OT: A Song of Ice and Fire Series (spoilers inside)

[Thomkal]

Not Game of Thrones related, but George R. R. Martin's Nightflyers premieres tonight on Syfy at 10 pm (and then repeated at 11 pm). I've not read those books or tried to find out a lot about the show, but it seems like its some horror/Sci-fi combo where human scientists make first(?) contact with alien life and shocker! I don't think it goes well:


TV THIS WEEK: Nightflyers scares up a premiere, plus new Flash, Doctor Who, Outlander and more | SYFY WIRE


Scroll down to see the opening scene

[Edward64]

Thanks, may have to give this a shot.

[Thomkal]

Originally Posted by Thomkal

Not Game of Thrones related, but George R. R. Martin's Nightflyers premieres tonight on Syfy at 10 pm (and then repeated at 11 pm). I've not read those books or tried to find out a lot about the show, but it seems like its some horror/Sci-fi combo where human scientists make first(?) contact with alien life and shocker! I don't think it goes well:


TV THIS WEEK: Nightflyers scares up a premiere, plus new Flash, Doctor Who, Outlander and more | SYFY WIRE


Scroll down to see the opening scene

I've watched about 20 mins of the premiere. Special effects are good for a Syfy show. Not generally a fan of horror movies/shows, so I'm not sure how long it will hold my interest. Waiting to see what the aliens are like before deciding. Fan of the lead actor from another show. Happy to see a telepath (?) not happy with how he's being used so far.

[PilotMan]

I might die before this book gets released.

Game of Thrones: The Winds of Winter Website Domain Has Fans Freaking Out

[molson]

I kind of want an honest account memoir of what the hell happened with Winds of Winter more than I want the Winds of Winter book itself.

In the last real update in January 2016, Martin said that in September 2015, he thought he'd be able to have to the book out by the end of that year. 4 years ago.

[Chief Rum]

I have tsken a "I'll see it when I see it" approach to TWOW for about five years now.

[GrantDawg]

I have lost interest in reading it.

[Edward64]

Originally Posted by GrantDawg

I have lost interest in reading it.

I do feel this way since HBO has given me closure but TBH, I'll re/read the entire series once all the books are out.

I do think GRRM is an ass (but I wish I could write half, okay maybe a quarter, as well as him). GRRM, Rothfuss (who is also pissing me off), Sanderson are my top 3 in this current generation.

[Lathum]

Originally Posted by GrantDawg

I have lost interest in reading it.

Me too. I honestly have forgotten 90% of what happened.

[Honolulu_Blue]

I have largely stopped thinking about it or when it will come out. Between the show wrapping up and the quality of the last two books, my interest level is pretty low. I’ll definitely read it when it comes out, because I still love the world and characters, but I’m not super excited about it. I have no anger towards Martin. Between the show and the first three books - he’s done more than right by me. He’s given me so much joy and excitement and owes me nothing. There is no shortage of things to read, watch and listen to in the meantime.

[PilotMan]

Originally Posted by Honolulu_Blue

I have largely stopped thinking about it or when it will come out. Between the show wrapping up and the quality of the last two books, my interest level is pretty low. I’ll definitely read it when it comes out, because I still love the world and characters, but I’m not super excited about it. I have no anger towards Martin. Between the show and the first three books - he’s done more than right by me. He’s given me so much joy and excitement and owes me nothing. There is no shortage of things to read, watch and listen to in the meantime.

This is about where I'm at, plus the combination of forgetting everything that happened, the recency of HBO, and the differences in the plot. The idea that I have to read 500 pages to get to the part of the book where the plot starts to move again is rough. I don't even remember what the books were titled or even what order they were in. It's still my favorite series and it's done some amazing things, but the delays have crushed excitement for it.

[molson]

I've stopped thinking about it too. I'll read if it comes out, there's a couple of great chapter-by-chapter recap sites that I would have to get through first to refresh my memory, and to try to get my brain back into book as opposed to show mode with this story.

[ISiddiqui]

Originally Posted by molson

I kind of want an honest account memoir of what the hell happened with Winds of Winter more than I want the Winds of Winter book itself.

Seems to happen quite a bit with fantasy writers. Patrick Rothfuss is having the same issues with his Kingkiller Chronicles (the 2nd book of that series was released the same year that Dance with Dragons was out). Robert Jordan famously had his issues.

Anyways, I recently did a re-read of the series (and read Fire and Blood and the Dunk and Egg stories again), and was surprised to find that A Feast for Crows, which was lamented at the time, turned out to be my 2nd favorite book. When I wasn't reading it for 'what happens next with the plot' (Storm of Swords ruined me) I was able to appreciate it better - it's a book that cares about what the past battles have done to the people and the countryside than what new twist is going to happen with the plot (though it does have a few big twists at the end).

[Fidatelo]

This series was my favorite series ever after the first 3 books. And now I'm at the point where I have barely-above-zero interest in the entire thing. I purchased book 5 but it had been so long since book 4 that I started to read and had no idea who was who or what was going on, so I told myself I'd re-read book 4 and then go back.


That re-read felt like such a slog that I never got more than 100 pages into it, so I told myself I'd read a Coles Notes style synopsis on the internet. All that did was reveal that there was a bunch of stuff from the earlier books that I couldn't remember either. My heart sank, and at that point I think I knew I would likely never read the rest of the series.


Who knows, maybe if he ever actually puts out the final books and says "it's done", maybe then I'll go back and re-read everything and just take it all in and enjoy it. By then my kids will likely be moved out (maybe with kids of their own!) and I'll have all sorts of time. Who knows, but I'm certainly not going to spend much time thinking about it.

[Edward64]

Officially threw in the towel (unofficially did that about 5+ years ago) by giving my 5 GoT hardcover books to Goodwill today.

I thought the full hardcover set would look great on my bookshelf but now concede it will never be finished by GRRM. More likely finished by Brandon Sanderson (or like) after GRRM croaks, and by then I'll get the kindle version.

Unfortunately, it's looking like Patrick Rothfuss has the same issue. But I'll give it a couple more years before I give his first 2 hardcover books away.

[Kodos]

I did the same thing with the Garfield books.

[Lathum]

I bet both Garfield and George RR love lasagna.

[Edward64]

Originally Posted by Lathum

I bet both Garfield and George RR love lasagna.

I can always tell when you've been drinking. Your posts are "different"

[Lathum]

Originally Posted by Edward64

I can always tell when you've been drinking. Your posts are "different"

cheers!

[albionmoonlight]

Originally Posted by Edward64

Unfortunately, it's looking like Patrick Rothfuss has the same issue. But I'll give it a couple more years before I give his first 2 hardcover books away.

The irony is that a lot of people started reading Rothfuss b/c they were tired of waiting for a new GRRM book.

The other issue with the Rothfuss books is that it feels like we are nowhere close to even halfway through the story and we've (theoretically) read 2 of the 3 books.

[Edward64]

Originally Posted by albionmoonlight

The irony is that a lot of people started reading Rothfuss b/c they were tired of waiting for a new GRRM book.

The other issue with the Rothfuss books is that it feels like we are nowhere close to even halfway through the story and we've (theoretically) read 2 of the 3 books.

Agreed. Rothfuss did say he had all 3 books mapped out and everyone thought it would be completed relatively quick. Rothfuss has said there will be other books in that world but I'm not holding my breath. I read somewhere the book-to-movie deal fell through also.

I will say that I believe Rothfuss is the superior writer, his style, plots etc. but I enjoyed GRRM more because there was more action. Both are much better than I can ever hope to be.

I will also toss in Scott Lynch and the Gentlemen Bastards. I can't blame Scott because he had a medical issue but am disappointed his series isn't done. His writing style is up there also.

[molson]

Saw this bumped and I thought we got GRRM traditional, "I'm working really hard on the book but I have a ways to go" year-ending blog post.

The only other GRRM work I'm interested in now is an honest tell-all of how he went from being sure in September 2015 that he'd finish by December 2015, to where we are now.

I check in on the book series subreddit sometimes, and I'm becoming more and more intrigued by the theory that he hasn't written anything in years, perhaps since 2015, and the publishers have figured this out and have moved on. Or, that he didn't write anything from 2015-2019 and is now trying to pick it back up since he finally has a break in his schedule with the pandemic. Between 2015-2019 he never gave updates about his progress, then suddenly in 2020 he started talking about specific number of pages he wrote, what characters he was working on, etc.

Apparently this is a thing with other science fiction writers too (I don't read any other fantasy or science fiction but it's fun to read about this other unproductive authors). I guess fans of the The War Against the Chtorr series have been waiting since 1993 for the next book.

It's amusing to me. People love to trash the show, and TV shows in general get nitpicked to hell, but at least that's a medium where the creators can't just not bother to make deadlines. It's just not a part of that world, you'd never survive.

[Lathum]

Originally Posted by molson

Saw this bumped and I thought we got GRRM traditional, "I'm working really hard on the book but I have a ways to go" year-ending blog post.
.

I thought he was dead.

2020 and all....

[Edward64]

Originally Posted by Lathum

I thought he was dead.

2020 and all....

GRRM doesn't look that great in pics I've seen.

Rothfuss does look okay, just distracted by many other things like his charity. I'm pretty sure if Rothfuss would finish the 3rd book and give a good % to his charity, it would be much, much more than current charity stuff he is doing.

[PilotMan]

He says...

"....I think I'm around three quarters done, maybe."

Says it's the biggest book by far, longer than it's 1500 page predecessor. It'll never come out and if it does, nobody will read it.

[sabotai]

I will.

[PilotMan]

Oh I will too I'm sure, at this rate he's what 4 to 5 years away?

[molson]

I still bet he hasn't actually started yet. But he's definitely going to get to it first thing tomorrow.

[flere-imsaho]

I'm going to wait until Brandon Sanderson, Kevin J. Anderson, or, more likely, one or both halves of James S.A. Corey finish it.

[Edward64]

I've read all three. I can see how they might finish GRRM (given source material) but don't think their styles is close to Rothfuss.

[sabotai]

Brandon Sanderson would be the worst possible choice to finish ASOIF (and he even said as much and that he wouldn't do it).

I'd go with Joe Abercrombie but I haven't read Kevin J. Anderson yet. Maybe James S.A. Corey but I've only read the first book of the Expanse so far.

I wouldn't be surprised if the best writer to finish the series would come from more of a historical fiction background than fantasy.

(Just looking up Kevin J. Anderson's books now and I see a bunch of Dune books and Star Wars books, so he at least has extensive experience writing in someone else's IP)

EDIT: And just looked up Corey because the "one or both halves" bit confused me. I had no idea that was a pen name for two people.

[flere-imsaho]

...and both have worked directly with GRRM.

[Edward64]

I was checking up on Star Citizen game progress. It occurred to me that Star Citizen is to computer games what GRRM/Rothfuss is to the fantasy genre.

[albionmoonlight]

Originally Posted by PilotMan

Says it's the biggest book by far, longer than it's 1500 page predecessor. It'll never come out and if it does, nobody will read it.

Yeah. Finish. Don't finish. Whatever you want, George. Ice and Fire has moved on.

Rothfuss is the one that still hurts. Those first two books are so good.

Coming to terms with the idea that we will probably never get a third has been hard.

[albionmoonlight]

dola: I do completely understand the situation, however. Writing is hard.

I write for a living--appellate briefs, not novels. And if, somehow, I got a ton of money and all of my briefing deadlines went away and instead of writing briefs, I would be flown around the country to attend cons and sit on panels where I simply talked about writing and everyone kept coming up to me and telling me how great I was?

Well, if that happened, I'd wake up every morning and stare at my blank computer screen for five minutes and then start googling cool restaurants close to the site of next weeks appellate con.

Writing is hard work.