Next GRRM Book?

[Teflon Billy]

She put it down in disgust after only reading the half of it, and she was skimming the last few hundred pages she did "read". Very disillusioned with almost everything about the book. Too many uninteresting characters doing too many uninteresting things for hundreds of pages.

My feelings exactly. I couldn't beleive that he was releasing a book in the series based on the premise "I wonder hwat the people you don't give a damn about were doing?", but I thought he would be able to pull it off.

He didn't.

I was a huge fan of the first three. Huge. But I haven;t finished the fourht yet and frankly am in no great rush to do so. I'll finish it as a lead-in to the next one, but if it's no good either, that'll be it for me and the series.

 

[Hypersmurf]

Five years? Feh. I've been waiting for Janissaries IV from Jerry Pournelle since 1987.

He's been saying it's 'nearly finished' on his website since about 1998.

On the other hand, I waited for Blackcollar III from Timothy Zahn for nearly as long... and he wrote it!

-Hyp.

 

[takyris]

My feelings exactly. I couldn't beleive that he was releasing a book in the series based on the premise "I wonder hwat the people you don't give a damn about were doing?", but I thought he would be able to pull it off.

Ditto.

He could have pared it down to one page per person (and one sentence for Arya).

Everyone in Kingdom: Hey, Cersei, whatever you do, don't press that big button marked "Mess up Kingdom"!

Cersei: Haha! You're only saying that because you don't want me to become more powerful than you are! But I'll show you! I'll show you all! You'd respect me if I were a man!

Everyone in Kingdom: Um, you didn't just press the button, did you?

Cersei: Maybe once or twice.

Everyone in Kingdom: Crap.

Meanwhile, Elsewhere!

Brienne: I think the Stark girl might be up here!

Reader: No.

Brienne: Hm, maybe I'll go over this way.

Reader: No, she's with Littlefinger.

Brienne: What if I walked over here with these untrustworthy people?

Reader: Look, you were the one example of a strong warrior-woman in the book. And, no offense to you, but watching you walk in what we know to be the wrong direction because we read it in the other book, is, well, not heroic.

Brienne: Okay, I've been captured, but I'm sure it'll be okay. Any minute now, I'll find the Stark girl.

Reader: Oh, for goodness sake.

Elsewhere Elsewhere

Three Different People in Identical Plots: Soon, I will be king! Haha, nobody will see this coming! You see, after the battle, there's a FEAST for CROWS!

Reader: Right. Title. Gotcha.

Three Different People in Identical Plots: Nobody is going to see this coming. My plan is foolproof!

Reader: Uh-huh.

Three Different People in Identical Plots: Also, I'm going to toss in some ambiguity over gender relations, just to kind of mess with you!

Reader: Could we just skip forward to the comeuppance?

Three Different People in Identical Plots: Holy Killed-Offscreen Beric, a comeuppance! Who could have seen this coming?

Reader: Well, us, for starters. Because we saw it coming in the other two identical plots.

 

[Nifft]

Ditto.

He could have pared it down to one page per person (and one sentence for Arya).

Everyone in Kingdom: Hey, Cersei, whatever you do, don't press that big button marked "Mess up Kingdom"!

Cersei: Haha! You're only saying that because you don't want me to become more powerful than you are! But I'll show you! I'll show you all! You'd respect me if I were a man!

Everyone in Kingdom: Um, you didn't just press the button, did you?

Cersei: Maybe once or twice.

Everyone in Kingdom: Crap.

Meanwhile, Elsewhere!

Brienne: I think the Stark girl might be up here!

Reader: No.

Brienne: Hm, maybe I'll go over this way.

Reader: No, she's with Littlefinger.

Brienne: What if I walked over here with these untrustworthy people?

Reader: Look, you were the one example of a strong warrior-woman in the book. And, no offense to you, but watching you walk in what we know to be the wrong direction because we read it in the other book, is, well, not heroic.

Brienne: Okay, I've been captured, but I'm sure it'll be okay. Any minute now, I'll find the Stark girl.

Reader: Oh, for goodness sake.

Elsewhere Elsewhere

Three Different People in Identical Plots: Soon, I will be king! Haha, nobody will see this coming! You see, after the battle, there's a FEAST for CROWS!

Reader: Right. Title. Gotcha.

Three Different People in Identical Plots: Nobody is going to see this coming. My plan is foolproof!

Reader: Uh-huh.

Three Different People in Identical Plots: Also, I'm going to toss in some ambiguity over gender relations, just to kind of mess with you!

Reader: Could we just skip forward to the comeuppance?

Three Different People in Identical Plots: Holy Killed-Offscreen Beric, a comeuppance! Who could have seen this coming?

Reader: Well, us, for starters. Because we saw it coming in the other two identical plots.

QFP.

Also, I want to hear Arya's sentence.

Thanks, -- N

 

[Fast Learner]

Well, I'm 42 and am a fairly patient guy. It has nothing to do with either of those, at least not for me.

I'm perfectly happy waiting for books from Guy Kay or Steven Brust, but most of those books are fairly self contained. GRRM's books are not. If Brust stopped writing today, we'd not need to wonder what happened to Vlad. If GRRM stops writing, or dies, or takes 15 years, we may ALL wonder how it ended.

I'm also 42. Maybe it's just the difference between "fairly patient" and "very patient."

 

[Fast Learner]

He could have pared it down to one page per person (and one sentence for Arya).

Yeah, that really sucks. Just like that dumb Romeo and Juliet, or that New Testament, or any other book ever written. Makes reading a complete waste of time, really, since you could just summarize it.

 

[JoeGKushner]

I'm curious, do you watch any television shows before the end the series? Did you watch PotCMC even though it would be a year before the next one?

No criticism intended, I just don't follow the reasoning when it comes to book series.

Depends on the show. If there were years delays between shows, I'd probably forget about them.

I'm not a huge tv watcher though. People keep telling me about stuff like Lost, Grey's Anatomy, Alias, etc... and I figure it's just easier to get 'em when they come out on DVD if I'm interested in that genre. Less commercials and fewer interruptions and I can follow the plots a lot easier.

 

[satori01]

To each their own. While I would say Feast of Crows is the weakest of the 4 books, I do not think it is a bad book. Certainly it is no Egwene Takes a Bath for 100 pages that Robert Jordan puts out semi regularly now.

No Tyrion and no Jon Snow and no Daernys = people not reading about their favorite characters. I myself like reading about Cersei's downfall, I like reading about Jamie, his redemption and his attitudes,(and at first I hated the inclusion of Jamie as a POV character), I find Briene semi interesting, and if she is dead, than no more blurbs about her, certainly seemed like she was slotted to be romaticly linked with Jamie.

Arya is not my favortie character,(I actually like the Sansa POV better), but found her sections had enough mystery, and that the Face Dancers were different than I susposed. The Sansa sections are really disturbing...Littlefinger is wicked, and totaly screwing with Sansa.

Overall good fun with GRRM, people suffer, get their lives screwed up, and die.

 

[takyris]

Yeah, that really sucks. Just like that dumb Romeo and Juliet, or that New Testament, or any other book ever written. Makes reading a complete waste of time, really, since you could just summarize it.

I didn't offer to do a mocking summary of the New Testament. You're confusing cause and effect.

Cause: Lame Book
Effect: Tacky gets parodic

I don't parody things that I enjoy. As much.

Also: still buying the books. Even if the next book, "An Ignominiousness of Infodumps", doesn't work for me, I'll trust that once he gets the exposition out of his system, he'll pick up where he left off

To each their own. While I would say Feast of Crows is the weakest of the 4 books, I do not think it is a bad book. Certainly it is no Egwene Takes a Bath for 100 pages that Robert Jordan puts out semi regularly now.

Hah!

My concern here is that your defense is "It's not as bad as the latest thing Jordan has put out." I stopped reading Jordan about four books ago.

Also, I want to hear Arya's sentence.

It's actually in the form of a haiku:

With so little text
Devoted to Arya,
It's hard to build char-

 

[Cor Azer]

Ditto.

He could have pared it down to one page per person (and one sentence for Arya).

<snip>

Where's Jaime's chapters/page/sentence?

In a bit more seriousness, I did enjoy Feast quite a bit; it's not my favorite, but it wasn't bad. Something that's striking my thoughts right now though, is that the series is kind of like a D&D campaign that the DM's trying to bring back on track, but the PCs keep following the wrong clues...

DM: Ok, guys, there's a big army of somethings called the Others building north of the Wall, what do you do?

Player: I wonder what's going on at Crackclaw Point?

DM: Um... nothing much. So... north of the Wall...

Player: Oh really? What if we look over here?

DM: Nothing there either... you get captured. Will you take the proper quest or not?

GRRM needs to learn some railroading