A Song of Ice and Fire

[Niamh Sedai]

If anyone is interested, aGoT is the WT Org's book for the month =) (One of our four books for the month anyway *lol*) We'll be discussing it until sometime in November so feel free to come along and throw your ideas about.

 

http://www.dragonmount.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=6820&start=0

[Werthead]

He's in Oldtown with Osha, or at least that's where he was headed at the end of A Clash of Kings. Which means we'll probably see him in the next book when Davos goes to Oldtown. Either that or it's speculated that Osha may be the new viewpoint character, though I think Quentyn's more likely since he gets so much attention in A Feast for Crows.

 

I think you mean White Harbour. Oldtown is where Sam is at the end of AFFC, on the other side of the continent. And Davos' chapter is a good possibility. The other possibility is that Osha took Rickon to Greywater Watch to hide out with Howland Reed.

 

The second podcast is up now. GRRM discusses how he started off as a writer. And yes, Tyrion is easily, IMO, one of the best fantasy characters ever created. He is particularly awesome in the ADWD spoiler chapter on GRRM's website.

[Zylazlo-]

What does everyone think of Arya's blinding? Is it a punishment or the start of her training? And yes it could be a punishment because she didn't exactly give up herself completely, I mean she left the sword hidden away, and you know how those crazy black and white poeple can be.

[Werthead]

I think it's part of the training. There was that blind girl in the House of Black and White at the start of the novel, so presumably she was further ahead of Arya in the training. Maybe they sped up Arya's training because she killed that Night's Watch brother, but I think it's still part of the plan.

[Guest TigerToe]

Okay 4 posts into this thread and i hit a spoiler...so i wont read anymore just make my comments and leave.

 

 

I just picked up book one this week, so far its great i haven't read anything this exciting in years.

 

 

Its got a real gritty feeling to it and that's something fantasy should take note of, I still enjoy reading Drizzt but its lost something in the last 15+ years(the young adult i was when i picked it up) its gotten racier with the times but the day the dark elf dies or fails to rescue his companions from the abyss...well its never really in doubt as to the outcome.

 

 

page 338 and guiltily 4am, admittedly sometimes i do actually work this late at night...my 19 month old daughter sleeps peacfully as i turn pages by the light of my 'Cell'.

[Illiara]

Just picked up this series, and I really like it so far. However, what I can't understand is how the Eyrie can be so high up on the mountain.

[Werthead]

I think people tend to get confused by the fact that we're told that the Giant's Lance (the mountain the Eyrie is on) is about 18,000 feet high and assume the Eyrie is right on the summit, when it's actually much further down on a shoulder of the mountain. GRRM fudges this by never actually telling us how high up the mountain it is. If it's only halfway up, then that is reasonably plausible on a world where there is also a 300-mile-long, 700-feet-high, 20-plus-feet-thick solid wall of ice

 

The Eyrie was apparently built during the Andal Invasion (6,000 years before the books) at a time when magic still existed in Westeros, thus explaining how it was built.

[Illiara]

Now I understand. Thank you so much! :D

[Kadere]

Well, George has confirmed on his website that A Dance with Dragons will NOT be completed by the end of the year. His Wild Cards book and other projects are finished or close to, but he has not gotten around to finishing A Dance yet, so he's decided he will give no more dates of when he feels it will be accomplished.

 

Good news is the home renovations will be done by the end of the month, and he has nothing to go to until late February, so he'll be working on Dance for the next few months.

 

My guess is he'll probably get the book done early next year (like before June) and we'll still probably get the book before the end of 2007.

[Werthead]

Seeing the bitching about this on various other forums (not here, obviously) has been quite irritating. He said a while ago that he lost 4-6 weeks of writing in the summer because of his house renovations, so it seemed odd that he didn't change his planned completion date to mid-February to compensate for that. However, I note that he's now scrapped giving both his page-count and now completion dates for the book due to the whining he was getting from people. Seriously, I wouldn't be surprised if he announced he was taking a year off after completing the book. I hope he doesn't, but I get the impression that he's not happy with the attitude of some people moaning the whole time about release dates. It's only been a year since AFFC came out. What about the 16-year-wait between Books 3 and 4 of Jack Vance's Demon Princes series? Or the 31-year-wait between Books 3 and 4 of Asimov's Foundation series? Or the 18-year-wait between Hobbit and Lord of the Rings? :roll:

 

The turnaround for the books is about 5 months for UK release and 6 for US, so if he finishes in February it'll be out in July/August. If he finishes in May it'll still be out before the end of 2007.

[SBoydW]

These books are some of my favorites by anyone. I'm going to go back and read them again after I finish what's out for The Wheel of Time, and I'm in Crossroads of Twilight.

 

The thing that I like about this series is a fact that some of you hate about it. The fact is I like that main characters are dying and new people rising up. One of the things about RJ's books is that NO ONE of any significance dies so you have a billion plots and sub-plots and sub-sub plots. It's good reading but it can get confusing. That one of the reasons why there are going to be 12 books when he's finished.

 

Anyways for those just starting it (Song of Fire and Ice) [/i]GREAT series.

[Werthead]

Interesting news. GRRM and two of his friends, fantasy/SF authors Gardner Dozois and Daniel Abraham, have written an SF novel called Shadow Twin (actually a novel-length version of a short story they wrote together years ago, pre-ASoIaF). Voyager are publishing it in the UK and are very excited about it, calling it a Blade Runner for the modern age. It'll be out some time in 2007.

[Guest TigerToe]

half way through storm of swords...song of ice and fire is EPIC. Now this is only book 3 but i would recommend the series to anyone, their are so many HOOKS in this story line that when it switches chapters i soon forget my 'immediate need to know' what will happen to "arya" or "jon".

 

 

clap clap clap

[Kadere]

News update: George R. R. Martin is of course not yet done with the book. Due to other projects, home renovations, blah, blah, blah, he has been working on it, lots of story lines have progressed, but he hasn't finished.

 

But he also says that he will NOT updated the Song of Ice and Fire Update page again until he IS done with the book. So here's hoping that update comes soon.

[Werthead]

Disappointing. He is close though, from his comment that he is now rewriting a lot of stuff rather than creating new material. He's at Boskone (the Boston SF convention) this weekend, so he may give more information then.

 

Looks like my finishing-February-for-August-publication was way off (although this now means that ADWD won't run headlong into Harry Potter, which is good). Now hoping he'll finish in May-for-October-publication.

 

I think George has also played down exactly what's been done to his house. It's not been just 'renovated', it's actually been partially demolished and then rebuilt from scratch, which is obviously quite distracting when you are working just across the road from it!