Game of Thrones - Book Readers' Thread - - - - - - - - Part 25

[Roose Bolton]

"Distracted"

More like, the show killed his interest in the main saga.

 

[Reek]

Yea he's not looking to hot these days either... I'm getting worried.

 

[TheFuture]

I wouldn't blame for the show for Martin's struggle with writing the book. I think there's a key 3 years or so of the show where he probably rode the wave of it's success a bit too much, appearing everywhere to talk about it and most of all, wasn't writing.

We've all had that thing in our lives where we put something on the backburner and as the years went by, so did our energy and clear mind for the project until it doesn't mean anything anymore. Too bad there's so many people willing George to get it done.

 

[Marvolo]

Yea he's not looking to hot these days either... I'm getting worried.

 

[Marvolo]

"Distracted"

More like, the show killed his interest in the main saga.

If he really cares about the ASOIAF story and doesnt like what D&D did with it you'd think he'd want to at least make sure the public and the fans get to read the final two books. Rather than never finishing it and ensuring that the D&D's version is the only ending we ever get.

I think he's just stuck and bored with it. He has an ending, but he cant get to that ending or is continually struggling to get to that ending and the experience of writing the story is no longer any fun for him. It's become a grueling chore. Which is why hes constantly doing other things.

And I have a sneaking suspicion that some of this drag ass is just plain ol spite. He really doesnt like people demanding he finish the story and he doesnt even seem to like fans being reasonably pushy. He really seems to hate people thinking he is going to die before he finishes. Its bound to make anyone a bit spiteful. So he could be dragging ass as a way of giving fans and his publisher the finger. It's not the only reason but I think its definitely one of the several reasons.

At this point I've accepted that our only hope of getting A Dream of Spring is a Christmas miracle happening or his family estate going against his wishes after he dies and hiring another writer to finish the story based on Martin's notes and any discussions he has had with his close story confidants. At the very least I hope his estate publishes some of his A Dream of Spring material and his notes in a book like the books Christopher Tolkien has been releasing that contain Tolkien's unfinished Middle Earth stories.

 

[Drizzle]

At this point I've accepted that our only hope of getting A Dream of Spring is a Christmas miracle happening or his family estate going against his wishes after he dies and hiring another writer to finish the story based on Martin's notes and any discussions he has had with his close story confidants. At the very least I hope his estate publishes some of his A Dream of Spring material and his notes in a book like the books Christopher Tolkien has been releasing that contain Tolkien's unfinished Middle Earth stories.

Years from now:

 

[Roose Bolton]

If he really cares about the ASOIAF story and doesnt like what D&D did with it you'd think he'd want to at least make sure the public and the fans get to read the final two books. Rather than never finishing it and ensuring that the D&D's version is the only ending we ever get.

I didn't say he didn't like D&D's version, I said their version killed his interest. The story's already being told, and it's at least partially based on the skeleton of what he planned. I think for all his talk of how he can enjoy both books and the show and that spoilers don't matter, that it's all in the journey...I think the truth is that knowing that his story is being told by someone else first has killed a lot of his enthusiasm. It's why he refused to let HBO do Dunk and Egg as a show before he finished the novellas.

And I certainly don't think it's out of spite...because he's openly lamented that he wishes it was over with so that he could do proper work on these Prequel shows, continue Dunk and Egg, write his proposed spy and Sci-Fi novels he had tucked away. He's said none of those things are going to be done until at the very least Winds is out, and you can tell that annoys the **** out of him.

 

[Blitzkrieg Bop]

Spin off idea, laugh track sitcom with Tormund and Sandor.

One’s a former member of the kingsguard, the other’s a wildling commander. When the two live under one roof, only hilarity can ensue. Two ****s, Thursdays on NBC.

 

[Marvolo]

Have any of yall heard of the Ragnarök theory?

http://gameofthronesandnorsemythology.blogspot.com/2013/05/ragnarok-song-of-ice-fire.html?m=1

 

[Reek]

J.K. Rowling would hate you.

 

[Elayis]

Nearly a year has passed since I started ADwD and finally I'm in the home stretch. Did anyone else have a similarly difficult time getting through this one? Comparatively, I blew through the previous books in about a month total (even with AFfC becoming a chore), but I never expected it to take quite this long.

I got through the first 800 pages in a couple weeks but then lost any drive to continue. A big part of my loss of interest was due to having already watched the show, but the last two books have also felt rather aimless, with several POV characters that are either boring or irritating.

Hopefully TWoW, whenever it comes out, managed to recapture the magic of the first three books.

 

[Reek]

the sample chapters released by grrm were pretty great... hes released quite a few..

 

[Elayis]

So you think they're worth reading on their own?

 

[Reek]

reading them for a hint of whats goin on in winds of winter? yea of course.

 

[Reek]

https://entertainment.theonion.com/...ialMarketing&utm_content=Main&utm_campaign=SF

 

[Marvolo]

Nearly a year has passed since I started ADwD and finally I'm in the home stretch. Did anyone else have a similarly difficult time getting through this one? Comparatively, I blew through the previous books in about a month total (even with AFfC becoming a chore), but I never expected it to take quite this long.

I got through the first 800 pages in a couple weeks but then lost any drive to continue. A big part of my loss of interest was due to having already watched the show, but the last two books have also felt rather aimless, with several POV characters that are either boring or irritating.

Hopefully TWoW, whenever it comes out, managed to recapture the magic of the first three books.

To make ADWD more tolerable, I cheated. I read the Jon, Stannis, and Jaime chapters first. Then I read the Davos chapters. I read all the Dany chapters last.

GRRM's chapter cliffhangers annoy the **** out of me. He'll have 90% of a chapter be low key discussions, planning, introspection and just when things are getting really interesting he ends the chapter then makes the reader wait absurd lengths of time to get back to that character. Martin has compared his method to commercial breaks. In tv the episodes would build to something then go to a commercial break. Martin liked that rhythm and he carried that method over into his books. I think it's an obnoxious tedious way to pace a book but the books were good in spite of that madness so up until ADWD I tolerated it, but with ADWD I said to hell with it and just read the story how I wanted to. It's the only time I've ever done anything like that with a book.

 

[Marvolo]

An excerpt from the upcoming Targaryen history book has been posted on Martin's blog. Something interesting: Queen Alysanne's dragon, Silverwing, flat out refuses to cross the Wall. The queen tries to fly beyond the Wall three times and the dragon always turns back South at the Wall. The Queen says Silverwing has never refused to take her where she wanted to go until Silverwing came to the Wall. Also when the wind gusts Silverwing snaps and hisses.

It could just be behavior unique to Silverwing, or it could be the cold, but I'm thinking it's not just the cold but also the magic. I'd say all dragons in the books probably wont cross the Wall because of the magic in the Wall or because of what's beyond the Wall. Makes me think what happened in season 7 (Jon going beyond the wall and Dany rescuing him) wont happen in the books.

You can read the excerpt here:

A FIRE & BLOOD Excerpt just for YOU! | Not a Blog

 

[Reaver027]

Or Bran crossing the wall marked by the Night King weakened the magic so much the dragons had no problem crossing it this time. So it could still happen in the books.

 

[Blitzkrieg Bop]

I thought for a few years that a dragon would knock down the wall. In a story, when you say something is unbreakable, then it must break. A dragon is the best option because they didn’t have to introduce a whole other element.

 

[MaceB]

I thought for a few years that a dragon would knock down the wall. In a story, when you say something is unbreakable, then it must break. A dragon is the best option because they didn’t have to introduce a whole other element.

I'd go so far as to say that the Night King needed dragon fire in order to get past the wall. He needed the combination of fire and ice in order to break the magical incantations in the wall. And if that's actually the case, then he was never really marching past the wall at all. He was building up his army... getting ready... and attacking the Night's Watch in order to draw out the realms of men. Hopefully he could scare them so much, that they'd eventually need a dragon, which is exactly what the Night King needed to break the wall and march south.

I know that technically the army of the dead could go around the wall, but I think the wall's magic would have stopped them from doing that.

 

[Marvolo]

I dont think a dragon was his goal. If he wanted a dragon he's had thousands of years to get one. He didnt need to wait until now. In the show I think him getting a dragon was just a convenience that Dany and Jon unwittingly provided him. Not something he planned or needed.

 

[Elayis]

We'll see if the Others actually get one in the books. Even if they do, I doubt it'll be anything like how it went down on the show.

I wonder how the Others themselves will be handled when they enter the stage. I like the concept of the Night King and it works well onscreen, but books are able to provide so much more context and detail that a central figure isn't needed. Here's hoping we'll be able to read it sometime next year.

 

[Marvolo]

Pretty sure Martin said the Night King wont appear in the books. That's just a creation of the show. Tho there is the Great Other so I suppose it might play some sort of role. Plus in the books the White Walkers are much more ethereal and more like super deadly magical spirits with magical ice armor.

The Others are not dead. They are strange, beautiful… think, oh… the Sidhe made of ice, something like that… a different sort of life… inhuman, elegant, dangerous.

• G.R.R.M

Think the evil version of Tolkien's Eldar (Galdriel, book version).

Some book accurate art:

They also have their own terrible language. So I think in the books the White Walkers and their interactions with the human characters will go very differently.

The show did pretty good especially with the season 5 Night King design, but the show version really does pale in comparison to the book White Walkers. In the show they are more like super strong deseccated corpses.

 

[TheFuture]

I think there's a chance that GRRM will find a bit of motivation again once the series is over and realises he very much still has his own story to tell and finish.

 

[Schlosser85]

We'll see if the Others actually get one in the books. Even if they do, I doubt it'll be anything like how it went down on the show.

I wonder how the Others themselves will be handled when they enter the stage. I like the concept of the Night King and it works well onscreen, but books are able to provide so much more context and detail that a central figure isn't needed. Here's hoping we'll be able to read it sometime next year.

Yea the Night King is pretty much just “White Walker #1” to give a face to them as cinematic villains because something like that works well onscreen.