Winter Is Coming: "A Game Of Thrones" HBO Series

Is anyone else incredibly psyched for this? The novels are fantastic, and with Martin being one of the writers on this series, I have high hopes. Hopefully "A Dance with Dragons" is published soon, too.

I actually just found all 3 of the first novels in the series at a thrift store for 10cents a piece and picked them up in a heart beat. Looking forward to finishing at least the first novel and starting on the second one before this starts.

I am looking forward to the series, but a friend of mine said that there's a lot that they changed for this adaptation so I hope they didn't change anything major. I have been following things with him for months though, and it's been fun following on the blog to see the updates and casting. It still looks good to me, and I know I'll be watching. :)

I'm hoping the (long-awaited) release of the TV series will finally prompt the publication of the (even longer-awaited) 5th novel in the series.

I read A Feast For Crows before I had any children. Now I have 2 kids and the younger is 2 years old.
It's been a long-*** time "writing" A Dance with Dragons.
My guess is Martin is hoping for a boost in sales of the novel by timing its release near the TV series premiere.

#5.... i want the rest of the series. Gonna be 6 or 7 by the time he's done.

And isn't he writing some other crap while we wait? "Dreamer's" or something like that.

He's been writing everything imaginable other than A Dance With Dragons, according to any all reports I've read.
Lots and lots of blogging and attending conventions and book signing events, plus this HBO series thing.

Your name is awesome.

He's not supposed to be writing Dance with Dragons. Feast for Crows was, according to the note from the author in the back, the first half of an already completed pair. It was due for release later that same year. It's been six.

There isn't much indication that he's working on it very hard, and he's demonstrated suspicious levels of practiced avoidance when asked about it by fans.

My theory is that the plot got away from him, the scope grew too large, the last book had to be cut by the publishers for length, and he spooked. He doesn't know how to finish the story, and he's paralyzed by the fear of being the next Robert Jordan.

I'd have to agree with that. "A Dance with Dragons" is meant to be the second half of "A Feast for Crows"; they're set directly next to each other with separate sets of characters. You never saw Dany in Feast because her part of the story in that particular section of the time line was pushed into Dance.

"Winds of Winter" picks up after Feast, and "A Dream of Spring" is supposed to close it off. Odds are, however, we won't be seeing either of those for a very long time, if at all. Still, the HBO series is exciting.

Agree.

I don't really read books anymore <.< but it does look interesting.

Hory ***, pumped. Also, June 11, the day I never though was coming: "A Dance with Dragons" finally hits.

I completely forgot about this..

Also it seems like a lot of shows based in old times are coming out on the premium channels lately.. There's this one, then Spartacus, then Camelot, then something else with Jeremy Irons in it..

I don't usually watch these kind of shows but I'm definately gonna give it a try

Except Robert Jordan knew how to finish his story but instead of finishing it he decided to write 3-4 extra books with little to no content so as to make some more money.

AND DANCE is finally coming in July, thank the gods. GRRM has been awful about meeting the fans halfway regarding the endless delays. He hates having to explain anything or updating anyone. A lot of arrogance in him, but his books are fab, so what can I say?

And I hadn't thought you'd be into this genre of literature, Jaerik. Nice to see that you enjoy these great series as well. ^^

Soooo I didn't mean to pull up this old thread but I just watched Game of Thrones tonight in England. What did you guys all think of it? I've not read the books and I'm more into urban fantasy than regular but this show was good from what I saw.

http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2009/05/entitlement-issues.html

Bolded part and everything after.

I was considering making a thread about this but then figured Id get no responses /le unpopular


Borgias is the one with Scar Jeremy Irons. Which Ive been trying to watch with not much luck...but boy do they have some pretty dresses.

I think its all kind of coincidence but yeah..now they all have to compete with each other.

also, anybody else notice the amount of incest in all these shows? lol wtf >.> Im always screaming at the screen "GET OFF YOUR SISTER"

So far Im more interested in GOT, never read the books. I just kind of want to see that dude from stargate nekkid (j/k)

There are those who have actual entitlement issues, and whine that Martin somehow "owes it to his fans" to write faster. I disagree with these people. Martin owes you nothing.

But there are also those (like me) who legitimately think it just isn't viable to take 35-42 years to write a single story and expect anyone to keep caring, based off the current pace (5-6 years each) and original number of books (7).

The last book being only half (of what was supposed to be one of the original 7) shows it could easily take more, and at that point we're legitimately running up against human life expectancy.

Some people are like Ents.

They go through ***very slowly :3

So the story has no ending?

on one hand, that is extremely annoying as a reader..on another, like as was said, the author doesn't work for you. They dont need to do anything.

the good news is, seeing as how there is now a show, maybe the show will create a ending?

I'm not sure where you're getting your numbers. "A Game of Thrones" was first published in August 1996. "A Dance with Dragons" will be released in July (or so GRRM says). Assuming it does release in July, that is just under 15 years between. That equates to an average less-than-3-year span between the 5 books, and (at least in my mind) leads to a much more reasonable estimate of 21 years to complete the series.

As far as it not being viable to expect anyone to still care after such a long period of time: Stephen King and "The Dark Tower" series would like to have a word with you. King took 22 years to finish that series. The longest wait between installments? 6 years, and 12 years between volumes 3 and 5. It took King being hit by a van/bus (I don't remember which, but a van seems more likely) to inspire him to finish the series. GRRM is doing just fine, IMO.

Game of Thrones was started in 1991. Took him 5 years to write it. Next was 1998: 2 years. Next was 2000: 2 years. Then 2005: 5 years. Then 2011: 6 years.

So an average of ~4 years per book. I'm worst-case-scenario'ing that to 5-6 because the trend definitely does not appear to be downward.

7 books was the original estimate, but everyone admits (including the author) that this is probably unreasonable given the current story pace. So 40+ years is very possible.

Like you said, it took King being hit by a bus to get around to finishing the series. To me, that actually isn't a good sign, if I'm trying to do a personal Risk Analysis of which stories I want to be engaged in.

It's not an ideological call or hit against Martin. He can do whatever he wants and owes people nothing. Nor is it about trying to convince anyone else whether or not they should care. It's about wondering if I still personally want to risk being invested.

"The Borgias"? Anyone? Anyone? Does anyone else like Machiavellian tactics within Renaissance Italy? I guess it would be stupid to ask if anyone watched "The Tudors".

Me! or..Im trying...I love the womens fashion..and Jeremy Irons.

I heard the Tudors was boring 8( Ive always wanted to see that show but I have no urge to actually sit and watch it. I did see the episode where they killed Anne Boleyn. Ive seen so many movies and documentaries on that family, I love them :3 so that was the one episode I actually managed to download and watch.

Yeay!!! "The Tudors" did kind of speed by after Anne Boleyn died. They probably could have stretched it out over two more seasons if they wanted to go more in depth with his succeeding marriages. That was the most disappointing thing to me.

I would love to see a series on Napoleon and his marriages to Josephine and Marie Louise of Austria. That would be just as seedy and fun!

Sorry. I completely passed over this. LOL!

ROME was the best historical series!

I do.

After playing Assassins creed II, I immersed myself into as many history books about it as possible. Interesting stuff.

OMG! Assassins Creed II was awesome! I was amazed by how gorgeous Il Duomo in Florence looked on that game! You don't even know how many times I fell off that thing (IG of course). LOL!

I'll go back to the example of "The Dark Tower". It took King 12 years to write "The Gunslinger". It was released (in full) in 1982.

Second was in 1987. 5 years.

Third, 1991. 4 years.

Fourth, 1997. 6 years.

Fifth, 2003. 6 years.

Sixth, 2004. 7 months.

Seventh, 2004. 3 months.

Eighth, 2012 (scheduled release). 8 years.


Now obviously things are a little skewed between books 5-7. I think it's safe to assume King wrote all (or most of) 3 books before releasing book 5. (Keep in mind I'm trying to do as little "in-depth" research as possible, as I am actually in the middle of reading the series)

Still, in the end it results in a 40-year span from start to finish, assuming book 8 is the finale (Granted, book 8 may or may not have been on his mind after he finished #7, which would have lengthened the span of time between the entries). It took King 17 years to finish the first 2 books. 10 years to release the next 2. He then turned around and took 7 years to finish the next 3. Who's to say GRRM can't/won't do the same?

My point isn't to try and tell you what you should like/read or how to invest your time (I hope I'm not coming off that way, and apologize if so). I'm just trying to point out that, like most art, writing isn't exactly "rigid" and simply that "hey, these things happen". It may be 5-6 years before GRRM finishes "Winds of Winter". He may just as well have the series complete by 2015.