Is ASOIAF starting to meander?

[The Imp]

Going by Brian's posts, it is interesting to note that originally ASoIaF was a trilogy consisting of A Game of Thrones, A Dance with Dragons and The Winds of Winter. AGoT originally ended with the Red Wedding and was primarily the story of the War of the Five Kings. ADWD picked up five years later and mainly focused on Daenerys, events in the East and her return to Westeros. TWoW focused on the North, the Others and Jon Snow. All three stories intermingled in each book (Cersei's descent into madness, her arrest, the rise of the Faith etc was also planned for the very original conception of ADWD), but that was the focus in each one.
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OK, I'll bite. Where does this info come from? Was there an outline posted/published somewhere that in broad strokes descirbed the course of ASOIAF? You refer to Brian's post(s). Where?

 

[Ursa major]

Okay, these quotes are from Wiki (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Song_of_Ice_and_Fire), but nevertheless:

Martin conceived of a scene where several youngsters find a dead direwolf with a stag's antler in its throat. The direwolf has several pups, which are taken by the youngsters to raise as their own. Martin's imagination was fired by this idea and he developed it into an epic fantasy story, which he envisaged as a trilogy consisting of the books A Game of Thrones, A Dance with Dragons and The Winds of Winter.

After expanding the series to four volumes, Martin remarked, "What can I say? It's a BIG story, and a cast of thousands."Ref 1

Ref 1 - Martin in post to Legends, 6 October 1998. So Spake Martin – Posts to Legends (SSL), which includes this:

Yes, the series was originally a trilogy, but it has grown... to four initially, but now I am inclined to think it will be longer than that. What can I say? It's a BIG story, and a cast of thousands.

 

[Culhwch]

Word on ADWD is hopeful, but if it ends up with a lot of material being moved from ADWD to the next book, I think we'll see the series extend yet further to eight or nine books, which raises unpleasent memories of the Jordan situation.

Too much Westeros is never enough!

 

[Ursa major]

At least I first thought (and continue to think) that you meant the author of (most of) WoT, Werthead, and not that of (possibly none of) Angel and Crystal**.








** - I'd like to point out that I had to look up these titles on Wiki.

 

[Werthead]

OK, I'll bite. Where does this info come from? Was there an outline posted/published somewhere that in broad strokes descirbed the course of ASOIAF? You refer to Brian's post(s). Where?

I'm a mod on Westeros.org. It's my job to know this stuff And I meant Brian's posts in the sense of the ones above, in which he correctly identifies the civil war, Dany in the East and Jon on the Wall as the three main story points of the series, which were originally equated with the three books in the trilogy and are now the three main story arcs in the current version of the series.

Too much Westeros is never enough!

But it could be when there's 3-5 years between each book

I want to see ASoIaF done in the 7 promised books and for GRRM to do his planned Aegon IV novel and his murder mystery set in the Free Cities, and for the Dunk 'n' Egg omnibii to be released in good time. The end of A Dream of Spring will not mean the end of Westeros.

 

[The Imp]

Thank you Wert

 

[Ursa major]

An Aegon IV novel? Sounds interesting.

But even more so is that murder mystery. Is that also "planned", or merely on GRRM's (and now my) wish list?

 

[Winters_Sorrow]

The first I heard about the murder mystery idea was at the Glasgow Worldcon in 2005 when I (and about 5 others) met with GRRM for an informal chat. He mentioned it then as being set in Ancient Rome and not related to Westeros at all, but it sounds as if he's changed his position since. The Aegon IV one is news to me though

 

[Brian G Turner]

Yes, I remember GRRM talking about writing about ancient Rome as well after Worldcon in Glasgow - think it was while he was on the train to York, perhaps for research?

 

[xLORDSNOWx]

Hasnt anyone ever heard the saying:

"It's not always the destination, but the journey itself that you should enjoy!"

Personally i can't get enough of ASOIAF (it could be 10 books as far as i'm concerned), just wished it would hasten its pace between books. Which in turn will get us closer to the (Prequels, expanding on the Dunk and Egg stories, etc.)

 

[Ursa major]

Quite right!

 

[rai]

K

I started this thread when I was in the middle of AFFC but it did end on a lot of high notes.

Maybe (for me) the middle was seeming to wander with Briennie (etc.) and I do miss Tryion so I was thinking we give up Tryion for Robert Arrin chapters (but I believe Mr Martin is getting into the groove).

I still think there are too many characters and it seems as if Mr Martin has a random name generator close at hand and he'll make up atories about 50-odd new characters every 100-odd pages but I guess it could be worse.

 

[Winters_Sorrow]

Personally i can't get enough of ASOIAF (it could be 10 books as far as i'm concerned), just wished it would hasten its pace between books. Which in turn will get us closer to the (Prequels, expanding on the Dunk and Egg stories, etc.)

Speaking of which, "The Mystery Knight" comes out in the "Warriors" anthology on 16th March. My pre-order is already in. Not just for the GRRM story but because the rest of the authors included look interesting as well and I enjoyed the last few anthologies (Songs of Dying Earth, Dreamsongs) which GRRM had involvement in too.

 

[xLORDSNOWx]

Speaking of which, "The Mystery Knight" comes out in the "Warriors" anthology on 16th March. My pre-order is already in. Not just for the GRRM story but because the rest of the authors included look interesting as well and I enjoyed the last few anthologies (Songs of Dying Earth, Dreamsongs) which GRRM had involvement in too.

Cool, that should tie me over for say....a couple of days, once i get it With the wait between books i have become a dry sponge for anything new that has to do (directly or indirectly) with ASOIAF. I'm assuming you're ordering online, is there a specific place to go to get the best deal?

 

[Winters_Sorrow]

Hard to say when you're based in the US and I'm in the UK, Lordsnow. I've been to America a few times now (Orlando, Florida;Atlanta, Georgia and Huntingdon, West Virginia) and I can't say I've seen much in the way of proper bookstores (no doubt due to my ignorance of the area) and saw books being sold in supermarkets or bargain bin remainder bookstores. Both offer good prices but it's a little hit & miss as to what they stock.

Personally I'll pop down the high street and take a look at physical retailers like WH Smith & Waterstones. They usually discount new hardbacks at first release so they can match online retailers like Amazon mostly. Plus I get to wander round huge shelves filled with thousands of books. An experience not yet able to be replicated online until they design a "new book smell" feature. They can do sounds, but not yet smells with PCs.

It's probably only a matter of time though until they design a device to plug into your PC to allow you to smell the flowers you're ordering in an online florists

 

[TK-421]

Cool, that should tie me over for say....a couple of days, once i get it With the wait between books i have become a dry sponge for anything new that has to do (directly or indirectly) with ASOIAF. I'm assuming you're ordering online, is there a specific place to go to get the best deal?

Just head to your nearest Borders or Barnes and Nobles and if they don't have it in stock, can probably order it for you.

 

[xLORDSNOWx]

Just head to your nearest Borders or Barnes and Nobles and if they don't have it in stock, can probably order it for you.

Thanks TK, I'll do that, or see if i can find the audio version of it

 

[Eulalia]

Winter's Sorrow, one day maybe they will have the scent of blue roses, and dragon egg!

I've lived in different places in the States. If you want a rocking book store, come to Seattle or Portland, Oregon (Powell's). Don't bother with L.A. It's not very homogenous in this country. Best library system, so far, is King County or the system surrounding Boston, of course. It's as varied as the politics, and just as hard to understand...