TV series to ruin further reading....rant.

[Ed Ryder]

I'm still waiting for Abarat 4 to be finished too...
Going back on topic, by this point the show is bound to spoil the upcoming books, so I don't understand why anyone is surprised by it. It can't tread water forever waiting for George to finish book six - season 5 was pretty slow as it was and I'm glad this season has picked up the pace and moved the story on.

 

[Brian G Turner]

I've managed to avoid spoilers before watching - but I have to say, I'm really intrigued to find out how Hodor and "hold the door" come together.

I'll have to be patient for a few weeks, though. Am sure there will be some mega-discussion plot issues coming before the end of the season...

 

[svalbard]

How Does Game of Thrones Author George R.R. Martin Really Feel About That Hodor Reveal?

Good article here.

 

[MWagner]

Predictably, interest in Martin's books have fallen way off now that the TV show has moved past them. We don't even hear anyone complaining about how long Winds of Winter is taking anymore. How many people would notice or care if another year passed without the announcement of a publication date? And really, if Martin's editor wants people to learn the real story through the books, she should have showed some backbone ten years ago and steered Martin away from the morass he drove the books into. The fact the TV show spent two seasons on a Storm of Swords and one on Feast of Crows and Dance with Dragons combined shows where the books went off the rails. It was Martin and his editors who were unable to discern the real story.

For most fans of the books, impatience gave way to frustration, then disappointment, and now we've reached resignation. Likely the only resolution we'll get to the story is the TV version, and Martin and his camp have nobody to blame for that but themselves.

 

[Ed Ryder]

Firm, but fair.

 

[Ray McCarthy]

she should have showed some backbone ten years ago and steered Martin away from the morass he drove the books into.

So it turning into another Wheel of Time? IMO that would have been decent compressed to 6 books.
However I only read the first GRR Martin in this series and a giant book of his short stories and some other short stories, so it doesn't bother me as much as Wheel of Time series, which annoyed me. I gave up at 2/3rds of book 12, though I have the whole set.

 

[The Imp]

Predictably, interest in Martin's books have fallen way off now that the TV show has moved past them. We don't even hear anyone complaining about how long Winds of Winter is taking anymore. How many people would notice or care if another year passed without the announcement of a publication date? And really, if Martin's editor wants people to learn the real story through the books, she should have showed some backbone ten years ago and steered Martin away from the morass he drove the books into. The fact the TV show spent two seasons on a Storm of Swords and one on Feast of Crows and Dance with Dragons combined shows where the books went off the rails. It was Martin and his editors who were unable to discern the real story.

For most fans of the books, impatience gave way to frustration, then disappointment, and now we've reached resignation. Likely the only resolution we'll get to the story is the TV version, and Martin and his camp have nobody to blame for that but themselves.

All due respect, you speak for yourself, and unless you know of an accurate poll that was done which supports your opinion, then it is just that, an opinion. I understand that book readers are frustrated, but no one I know who has read the books, either in real life or online, is 'resigned' to the idea that the only way they will find out how the story ends is through the TV show.

You make an excellent point though about Martin's editor. She or someone else really needed to rein him in a long time ago.

 

[The Big Peat]

All due respect, you speak for yourself, and unless you know of an accurate poll that was done which supports your opinion, then it is just that, an opinion. I understand that book readers are frustrated, but no one I know who has read the books, either in real life or online, is 'resigned' to the idea that the only way they will find out how the story ends is through the TV show.

You make an excellent point though about Martin's editor. She or someone else really needed to rein him in a long time ago.

I can't say I know anyone else who believes the only way we'll get closure is the TV show, but I know quite a few who've given up on the books and are now treating the TV show as the definitive version.

 

[Culhwch]

On the plus side, if Martin doesn't finish the books, once the series is done they can just hire Alan Dean Foster to bang out the novelisations. Problem solved.

You make an excellent point though about Martin's editor. She or someone else really needed to rein him in a long time ago.

A Dance with Dragons in particular (and A Feast for Crows, to some extent) was a notably sloppily edited rush job, obviously pushed through as quickly as possible to capatilise on the show's popularity at the time. One actual positive that may come out of the show overtaking the books is that the need to rush them out is reduced, which hopefully will translate into better edited and higher quality manuscripts.

 

[svalbard]

On the plus side, if Martin doesn't finish the books, once the series is done they can just hire Alan Dean Foster to bang out the novelisations. Problem solved.



A Dance with Dragons in particular (and A Feast for Crows, to some extent) was a notably sloppily edited rush job, obviously pushed through as quickly as possible to capatilise on the show's popularity at the time. One actual positive that may come out of the show overtaking the books is that the need to rush them out is reduced, which hopefully will translate into better edited and higher quality manuscripts.

Now we are hitting at the heart of the dicussion.

 

[The Imp]

GRRM at his worst is better than almost any other author at their best. I very much want HIM to complete the series.

 

[Aetius]

All due respect, you speak for yourself, and unless you know of an accurate poll that was done which supports your opinion, then it is just that, an opinion. I understand that book readers are frustrated, but no one I know who has read the books, either in real life or online, is 'resigned' to the idea that the only way they will find out how the story ends is through the TV show.

You make an excellent point though about Martin's editor. She or someone else really needed to rein him in a long time ago.

Well you've met one here.

I've got the books gown as one more series that will never be finished by the original author. It's a shame but the direction fantasy has been heading for quite some time now, whether the public expects it or it is simply what the publishers believed, the multiple tome fantasy novel each of a 1000+ pages generally seems the future. Now this could be a good thing, semi-independent novels sharing the same world rather than an over-arching plot that will never reach conclusion and suffers so many changes on route as demand for ever more books increases that the author becomes bogged down/loses the love for the series as the series deviates from their original vision, but for those stories started some time ago the future doesn't look great.

If anything GoT has massively increased the number of grand over-arching fantasy novels out there, many of which don't seem to have enough plot for one book much less all those planned.

 

[Ed Ryder]

Nearly every book I seem to read at the moment is part one of a series, which means either a multi-year wait for the next one or an infinite wait if the first book doesn't sell enough and the author / publisher loses heart.

 

[Pedro Del Mar]

How Does Game of Thrones Author George R.R. Martin Really Feel About That Hodor Reveal?

Good article here.

Thanks Svalbard, that is a good article

 

[Ed Ryder]

Good as a place as any to post this!

err, NSFW without headphones.

 

[Pedro Del Mar]

GRRM at his worst is better than almost any other author at their best. I very much want HIM to complete the series.

I disagree with your opinion here The Imp. There are plenty other authors out there as good as GRRM.

 

[viZion]

Well you've met one here.

I've got the books gown as one more series that will never be finished by the original author.

I've also stated repeatedly right here on these forums that I think ADWD will be the last book we ever see published. I'm still sticking with that. I'm totally fine with finding out the major plot points (e.g. who are Jon's parents) from the TV show. Other than that, the show and TV show are completely different at this point so I can't really see anything is ruined.

Have none of you never read a book after seeing or a TV or movie based on that book? I've read so many books after watching their movies and have never had my enjoyment of the book ruined just because I knew, generally, what was going to happen.

Also, D&D state in another interview that GRRM gave them 3 huge plot points that totally floored them and they've shown two of them so far. Jon Snow coming back to life was not one of the three because, honestly, no one thought he was really going to stay dead. Anyway, the two they've shown so far (in case you don't already know) are:

Spoiler

1. Shireen being burned to death
2. The origin of Hodor's name

The third one is how the story ends so we won't see that on screen for awhile.

 

[Anushka Mokosh]

All due respect, you speak for yourself, and unless you know of an accurate poll that was done which supports your opinion, then it is just that, an opinion. I understand that book readers are frustrated, but no one I know who has read the books, either in real life or online, is 'resigned' to the idea that the only way they will find out how the story ends is through the TV show.

You make an excellent point though about Martin's editor. She or someone else really needed to rein him in a long time ago.

I agree with this. All the readers I personally know (barring this forum, that is about two dozens of people) are still patiently waiting for the books. Out of all of them, only maybe three are keeping up with the show at this point at all.

 

[The Big Peat]

If this is a straw poll, I believe they'll release the books, but I probably won't care by then. I'll find out how it ends from TV spoilers, all I need. And I know a number of people who've said that the show will now be the definitive SoIaF to them.

 

[Ursa major]

Have none of you never read a book after seeing or a TV or movie based on that book?

I read Lord of the Rings after hearing the BBC radio serialisation (broadcast in 1981) and seeing both the Bakshi and Jackson versions for the big screen.

For obvious reasons, I can't say if my enjoyment of the book would have even more without encountering those adaptations, but I certainly enjoyed reading the book and didn't feel anything was spoilt for me.