George R.R. Martin Gives Quick Update on Winds of Winter Progress

[Question Mark]

Originally Posted by Philippe D.

(Plus, it will cost me some more money, because I got the first books as paper books, and now I probably couldn't stand to carry the weight around, so I'll buy them as ebooks)

Just borrow the ebooks from the library. That's what I did. Didn't cost a penny. Of course, you sometimes have to wait a little while until a copy becomes available.

[Tarana]

Well, I'm hopeful. My Mom says she can't die until she finishes the series (she's 86). I think she'd be happy if even one more book came out.

[John F]

Originally Posted by Tarana

Well, I'm hopeful. My Mom says she can't die until she finishes the series (she's 86). I think she'd be happy if even one more book came out.

Well, let's hope the series takes a very long time to finish. Best wishes to your mother.

[haydnfan]

Originally Posted by Barty

GRRM is in such as weird position. He doesn't need the money. I don't think it matters to his legacy at this point whether he finishes the books. The fans are kind of over it after the TV show's disappointing ending. I know the books and the show diverged but he's also said they end up more or less in the same place. It all feels rather academic.

I don't think that Martin got into writing for money and fame. I think that it is a mistake that many make to think that he lacks passion for writing just because it is taking him more than a decade to complete this novel. I completely understand those frustrated with the insanely long delay.

I also don't think that all fans of the books are fans of the TV series. I'm sure there is a great deal of overlap, but not 100%. And that is kind of personal because I've read the first few novels in the saintly days of yore, but I never ever liked the show and didn't get past season one. I look forward to the day that the series is complete and I can devote a few months to reading it from beginning to end. And I will never watch the show.

And I know that fans of the show (like some of my friends) are holding out for a better ending in the books than they received in the show. So no, it is not academic. Not for Martin and not for his fans.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by haydnfan

...And I know that fans of the show (like some of my friends) are holding out for a better ending in the books than they received in the show. So no, it is not academic. Not for Martin and not for his fans.

I have no beef with the ending (no wow factor, but it got the job done), but I resent the fact that the last couple of seasons were poorly written, seemed rushed and lacked all the details that made the show so good in the first 4 or 5 seasons. In my not so humble opinion the show went downhill in quality after the makers ran out of books and had to rely only on notes from GRRM.

Still, at least it was finished, which is more than can be said for the book series. I really doubt I'm ever going to pick the series up again, even if by some miracle GRRM was able to finish it. I've moved on long since.

[Gandulf]

Originally Posted by Dr. Drib

I hear he's written a whopping 1200 pages. I was able to obtain an exact page from his novel-in-progress, which I will now share with everyone. (I cannot, in all honesty, verify the accuracy of this excerpted page. Please keep that in mind as you read and discover once again...the magic!)

Am I missing something, as he has released a few chapters already. 5 chapters.

Personal they should never have filmed the series till he had finished the books, think he has made him money and doesn't care or they changed things so much he is now confused.

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by Dr. Drib

I hear he's written a whopping 1200 pages. I was able to obtain an exact page from his novel-in-progress, which I will now share with everyone. (I cannot, in all honesty, verify the accuracy of this excerpted page. Please keep that in mind as you read and discover once again...the magic!)

You're trying to trick us! It can't be Martin's novel because it's in Word format. Martin only writes in WordStar.

I haven't read any of his books, (or watched any TV shows made from them) but I keep hearing how long it's taking for him to get this latest one out. How many years has it been (just out of curiosity)?

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by rcentros

How many years has it been (just out of curiosity)?

Nine and counting. I think he'll easily surpass the decade mark with this one.

Aug '96
Feb '99
Nov '00
Nov '05
July '11

[ilovejedd]

Originally Posted by rcentros

I haven't read any of his books, (or watched any TV shows made from them) but I keep hearing how long it's taking for him to get this latest one out. How many years has it been (just out of curiosity)?

I read ADWD (book 5) in 2012, iirc.

Edit:
@DiapDealer is a ninja.

[bookaho!ic]

Originally Posted by Question Mark

Just borrow the ebooks from the library. That's what I did. Didn't cost a penny. Of course, you sometimes have to wait a little while until a copy becomes available.

I was very lucky when Sainsburys still had an ebook store they did a deal i got all the books (except the unwritten one) for 99p a book so read them all and loved them

[Gandulf]

Problem their are still 2 to come, winds of winter and a dream of spring.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Gandulf

Problem their are still 2 to come, winds of winter and a dream of spring.

And both the 2 remaining books together are titled...

Too Late to give a Damn.

[DiapDealer]

I'm sure it's one thing for those who can read them straight through, at their own pace. But it was quite another thing for some of those who were reading them as they were being published. The deal-breaker for me was waiting five years for a book that had many of the primary POV characters stripped out of it when it finally was released.

I understand (even if I didn't care for) the decision to split the originally planned fourth volume into two books. But the decision on HOW to split it was horrible (I hear we have friend and fellow author Daniel Abraham to thank for that). "Here. In lieu of all the characters you actually want to be reading about, please accept this book full of ancillary characters and their tedious plotlines while I take another 6 years to finish what was 'nearly complete' when my publisher decided it was too big to publish in one volume." The only bright spots for me were the Arya and Brienne POV chapters.

No Tyrion chapters for a decade!

The "Adventures in Dornish Babysitting" chapters of A Feast for Crows were positively painful.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

I'm sure it's one thing for those who can read them straight through, at their own pace.

This was me. Or I, for the pedants.

A friend had been pushing me to read the books for years, and I’d got the first one free from Fictionwise. When the fifth book was finally about to come out, I figured it was time, and read them straight through, as you said, finishing up the fourth just as the fifth hit my library.

I’ll say it up front, and no surprise to people who might know my tastes, that this is not my kind of thing at all. However, I was riveted through the first three books. The invention! The upending of expectations! But then.... the fourth book and my realization that only the secondary characters made the cut. Compounded by the colossal tedium. It had been possible, in earlier books, to go from Winterfell to King’s Landing without experiencing every. single. step. But momentum and the carrot of Tyrion got me to read book five and after that, it didn’t matter when book six came out. I was done. Five was ridiculous; it was blindingly obvious that Martin had no plan, which was why he continued to open up the story as discontinuities abounded. Never did I finish a book with a greater sense of , “Good riddance.”

[ilovejedd]

Originally Posted by issybird

This was me. Or I, for the pedants.

I do believe "me" is correct (object, not subject).