[Honolulu_Blue]

Originally Posted by Arctic Blast

Big fan of the series so far, but I'm a little puzzled at this insane delay for the next book. Didn't he claim before Feast for Crows that he was basically splitting what had become on insanely massive book in to Feast for Crows and whetever the next one ends up being titled? If that's the case, it shouldn't take this long to get the next book out.

That's what he said when Feast was released. I actually think it may be in the book itself, how "Dance" was basically half-written.

It's pretty clear Martin is having a hard time tying all of his threads together and getting things moving again. "Storm" was a natural breaking point for a lot of what the first three books had set up. While there were still dozens of threads hanging, many were tied up.

He struggle mightily with "Feast" and since "Dance" is pretty much 1/2 of "Feast", I can see where he's having similar problems. "Feast" was all about setting up the pieces all over again. I imagine "Dance" will be more of the same, but zeroing in on the North and Dany as opposed to the Kingslanding, Dorne, and the Iron Men.

I think he had to go back and re-write a lot of what he thought he'd done. Remember, his initial plan following "Storm" was to have the next book start 4-5 years later. I'd imagine his decision to pick things up right after "Storm" changed things considerably.