New GRRM Update on ADWD

[southron sword]

I actually prefered the short story he wrote before writing the "DOORWAYS" script. "The lonely songs of Laren Dorr" was a good story I thought. And the girl reminds me or Arya, especially in "Doorways".

 

[Boaz]

Just saw this on The Tower of the Hand...

In an interview with the Chicago Tribune, GRRM said...

"It’s obviously the worst I’ve ever blown a deadline... and I am very aware of that," Martin said. "Some fans seem to think I’m not conscious of that, but I am aware of it every day. I think I am approaching the end of 'Dance,' knock wood."

 

[No One]

Cheers Boaz - I've only been waiting for several months, unlike the some who have waited years, but I'm excited. Very. The perrennial expectants must be near wetting themselves!

Also, I was starting to think my prediction of June for the announcement date would come too late, but the words "I think I am approaching..." suggest he's not quite in the final stretch just yet. If it takes another month then June 1st is looking good...

 

[IlliferThePenniless]

I continue to be convinced that the release of the next book (not the announcement) will coincide with the HBO series. It sort of feels like it's heading in that direction anyway, but the free publicity would be hard for the publisher to pass up.

 

[The Imp]

I continue to be convinced that the release of the next book (not the announcement) will coincide with the HBO series. It sort of feels like it's heading in that direction anyway, but the free publicity would be hard for the publisher to pass up.

What you say makes sense, but, I think that they won't be able to print enough copies of ADWD to keep up with demand and won't need any extra publcity from the series/ It's also not as if someone that's just starting the HBO series will be able to pick up ADWD for quite a while. I'm sticking to my June 4th date, which I think will give enough time for the book to be available before the end of the year.

 

[Culhwch]

The perrennial expectants must be near wetting themselves!

Not really. 'Cause, you know, in the end it's just a book. Life goes on.

 

[No One]

Not really. 'Cause, you know, in the end it's just a book. Life goes on.

So you regularly join discussion forums, contributing thousands of posts, for "just a book"?

 

[The Imp]

Just a little note in the latest Not a Blob entry, but perhaps big news

Monkey front. Whacking at King Kong, making progress, but not as fast or easy as I like. But Freaky Monkey is finally coming together, and him I should be able to get off my back in the next few weeks.

June 4th is looking good, maybe

 

[No One]

Thanks Imp - I think...

Are we to assume that 'King Kong' is ADWD and the 'Freaky monkey' is the Meereenese knot?

When did GRRM start posting in metaphor?

 

[The Imp]

Thanks Imp - I think...

Are we to assume that 'King Kong' is ADWD and the 'Freaky monkey' is the Meereenese knot?

When did GRRM start posting in metaphor?

Well, he's defin itely called ADWD a "monkey on ihs back". It's also going to be huge.

We do know for sure that GRRM is NOT working on another re-make of the ac tual King Kong.

I think

 

[No One]

Well, he's defin itely called ADWD a "monkey on ihs back". It's also going to be huge.

We do know for sure that GRRM is NOT working on another re-make of the ac tual King Kong.

I think

Either that or there's gonna be a real big ape in ADWD. He'll be Cersei's next champion. Wouldn't fancy his chances against fire-breathing dragons though...

As for our prediction dates (June 1st and 4th respectively), now I'm thinking another month would have been better. Lady of Winterfell and Eulalia might just have it right. After all, Martin will probably want to take a little while afterward just to double-check a few things, assuming he's due to finish within the next month. I will, of course, stand by my choice.

 

[Culhwch]

So you regularly join discussion forums, contributing thousands of posts, for "just a book"?

I fail to see how participating in these discussion forums equals me wetting myself in expectation, or making it anything more than 'just a book.' Look at it there sitting in your bookshelf. Tell me what it is if it isn't a book. An apple? A whale? Some kind of land cow?

I enjoy discussing the book, but I post no more in here then I do outside this forum - probably less. Yes, I still consider myself a devoted fan. I'm excited by the prospect of the book being published, but if that happens tomorrow or five years from now, it's not going to alter my life one bit. You hear of some of the mail and comments George gets, and it's clear people invest far too much of themselves in these kind of things.

So yes: It's just a book.

In truth the reason I participate in this forum is more to spar with interesting, intelligent and friendly folks like Boaz and Urse and Imp (don't get a big head, though, Boaz). If the people here were all like some of those more rabid fans, I wouldn't bother at all.

 

[No One]

I fail to see how participating in these discussion forums equals me wetting myself in expectation, or making it anything more than 'just a book.' Look at it there sitting in your bookshelf. Tell me what it is if it isn't a book. An apple? A whale? Some kind of land cow?

I enjoy discussing the book, but I post no more in here then I do outside this forum - probably less. Yes, I still consider myself a devoted fan. I'm excited by the prospect of the book being published, but if that happens tomorrow or five years from now, it's not going to alter my life one bit. You hear of some of the mail and comments George gets, and it's clear people invest far too much of themselves in these kind of things.

So yes: It's just a book.

In truth the reason I participate in this forum is more to spar with interesting, intelligent and friendly folks like Boaz and Urse and Imp (don't get a big head, though, Boaz). If the people here were all like some of those more rabid fans, I wouldn't bother at all.

I wholeheartedly agree on your points regarding the more 'rabid' fans, who seem to invest a huge amount of time in complaining about something they obviously like, but I still beg to differ on the term 'just a book'.

I was only implying that you, or anyone else here including myself, wouldn't spend time posting about just any book. I daresay you've read plenty that you didn't feel the need to post about or engage with others in discussion over. I myself am the last person who'd ever be bothered with joining a forum - this is actually my first - but I simply couldn't resist because these books are phenomenally well constructed and hugely engaging. Like you, I wouldn't hang around but for knowing that I'm in good company and I'm already fond of just about everyone here (including yourself - you've cracked me up on more than one occasion. Don't get a big head though).

So no: it's not just a book!

Now I'm not saying ASOIAF is world-changing stuff, but let's apply your argument to another. I also see, on my shelf, a copy of Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species. Sure, it's a book, but is that also just a book?

Alternatively, I now plan on re-reading an Edgar Allan Poe story wherein he argues via some kind of metaphysical logic that a chair is, or in fact can also be, a tree - or something like that. If a chair can be a tree, then maybe a book can also be an apple, or whale, or some kind of land cow. It's a long shot, but I'll look into it.

 

[The Imp]

I fail to see how participating in these discussion forums equals me wetting myself in expectation, or making it anything more than 'just a book.' Look at it there sitting in your bookshelf. Tell me what it is if it isn't a book. An apple? A whale? Some kind of land cow?

I enjoy discussing the book, but I post no more in here then I do outside this forum - probably less. Yes, I still consider myself a devoted fan. I'm excited by the prospect of the book being published, but if that happens tomorrow or five years from now, it's not going to alter my life one bit. You hear of some of the mail and comments George gets, and it's clear people invest far too much of themselves in these kind of things.

So yes: It's just a book.

In truth the reason I participate in this forum is more to spar with interesting, intelligent and friendly folks like Boaz and Urse and Imp (don't get a big head, though, Boaz). If the people here were all like some of those more rabid fans, I wouldn't bother at all.

Back at you Cul, and let me add that this forum is a unique place, an oasis of sanity, intelligence and literacy surrounded by a desert full of sites where flaming is more the norm than civility and most people think that the louder you yell the better your points are. I could go on and on, but it would be beating a dead horse.

BTW, to add my two cents about your little debate, I think that they are, after all, just books, but very special ones. FOr me, very few books have ever engaged me the way ASOIAF has. It's too early to say of course, but I think that when all is said and done, it has a chance to become the best fantasy series ever written. At the very least it has already enetered the rariified air of being among the best ever written, at least in my humble opinion.

 

[Overread]

Back at you Cul, and let me add that this forum is a unique place, an oasis of sanity, intelligence and literacy surrounded by a desert full of sites where flaming is more the norm than civility and most people think that the louder you yell the better your points are. I could go on and on, but it would be beating a dead horse.

Aye I'll agree to that wholeheartedly - Chrons is indeed a fantastic place - the more so because it works not just with old established members, but also activly encourages and welcomes new members who have not diluted the great community that has grown here and instead add to it in their own manners.


As for ASOIAF I think once completed it will indeed stand as a very solid work of fantasy taken far more seriously. I have no problem with lighter reads that don't require a full understanding of medival (or other time zones) times, but which dispaly enough understanding that I the average person, can get a feel of the time and the worldset. AFOIAF is one of the far fewer where one gets the distinct idea that the author really does have a lot of study in the age and the time - something that I think even trumps Tolkiens worldbuilding in that regard.

I also like the way that the protagonists are not invincible - one thing that can often make a gook story seem a little hollow is the fact that the lead character will make it through the whole thing and might only fall (in a heroic manner of course) at the very end of the tale. ASOIAF has many characters (that GRRM makes us so attached to) die so bloody and quick that we soon get to the point where any danger really does worry us this "this could be the last" for the character who's turn it is in the story. It adds an edge that I feel is just not in many other series. Malazan Book of the Fallen is another series that plays on this aspect very well also and I suspect the two series will both come to high status

 

[No One]

FOr me, very few books have ever engaged me the way ASOIAF has. It's too early to say of course, but I think that when all is said and done, it has a chance to become the best fantasy series ever written. At the very least it has already enetered the rariified air of being among the best ever written, at least in my humble opinion.

My sentiments exactly. With the Imp's gracious words (and Overread) I'm off to bed (hey, that rhymes). Goodnight, whenever you are.

 

[Boaz]

the reason I participate in this forum is more to spar with interesting, intelligent and friendly folks like Boaz

You like me, you really like me!!!!

(don't get a big head, though, Boaz)

It's a bit late for that.

I'm just listening to Bob Marley's Redemption Song... and thinking of Jaime. I know he's not exactly the poster child for poor, disenfranchised, descendents of slaves... but the lyrics conjure up the Kingslayer's maiming and his resolve to not let them get the better of him.

Old pirates, yes, they rob I... Vargo Hoat and the Bloody Mummers mutilated Jaime.
Sold I to the merchant ships... Vargo sold him to Roose Bolton.
Minutes after they took I
From the bottomless pit... He chained up and made to wear his own hand after escaping Riverrun's dungeons.
But my hand was made strong... Jaime does not have a hand or faith in the Seven or any Gods.
By the hand of the Almighty... Yet, it was Brienne his Faith-Sworn protector who revived his dying spirit.
We forward in this generation
Triumphantly... He'll hold on tight to the good he knows he has done, like killing Aerys and the good he can yet do.

Won't you help to sing... He laments that he wanted to be the hero of a song, like Arthur Dayne.
These songs of freedom?... But somehow he became the cruel villain, like the Smiling Knight.
'Cause all I ever have
Redemption songs... All Jaime has now is his record in the White Book... He's lost all of his family.
Redemption songs... All he has is hope in the possibility of redemption. The Book calls to his soul.

Anyway, that's what I'm thinking of while drinking bourbon.

Good night, now.

 

[Culhwch]

Wow, what a way to derail the derailers. Leave it to you, Boaz.

Perhaps we should return to the topic at hand.

7.19pm in the Antipodes, and no sign of A Dance with Dragons.

 

[No One]

Sorry to momentarily derail the thread again (Boaz - you should start a thread on songs for characters), but I wanted to post this last night and was too tired. I could send it as a message just to Overread, but maybe Quick Ben can also help (and do I remember a Whiskeyjack?).

Anyway, Overread - you mentioned the Malazan Book of the Fallen and based on a lot of people's praise here I recently started Gardens of the Moon (which I probably shouldn't what with ADWD on the horizon). I'm only a few hundred pages in, but I've started to struggle with it. It's a well-written book for sure (especially for what was Erikson's debut novel), but so far Erikson's absolute refusal to divulge in any kind of exposition and backstory means there's very little to sink one's proverbial teeth into. It's feeling like an exercise in logistical plotting, while real character depth is being ignored. I'm not looking for or expecting another ASOIAF, but by the same point in AGOT I was already attached to half the characters and loathful of the other half. So far with Gardens I find myself indifferent to the characters (though I do like Kruppe).

Clearly, it's a huge series and I've only scratched the surface, but I was expecting a little more in terms of characterization, even at these early stages. As someone who's read them all, I'd like to hear your thoughts.

 

[Ursa major]

I have mixed emotions:

1. there was no announcement today (although there are more than five hours left of today (GMT), and far more in countruies to the west of the UK);
2. the announcement appears to be imminent, which should mean that in less than a year, I'll be able to get my hands on the book.

Wonderful**.




** - Yeah: that emotion doesn't sound very mixed, does it?