It’s the fault of the (unreliable) POV gimmick. Since a big plot exposition via one character is out as a bad cliché, the gap had to somehow organically come out in pieces via several characters knowledge. It was likely not doable.
In my very unqualified opinion. It should still be cut down in size, there’s nothing wrong with short chapters.
A lot of this also has to do with precedent from fantasy authors. Instead of encouraging ‘short, terse, and to the point’, the whole genre has suffered from massive bloat, and that’s what’s accepted. Had the convention been different, GRRM couldn’t have allowed himself to add so much bloat. In as sense, this is what made the TV-book partnership so good: they had to discard much of the bloat to fit it onto the screen in digestible form. And it was still a very slow-moving show! At least until the insane 7th season.
It’s also the downside of the gardener approach to writing.
Can you give some specifics here, please? It’s been so long since I read them that I have no clue what this is alluding to!
Same here, I think others can remember the details better (or, err, this thread). There was going to be a 5 year gap after Blackwater while everyone recovered and Dany got bogged down in Mereen. Some stuff would still happen, so it would have to be referenced by someone. Martin wasn’t happy with his tries at doing so, it didn’t work for some characters, so it all got rewritten.
That was dumb, 5 year gaps are awesome!
There is a trope about how authors who do lots of research feel compelled to cram every little factoid into their stories. I think part of GRRM’s problem is similar. He’s carried out this massive feat of world-building and imagined this huge, world-spanning War of the Roses-like conflict. So now he feels compelled to make sure we don’t miss a single bit.
The explosion of view point characters is just the most obvious manifestation of this problem. Fire and Blood (just the first of two books) is another. I’m pretty sure that - if he could - GRRM would write the rest in the same format as the latter. And probably, the story he wants to tell is better suited to the latter format, than that of a novel. The sub-plot of Aegon/Griff, for example, is “interesting” because this kind of thing happened a fair deal historically (and GoT is all about taking historical inspirations into a fantasy world). But necessary to the story? Not so much.
I liked book 4, even if obviously is different than the first three, after all the wars and conflicts we had. But book 5 was the first one from the series I considered boring and it really had anything going on for it.
This is a fun conspiracy theory. The actor that played Selmy on the HBO show claims that he heard that GRRM finished books six and seven a while ago, but due to some sort of deal with HBO and D&D, held off on publishing them until the show was done.
For a variety of reasons, I don’t put much stock in this, but it would be great to hear a release date soonish.
(Also, since when did Gamespot move from games journalism to general geek journalism?)
I call bullshit on that one. I might’ve entertained it if we didn’t have so many times GRRM failed to hit deadlines on his own.
I’ve thought about this before, but Occam’s razor says he just hasn’t finished writing. Given the length of the two new books and his on-record writing speed, it would check out.
Makes for a lovely dream, but it’s bullshit. GRRM has grumbled over the years about the giant monkey on his back, how he’s a slow writer, etc. If that monkey was actually done and in the can, his rhetoric would be dramatically different. And he’d be coyly teasing his fans over the situation, I don’t see him controlling the urge to do so.
Good link. Myth: Busted.
Wow he spent time writing that when he could have been writing winds of winter.
He also apparently said Gandalf could kick Dumbledore’s ass at the Tolkien movie premiere, and is writing blog entries over it too. There goes another potential WoW page. :)
hmm
Of late it seems there’s a new story about me somewhere on the net every day, or near enough to make no matter. Many get things wrong. For the most part I ignore them. I have better things to do than try and track down every weird rumor or out-and-out fabrication that pops up on some obscure website trolling for traffic.
For the most part I ignore them. I have better things to do than try and track down every weird rumor or out-and-out fabrication that pops up on some obscure website trolling for traffic.
I have better things to do
The fifth book, A Dance with Dragons , was published July 12, 2011,
Dude I can’t listen to that video for 5 seconds before his weird pseudosynth vocal effect thing and overdramatic enunciation makes me shut it off. Care to synopsize?
I don’t buy it.
I do, however, think that the fact that Cersei is unlikely to survive The Winds of Winter might explain why we will be getting that only after last night;s episode was shown.
I expect TWoW this fall, FWIW.
I don’t know if we’ll ever get ADoS. I hope so. I fear the God of Many Faces may come for GRRM before that happens.
Every so often, however, one of these stories gains an improbable currency, and just chuckling at the insanity no longer suffices.
I agree George, you finishing your pending novel sounds like INSANITY.