I cherish reading the books when they finally come out, and now I dont know what to do about the show being ahead of the books. Theres no way I can avoid years of spoilers while GRRM finishes the books. Hah. Wth can I do?
Gotta embrace the spoiler. You let milk spoil long enough, you get cheese. Everybody loves cheese. Knowing about the RW wasn’t a problem when I was watching the show. Going the other direction, maybe you’ll be able to pick up on some of the hints Martin likes to bury before the twists.
Unless your lactose intolerant…or can’t stomach the idea that as you read the book facts match up or don’t match up with the ending of the TV show. You will spend/waste time trying to figure out what is and isn’t previously spoiled. It would be like watching the Jackson Hobbit movies and then reading the book.
Winter has come to the Reynolds household.
I’d just seen it linked on FB. His editor and publishers have got to be incredibly frustrated with him at this point.
Every year That passes now I just accept its probably going to turn into another Jorden/Wheel of a Time scenario.
I’m strangely okay with this, as I still have book 9 and 10 of the Malazn books, the Mistborn series to start, and even more Malazan books after that, plus the new King. I’m sort of set for most of 2016 (and beyond) as it is, when WOW comes out, I’d have to drop whatever I’m reading to start it immediately, so as far as I’m concerned I’d rather he take his time and do it right.
So we’ll have season 6 this year, 7 in 2017, and 8 in 2018. I think that means that by autumn 2018, Martin can try to get himself back on track in a real way. Being overtaken by HBO has obviously stressed him out, despite what he says about only the books’ quality mattering. Once it’s absolutely over and done with, and there is 0% chance he’ll catch up, he might be able to put together a good stretch run. Because that blog post emphasizes his delusive optimism about this kinda stuff. Which I get, by the way, it’s easy to be a couple months away on a book for years.
A mix of having passed many years since I started the books, having the tv series, having the previous experience of the last book needing lots of years to be released, and not liking the fifth book a lot (weakest one imo), makes me shrug and also be pretty ok with this. Like, whatever.
I find it disturbing that I don’t remember some of the characters he rattled off in his blog. That’s the problem with books that took too long to conclude. Many of the lesser characters are lost to me and often I need a reread.
Announcement that surprises no one.
His explanation – it’s a little bit of an understatement for him, almost disingenous, for him to say all of the extra-curriculars “maybe had an impact” on the missed deadlines. Uh, you think, George?
We all saw this coming back in 2005 when it took 5 years for Feast for Crowds to come out. He has too many things on his plate and doesn’t have enough discipline to say no. It’s not the worst fault in the world.
I do wonder if it’s going to hurt Dream of Spring book sales. I’d say the chances of a Winds of Winder publication in 2016 are probably 25%. The very earliest would probably be June 2016. Which means Dream of Spring is 2020 at the earliest. The HBO series will be well wrapped up by that point.
Does anyone besides the diehards (and if you’re reading this post you’re a diehard) really care then?
Good question… I wonder what will be more popular twenty years down the line. Will new fans not bother with the books if there’s a series to watch? Or will GOT seem outdated by then? I know I’m not going back to watch, I don’t know, Oz, despite what I’ve heard about it.
…but no one could possibly be more disappointed than me.
I’m not so sure.
It does read like a guy that can’t manage his time and life and then has an “oh shit” moment when it’s too late. Takes one to know one.
I don’t care either way. It would have been nice to have the books just ahead of the series, but both things stand up enough on their own for it not to matter that much. It’s certainly a unique situation in the history of book/tv adaptations, but it’s not the end of the world, not even in a #firstworldproblems sense.
I mean, it’s not like knowing the general outline of events from the finished tv series is going to make me not want to finish the books. GRRM’s writing is rich and delightful enough in and of itself for me to want to read the books even if I have a rough idea of what’s going to happen in broad outline.
If the TV show’s trends continue from season 5, we won’t have much of a broad outline setting expectations for the books (if he ever writes them). GRRM’s not joking when he talks about butterflies and pond ripples.
Confession time: I had less problems following the hundred secondary characters of WoT than the hundred secondary characters of ASoIF.
I think the main problem is that GRRM’s books run the risk of becoming the series novelization, that thing you look at when you want more of a story, and not the canon source, at least when it comes to public opinion. Assuming the series can keep up it’s high quality, and lacking the source books to squeeze the best story out of, that remains to be seen.
No, the main problem is he runs the risk of never finishing them. You have to figure the man is set for life. There’s no financial motivation for him to finish. He’s obviously struggling to find creative motivation to finish them.
Which sucks. Because as good as the show is, it’s not the same.
He can’t hit a deadline and has too much power over his editors. The last book was bloated and just not that good. A hundred pages o. The Dornish Prince who is then wrapped up in two pages at the end? Blah. Then awful descriptive prose that slows things down.
It was not a good book and I have zero interest in slogging through it again. I loaned my copy to a friend years ago and don’t care if Iget it back. I am interested in how it ends, but will be content with tv than the book. He is not focused on finishing it as everyone who has followed it new a decade ago. I am happy with HBO since they will wrap up th story. Otherwise it would just linger unfinished.
Having recently finished reading all 5 books my recommendation to new readers would be to read books 1-3 then pretend the stories end there. Books 4 & 5 are abominations of secondary characters, detailed descriptions of food and cooking, and plot that is losing to snails in a race. I went from an amazing high at the end of book 3 to utter dismay and deflation in 4 then 5.
Also how could characters as interesting as Arya and Tyrion turn into boring POV chapters that were a chore to get through?
-Todd