How many more?

[Culhwch]

I'd never heard of Martin either before I came across The Hedge Knight in the Legends collection and fell in love with it. I borrowed Thrones from the library, devoured it in two days, and immediately went to the bookstore to buy Kings. Had to wait a little while for Storm to be published, but nothing so long as the wait for Crows, unfortunately. Four and a half years and counting.

According to the second Legends collection, the series will be six long - A Game of Thrones, A Clash of Kings, A Storm of Swords, A Feast for Crows, A Dance with Dragons, and The Winds of Winter. (I think I've seen the last referred to as The Wolves of Winter, too.) So at this rate, they'll be finished sometime around 2015, I should think.

 

[jnr_turtle]

I'd never heard of Martin either before I came across The Hedge Knight in the Legends collection and fell in love with it. I borrowed Thrones from the library, devoured it in two days, and immediately went to the bookstore to buy Kings. Had to wait a little while for Storm to be published, but nothing so long as the wait for Crows, unfortunately. Four and a half years and counting.

According to the second Legends collection, the series will be six long - A Game of Thrones, A Clash of Kings, A Storm of Swords, A Feast for Crows, A Dance with Dragons, and The Winds of Winter. (I think I've seen the last referred to as The Wolves of Winter, too.) So at this rate, they'll be finished sometime around 2015, I should think.

The same happened with me. I read the Hedge Knight in Legends, got very intrigued, found AGOT and got irrevocably hooked.

Actually, there's a possibility of a 7th book called 'A Time for Wolves' although apparently even GRRM doesn't know if there will even be a 7th one.

 

[LadyFel]

I was pretty lucky in the fact that I came across them just as A Storm of Swords came out so I read them all at once...Now I'm a little frustrated because of the long wait, but I still prefer for the bbok to come out when GRRM is completely happy with what he's done, rather than ifhe stuck to predicted publishing dates and mucked it up because he's rushed to finish it...

 

[Winters_Sorrow]

I just kind of wandered into the series. I hadn't read anything by GRRM before AGoT. I can't even remember why I picked it up.
I think I had read everything by all the authors I knew/liked and felt like trying out a new author and was sold on the first chapter (which I sneakily read in a corner of the shop!).
It is really frustrating waiting for the next instalment. The first 3 books seemed to come out so quickly, I thought he had the whole thing planned out in his head. It turned out he did, but had a change of heart as originally he was going to have a 5 year gap in the book's timeline after ASoS and changed his mind. So essentially he's had to "invent" the missing 5 years which seems to be causing him the headache.
I hope this means that after AFFC comes out the other 2 (or 3?) should come out fairly quickly afterwards as they were already planned in his mind.
One fear do have is that the series spirals out of control (a bit like Robert Jordan's WoT). I don't think it will as I think GRRM is more disciplined than that.
One thing I did enjoy and hope continues (even if GRRM doesn't take a very active role in it) was the Hedge Knight series. I really enjoyed the backstories and seeing the lands "in peace".

Maybe this universe could be opened up by GRRM for other fantasy authors to have a crack at telling stories in his world.

Bet that's put the cat amongst the pigeons! What does everyone else think?

 

[shaggydog]

Out of aSoIaF, from GRRM i have read a Song for Lya, a little book which contains some short stories, some better than the others, but quite brilliant them all. Also the Dying of the light, a sad and complex love story in a world quite original...In them two you cannot stop reading... at least me, but maybe it happens too oft

As for open this universe to other fantasy authors... i dont know im not sure but I dont like that notion at all... it makes me think it would become a sort of star wars with every guy writing what they want, just making the universe bigger, not better. Mayber im wrong, but im sort of conservative in that things, if a book (or a universe) is brilliant, do not touch it too much or you will be pissing on it. You have to be very careful!!

 

[Culhwch]

I don't know if I'd be comfortable someone else writing in GRRM's world. I don't think there are many authors out there currently who could match him in technique and imagination. I know on another board we were talking about the fact that with the series taking so long, if Martin were to shuffle off into the next world (God forbid) who could possibly finish it, and the overwhelming consensus was Tad Williams - but that it would be a very different book to the one Martin would've wrote.

Of his other works I'd highly recommend Fevre Dream, an atmospeheric little story about vampires and steamboats in 1860's America. Great characters, vivid settings, cracking plot, almost the equal of ASoIaF, though not nearly the scope. I've also read Windhaven, though some time ago (just after finishing A Storm of Swords and I was desperate for more) but was a little dissappointed - very possibly because it wasn't ASoIaF...

 

[erickad71]

I've also read Windhaven, though some time ago (just after finishing A Storm of Swords and I was desperate for more) but was a little dissappointed - very possibly because it wasn't ASoIaF...

I read that a while back also and was not very impressed with it. It's a very different book though, much more subdued. I don't feel like the characters were done as well as the ones in ASoIaF. I keep hearing about Fevre Dream, so I guess I need to go hunt it down.