Song of Ice and Fire - Official Book 5 Pub Date!

[jonesy]

It's been 9 and a half years since Storm of Swords. Feast didn't really continue much from that. At this rate he'll need 20 years to finish the series.

 

[Rhun]

Sweet! I can't wait to read the next one.

 

[AdmundfortGeographer]

I don't believe anything he says about finishing the book. GRRM has offered too much proof he's full of it on that matter.

To my mind, it's not true until it's on the shelves.

Thankfully I stopped reading the series after the third book, vowing not to touch the rest of any of them until they were all out because he was too much of a flake releasing them unreliably. That's his prerogative.

Because he's taken so friggin long getting them out I'd completely forgotten nearly everything that happened in the first three book by the time book four was released. If I'm going to have to reread each book in the series all over again just so I'm not in the dark with the new one, I'm just going to wait until they are all out so I can read them together.

And I might not either, I'm getting bored with it now.

 

[dangerous jack]

I won't be rushing to buy this one, which saddens me. But I had a tough time with the last one because I no longer remembered who the characters were, or what they were doing. It is still extremely skilled and engaging writing, but has fallen off from being brilliant storytelling.

That said, as soon as the final book is out, I will be rushing to read them all.

 

[Stumblewyk]

Excellent...

 

[HandofMystra]

Well, I am both excited and will also have to reread the whole damn thing. Maybe not the whole thing, I reread AGoT a couple of years ago so it seems rather fresh and the HBO will help.

[sblock=spoiler][MENTION=13085]Steel[/MENTION]-Wind Did Stannis take the Black? It seems reasonable, the last that I remember though was that he was fleeing his castle and that red woman ...[/sblock]

 

[Spatula]

I read A Feast for Crows when it came out and realized that I couldn't remember everything that had been going on. And then release date after release date came and went while Martin kept saying, "No, that wasn't a release date, this is a release date"- and he's doing it again.

Not to mention that (IIRC), Martin writes in the hardcover Feast for Crows, when explaining why half the characters wouldn't be appearing in it, that the next book was pretty much already written and mostly just needed editing.

That was 5 and a half years ago. And it took him 5 years to write FFC.

I'm really excited by this news - I thought GRRM had basically given up on ever putting another book out - but his lack of output has taken away any trust I had in him finishing the series. Which is fine. Books 1-3 stand perfectly fine on their own, and are a great read.

 

[Puggins]

Well, I am both excited and will also have to reread the whole damn thing. Maybe not the whole thing, I reread AGoT a couple of years ago so it seems rather fresh and the HBO will help.

[sblock=spoiler][MENTION=13085]Steel[/MENTION]-Wind Did Stannis take the Black? It seems reasonable, the last that I remember though was that he was fleeing his castle and that red woman ...[/sblock]

You're a bit behind regarding what's happening on the Wall, Hand. If you want a bit of catch-up regarding Stannis, read on...

[sblock=spoiler]Stannis took Davros' advice and marched his army north to help defend the wall. Davros is the only person of influence to take the appeals for help from the Nightwatch seriously, and his advice saved the wall from being taken by Mance Rayder.

Stannis fell upon Mance's army as Mance was assaulting the Gate at castle black (the red priestess, Melisandra, accompanied him). Mance was routed and captured, Stannis subsequently took up residence at castle black as the king. He offered to free Jon Snow of his vows to the Nightwatch and to make Snow the rightful lord of Winterfell. Thus far, Jon has refused.

Jon has packed up Maester Aemon (who was a Targaryen before taking the black) and Mance Rayder's son and sent them south with Samwell Tarly in an effort to deny Melisandra a sacrifice of royal blood. Aemon died along the way, Sam made it to the Citadel, where we last saw him (unknowingly) in the company of the Faceless Man who Arya saved in A Game of Thrones.[/sblock]

That's pretty much where we're at. Can't wait for it, personally.

 

[Azgulor]

Despite disturbing the poor, dead horse, I'll go on record again to say that I really don't care if it's ever finished, I've enjoyed each book so much that the pleasure of simply reading them has far, far outweighed any concern over final resolution. They're so drastically better than any of the hundreds of fantasy books I've read that the sheer reading pleasure is more than enough.

I appreciate that not everyone feels the same and that resolution is a big deal for a lot of folks, but it sure never stopped me from loving and sharing Firefly long before Serenity, for instance.

I worry less about series completion so long as the book can stand alone. Too often with this style of series, however, we increasingly see characters left in cliffhanger-style situations. For me, this is the primary reason to wait for a series to be released in full before diving into it.

That said, I've loved every book so far.

I do think he really damaged the brand & his reputation with the ridiculous delays. From the looks of the TV series, I think it'll reinvigorate the fans and draw new ones in, which is great. However, if he thought he was under pressure to finish before, I can definitely see this shaping up as a "Be careful what you wish for" scenario.


Sidenote: It still amazes me, however, that I can cherish these books so much yet cringe at 90% of what he says in interviews & blogs. The "so distraught at the election I can't write" crap almost made me sell off the books that had been released. Man up & write already or at least stop making excuses!

 

[mac1504]

I am cautiously optimistic of this news; I will be happy to have a good summer book to read. As far as catching up, I personally just slip in the audio books into my commute. I did that before reading a FFC.

Also, they released a new trailer for the HBO series yesterday as well:

The best 'Game of Thrones' trailer yet -- EXCLUSIVE | Inside TV | EW.com