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The Official Game of Thrones [A Song of Ice and Fire] Thread (includes spoilers)

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Yeah, it's pretty great. I'm legitimately surprised how much story and personality comes through, despite it being written as a Maester's history textbook.

Like, I felt a strong sense of what Aegon, Rhaenys, and Visenya were like as individuals, and find myself really loving Jahaerys and Good Queen Alysanne as characters.

It was unexpected because I thought I'd have to slog through it, and I find myself looking forward to listening to it on my commute every day.

Lol it's funny because I actually don't care about the Targaryen history. But the side stuff like Dany's eggs and Valyria. Soooo....we'll see. I just don't imagine be interested at all in the daily court intrigue of Alysanne and Jahaerys
 
Yeah, it's pretty great. I'm legitimately surprised how much story and personality comes through, despite it being written as a Maester's history textbook.

Like, I felt a strong sense of what Aegon, Rhaenys, and Visenya were like as individuals, and find myself really loving Jahaerys and Good Queen Alysanne as characters.

It was unexpected because I thought I'd have to slog through it, and I find myself looking forward to listening to it on my commute every day.

I think the main reason this series is so far above most other fantasy works is that there's a real sense of history to the world that it takes place in. It feels like Martin has spent (literally) decades coming up with rich, complex backstories for all the major houses, and as such it provides a much greater sense of depth to the world compared to the bulk of other series I have read.

Of course, most of those other authors release a book or two a year, so I guess at some point you need to sacrifice a little quality for actually getting shit done.
 
I think the main reason this series is so far above most other fantasy works is that there's a real sense of history to the world that it takes place in. It feels like Martin has spent (literally) decades coming up with rich, complex backstories for all the major houses, and as such it provides a much greater sense of depth to the world compared to the bulk of other series I have read.

Of course, most of those other authors release a book or two a year, so I guess at some point you need to sacrifice a little quality for actually getting shit done.

Writing a book or 2 a year is amazing. Who can write a book as dense as any of the Game of thrones books in a year? Stephen King?
 
Writing a book or 2 a year is amazing. Who can write a book as dense as any of the Game of thrones books in a year? Stephen King?

Well, not many books are as dense as the Game of Thrones books, but guys like Abercrombie, Sanderson, Abraham, and a few others all seem to average at least a book a year. Hell, Sanderson probably releases two or three books a year, which is just insane. Granted, usually one of them is a YA release so it's a bit shorter and less in-depth, but still impressive.

Martin's problem is that he went from releasing these books at a reasonable pace of one to three years between them for the first three books to five years to six years to seven and counting for the next few.
 
Well, not many books are as dense as the Game of Thrones books, but guys like Abercrombie, Sanderson, Abraham, and a few others all seem to average at least a book a year. Hell, Sanderson probably releases two or three books a year, which is just insane. Granted, usually one of them is a YA release so it's a bit shorter and less in-depth, but still impressive.

Martin's problem is that he went from releasing these books at a reasonable pace of one to three years between them for the first three books to five years to six years to seven and counting for the next few.

For sure. He is procrastinating by doing other jobs.
 
Well, not many books are as dense as the Game of Thrones books, but guys like Abercrombie, Sanderson, Abraham, and a few others all seem to average at least a book a year. Hell, Sanderson probably releases two or three books a year, which is just insane. Granted, usually one of them is a YA release so it's a bit shorter and less in-depth, but still impressive.

Martin's problem is that he went from releasing these books at a reasonable pace of one to three years between them for the first three books to five years to six years to seven and counting for the next few.
Sidenote.... when was the last time Abercrombie put anything out? Feels like it's been a long time, or maybe I'm just not aware.
 
Sidenote.... when was the last time Abercrombie put anything out? Feels like it's been a long time, or maybe I'm just not aware.

It's been about three years, I think. He released Half a War in 2015, which was his last novel release, and Sharp Ends, a short story collection, in 2016.

I believe the first book in his new First Law trilogy is due out in 2019, though, so I'm guessing he's been hard at work on that. This is the longest gap he's ever had between books. All three books in the first trilogy released a year apart. The stand-alone novels similarly came out a year or two apart. The entire Shattered Sea trilogy came out within a two year window.

My guess is that he's actually writing more than just the first book in the new trilogy, which is why it's taking so long. He probably writes a rough draft of the whole thing then goes back and edits/re-writes book by book, which means a longer period to get to the first book but shorter release windows for the sequels.
 
It's been about three years, I think. He released Half a War in 2015, which was his last novel release, and Sharp Ends, a short story collection, in 2016.

I believe the first book in his new First Law trilogy is due out in 2019, though, so I'm guessing he's been hard at work on that. This is the longest gap he's ever had between books. All three books in the first trilogy released a year apart. The stand-alone novels similarly came out a year or two apart. The entire Shattered Sea trilogy came out within a two year window.

My guess is that he's actually writing more than just the first book in the new trilogy, which is why it's taking so long. He probably writes a rough draft of the whole thing then goes back and edits/re-writes book by book, which means a longer period to get to the first book but shorter release windows for the sequels.
Yeah I think I'm all caught up on Shattered Sea and all of First Law. Was just wondering if anything new came out since I was pretty focused on finishing all of Sanderson and now I'm back re-reading Martin.
 
Yeah I think I'm all caught up on Shattered Sea and all of First Law. Was just wondering if anything new came out since I was pretty focused on finishing all of Sanderson and now I'm back re-reading Martin.

According to the internet, his next book is due in fall of 2019, and it will be the next First Law book.
 
In the middle of rewatching Game of Thrones before the final season...this has been fun.

Just finished Mountain vs Viper. Oberyn was a fucking awesome character. Really wish he was on the show longer. The entire Dorne storyline was ass after he died.
 
In the middle of rewatching Game of Thrones before the final season...this has been fun.

Just finished Mountain vs Viper. Oberyn was a fucking awesome character. Really wish he was on the show longer. The entire Dorne storyline was ass after he died.

I was surprised how small his character was in the books. He was really great on the show. That scene with Tyrion in prison when he says he will be his champion was amazing.

Grandiosity will always kill you. Can't give speeches until the enemy is dead. Bron and the Mountain both know this .
 
In the middle of rewatching Game of Thrones before the final season...this has been fun.

Just finished Mountain vs Viper. Oberyn was a fucking awesome character. Really wish he was on the show longer. The entire Dorne storyline was ass after he died.

The problem with Dorne is that they basically cut everything from the books that will have any long-term impact on Dorne, which is probably why they just kind of randomly killed them all off last season. But the show had no Arianne, no Quentyn, and no Tattered Prince, and without Quentyn there's really no purpose for Doran either, as he has no master plan for revenge that he's been secretly plotting for years.
 
The problem with Dorne is that they basically cut everything from the books that will have any long-term impact on Dorne, which is probably why they just kind of randomly killed them all off last season. But the show had no Arianne, no Quentyn, and no Tattered Prince, and without Quentyn there's really no purpose for Doran either, as he has no master plan for revenge that he's been secretly plotting for years.

Which is so bizarre, because Quentyn would have made for good TV. Most of us readers agree that he was a moron and seemed somewhat useless and foolhardy from the book perspective, but in terms of making a couple of cool moments for the show he would have been fun to have around for a few brief moments. Much, much better than what they did with the sand snakes... really cool book characters that David & Dan had no idea how to incorporate.

And it sucks that Arianne never made the show. Makes me feel like her book character won't be as important as it currently feels like she might be in the book timeline.
 
Which is so bizarre, because Quentyn would have made for good TV. Most of us readers agree that he was a moron and seemed somewhat useless and foolhardy from the book perspective, but in terms of making a couple of cool moments for the show he would have been fun to have around for a few brief moments. Much, much better than what they did with the sand snakes... really cool book characters that David & Dan had no idea how to incorporate.

And it sucks that Arianne never made the show. Makes me feel like her book character won't be as important as it currently feels like she might be in the book timeline.

Personally, I think they just decided the entire Dorne storyline was too complicated and involved too many characters, but they needed Oberyn, so they had to include at least a bit of it. That's why we ended up with the half-assed version we got. They laid the foundation in season four but then never followed up on it with anything of note.
 

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