Apologies for the slightly off-topic post…
It’s not looking good, folks…
George R R Martin confirms he hasn’t written anything for the 2 remaining A Song Of Ice And Fire books since 2022.
He wishes that they were finished.
The last published book in the series, A Dance With Dragons, was published in July 2011, now 13 years ago.
Obligatory song that’s now 12 years old… https://youtu.be/j7lp3RhzfgI
You think the ending of the show sucked? Imagine how he felt watching that shit.
The reason he hasn’t finished (or isn’t even trying any more) is because he’s written himself into a corner. There are a lot of loose ends and parts that don’t make sense, and that’s not even counting the parts that the show left out!
He probably felt dread, because he was probably hoping that they’d fix some of the mistakes he made, and make writing the book simpler.
He fucked himself over by not having the time skip.
He probably couldn’t see the tv due to the big pile of money sitting between him and the screen covering his view.
I think he was fine with it, watching from his hot tub filled with money.
deleted by creator
Apparently being constrained by deadlines turned him into a procrastinating, spineless teenager.
So no one read the article? Just the headline?
This references a statement he made in 2023 which itself references a statement he made in 2022 saying he had the same number of pages completed.
This is an assumption that he has done nothing, rather than the far more likely situation of rewrites and editing.
People seriously some basic media literacy lessons.
rather than the far more likely situation of rewrites and editing.
At this point that feels like the bigger assumption
Especially after 13 years.
Plus it’s not like he’s literally done nothing for thirteen years. He did Fire and Blood, wrote for TV, did a bunch of companion books, edited and produced stuff, and so on.
It would be nice if Winds didn’t seemingly get put on the backburner, but creators really can’t control their inspiration. George has as many stories to tell as hes always had, but for whatever reason he’s having trouble coming back to finish the story he started almost thirty years ago, and TBH I get it.
No body says he has been idle. In fact, the major contention is that he been too focusing on doing all those things he mentioned.
Sorry dude but he’s not doing shit. He’s busy buying random shit in my hometown and enjoying not working like 99% of the entitled rich transplants that priced out all the locals there.
Be honest, do you think he’s worked on them at all since the show started?
He may have done a chapter, maybe two since then? That’s probably it, though.
He has no intention of finishing, especially now that the show is done and people are left with negativity surrounding the ending. It’s the worst possible situation for him, because even if he wanted to finish the books there’s just no way he can do it.
IMO, the best thing he can do is acknowledge this, and draw a line in it. Either hand it off to a protégé or writer friend that is happy to continue the story, or outright say that ASOIAF is done.
Or just hire a ghost writer. Nobody needs to know and even if it comes out, nobody would care.
Imagine you’re writing an epic tale that gets converted into the world’s most popular TV show, then flown into the side of a mountain by some shitty director. I’d imagine the hate mail and public ridicule he probably got would make anyone lose the drive to finish.
What if the ending to show is actually really, really similar to the ending of the books? I’ve seen theories floated about how certain book-only events might make it more satisfying even if the broad strokes (Bran becoming king etc) are the same - but damn seeing people completely reject your series conclusion would take the wind out of anyone’s sails.
I’m fairly sure the show ending is the ending of the book, but the directors rushed it. Martin is still thinking of a way trying to get from Book 5 to that ending.
I’m entirely unsurprised.
D and D got a lot of heat for the last season of Game of Thrones, but I’ve never thought they were entirely, or even chiefly, to blame. Most of the problem really is that GRRM obviously desperately needed an editor to rein him in as the series went along, but for whatever reason, that didn’t happen. So now he has this huge, sprawling mess of a story that’s going in eighteen different directions at once, and just as D and D couldn’t manage to tie it all together, neither can he.
Do you know what’s nuts? He’s well respected within the industry as an editor - he’s worked with many of the luminaries of science fiction and fantasy over the years as the editor for Wild Cards and other short story collections.
This is probably not the place to discuss just how fragile IRL feudalism was to actual runs of bad winters and sub-par summers, which were notorious for causing famines that spread across nations. I can’t speak about how it works in Westros, but volcanic winters and bad solar weather shifted the tides of history here on earth.
Considering the notion of decades long winters, the people of Westros would likely be forced to be migratory much like the Dothraki.
That all said, it still was a rich world, and I suspect Martin just wrote himself into a bunch of corners.
Eventually winter came and they all rolled over and died. The end.
George R. R. Martin
Genius, what world building!
Rocks fall, everyone dies.
I imagine this is about all he’s come up with since the show started…
Shocking.
GoT’s final half and definitely last season pissed me off to no end at the time, but in retrospect I’m glad I don’t have to care about this anymore.
On the other hand we have Brandon Sanderson with 20 year roadmap and consistent release coupled with all the secret novels that he wrote.
I have this sneaking suspicion that he has this black magic power to suck all the creative will of writers, including GRRM and Patrick Rothfuss.
With Brando the Mando Sando it boils down to work ethic and process.
He has said in lectures that while writing a first draft, an author should be able to push out a thousand words an hour. That’s pretty reasonable if you’re a decent typist and you’re just focusing on getting rough ideas down. Once he’s got a draft, he throws it to his editor(s) who gets to work. If he’s gotten a draft back from them with notes, he gets on that. Otherwise, he’s cranking away at the next first draft.
The man is prolific because he’s got his team dialed in and treats it like any other job. He shows up with a plan and executes.
Then he turns around and tithes to one of the most socially backwards, openly corrupt churches to be formed in the last 200 years.
If that wasn’t bad enough, he scammed the community into backing a 43 million dollar kickstarter for an exclusive, never-to-be-released-on-audible project. Not even a year after release, he reverses completely and releases everything to audible without even a credit to the backers.
Absolute scam artist. I’m 85% convinced he’s gonna come out with a Salt Lake City “creativity compound” where he’s got a 20 cell sweatshop of indentured “employees” pumping out cosmere drafts. Dude has had creepy Cosby vibes for years and there’s definitely a reason somewhere.
Ok.
I stopped reading Sanderson specifically because he puts out so many books with unnecessarily huge page counts that I just don’t care anymore.
I’m not allergic to long books either, having read the entire WoT series 3+ times. But I’d much rather read stuff that authors have spent time on instead of mass producing.
Remember when GRRM was so pissed that people criticized his friend Robert Jordan for faffing around for over a decade and never finishing the Wheel of Time series? Yeah, same.
He should just get Brandon Sanderson to finish it for him prehumously
I’m curious to see how my boy Sanderson handles a book series that is almost entirely politics. Not to say I haven’t seen Sanderson have politics, Stormlight Archives probably the most political of his many books, but its still not even close to the intensely political nature of ASOIAF.
We all know Sanderson would hit a home run though.
he’s an old man, who finally enjoyed some success late in life, let him enjoy his last days in peace ffs.
You can’t say “I wish they were done” and on the other hand include in his will that the manuscripts be destroyed if he dies and can’t be finished by anyone else.
He had pretty bad experiences with people finishing his ideas
How to kill your fan base by making them wait decades: a GRRM story
Twist the knife with that God awful last few seasons to the show, too. Really kill any good will you had with your fans.
I’m afraid what happened is that he saw the fan reaction as a hate of the major plot points themselves, rather than of the abysmal pacing and handling of it all. We’ve been told that the broad strokes were from his drafts and plans for the series.
Is this community ok with confusing fantasy and science fiction? I thought it was a snob librarian’s thing.
I know some stories mix both, but I don’t think ASOIAF has anything to do with sf.snob librarian’s thing
And I couldn’t figure out why a certain pirate streaming platform does this. I choose scifi category, and it’s filled with fantasy and anime… Your comment might be a clue as to who’s behind the platform. A ring of radical outlaw librarians!
Sci-fi and fantasy are traditionally considered a lower form of fiction/literature which is why the sometimes get lumped together.
Logan Lucky came out in 2017, and this scene is still relevant.
Daniel Craig’s character looked interesting, but this has me wanting to watch the movie now.
Every year this drags on, that scene gets funnier to me.
