & make himself a fortune if he actually knew how to finish them. He may have an idea of how the white walkers are ultimately defeated but maybe not. I really don't think he knows how the other plot lines and characters will all come to a conclusion. don't believe we will ever find out either tbh.

Hope I am proved wrong!

Dades

I like his gardener approach and hope he doesn't change. It's the the reason why key characters get slaughtered as "real life" doesn't have a plot.

Something that seems to be lost now in the show.

smacl

Fian wrote: »

Fair enough, though he has repeatedly described himself as a gardener rather than an architect, which suggests he waits to see how the story will grow rather than planning it out. I also think he would just bang out the books to get everyone off his back & make himself a fortune if he actually knew how to finish them. He may have an idea of how the white walkers are ultimately defeated but maybe not. I really don't think he knows how the other plot lines and characters will all come to a conclusion. don't believe we will ever find out either tbh.

Hope I am proved wrong!

I agree and also reckon he's lost a very large part of his audience by now. I got about half way into the fourth book and had had enough. I still enjoy the show but can't say I've much interest in how, when or if GRRM finishes the books at this point.

One thing I find with longer series is that the author really has to be on their game to keep the standard up. IMO, you have to hand it to authors like Joe Scalzi, who while not always brilliant is reliably very entertaining. GRRM falls down badly for me in this way.

Sleepy

There's no way GRRM will finish the books, but if he did, there's no way he'd butcher the ending as badly as Benioff and Weiss have.

Nody

smacl wrote: »

I agree and also reckon he's lost a very large part of his audience by now. I got about half way into the fourth book and had had enough. I still enjoy the show but can't say I've much interest in how, when or if GRRM finishes the books at this point.

One thing I find with longer series is that the author really has to be on their game to keep the standard up. IMO, you have to hand it to authors like Joe Scalzi, who while not always brilliant is reliably very entertaining. GRRM falls down badly for me in this way.

I think many would read the last book or two (assuming they are ever written to wrap up the series) simply to see a "proper" ending compared to the TV show; they may not get it all as many characters are cut/merged but that in turn may trigger them to read the whole thing instead.

ancapailldorcha

Sleepy wrote: »

There's no way GRRM will finish the books, but if he did, there's no way he'd butcher the ending as badly as Benioff and Weiss have.

I'm not so sure. He has so many absurd threads going that he'd need well over the two books I'd last read he was planning on to wrap it all up.

Sleepy

ancapailldorcha wrote: »

I'm not so sure. He has so many absurd threads going that he'd need well over the two books I'd last read he was planning on to wrap it all up.

I did read a comment from his wife a few years back that even she thought he'd need 3 books to finish it out...