For George R. R. Martin Fans

No! He’s NOT getting his ass into gear to continue/ inch the series towards completion.
(The last update on his blog, in that regard, is dated Jan 1, 2008.)

BUT… HBO’s gotten its magnificent dramatists to work on a series.

The Game of Thones should be out in mid 2011

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJR3eBfcusM&feature=player_detailpage!

oooh, I guess I’m going to have to go back and re-read the books…
It would be nice if he would get his ass in gear. That’s why I hate starting half-finished series…

i guess the TV show will have to make up for the series. The last one was getting waaaaaay too dispersed, as the above post alluded too. he needs to reel it back in a bit and not introduce any more characters. I needed a family tree/map just to keep up with who was who. Won’t make for good TV. Let’s see who makes the cut. Hopefully not Brienne.

A release date! July 12th. For real. Chapters written, publisher’s seen it, simply proofreading now. Hardcover over 900 pages: maybe longer than A Storm of Swords.

Info gleaned from Sword and Laser podcast.

hmmm, I’ll believe it when I see it.
Here’s hoping though :slight_smile:

Couldn’t agree more. I absolutely loved the first two books, but after that the story started to get muddled and drag on. I couldn’t even finish the last book. I’ve got high hopes for the series, HBO usually makes good stuff.

It’s great to see that GRRM has gotten back into the game… assuming that the book is a good 'un.

Next media has a new animation on George RR Martin.

Long LA Times article here. Looking forward to this. Hoping it’ll be better than Rome.

So has anyone else seen the first episode of “Game of Thrones” yet? I just finished watching it, and it seemed OK: note that I haven’t read the books, so I can’t judge them from that perspective. (“Wheel of Time” had me vowing to never again start another unfinished series.) However, I may be somewhat biased in that I for some reason find Sean Bean watchable in pretty much anything.

What worries me is that it seems all plot and not much character: the Imp fellow is the only one so far who isn’t rather cliched, but there’s lots of time for development yet.

Note that this is absolutely not fantasy that you could show the little ones. A pair of bloody beheadings in the first few minutes, and lots of more appealing pairs jiggling around throughout. Apparently the missionary position doesn’t exist in this fantasy world.

I’m glad to see novels being filmed for TV serials rather than for movies. I wish they’d done Harry Potter that way. (Um, I mention Harry Potter way too soon after “missionary position”, but oh well…)

Why do dorklit writers always double up on the Rs as a middle initial?

Because they gotta even out dorkscreenplay writers like George “No Middle Initials At All” Lucas.

My working theory, anyway.

R.R. initial: homage to Tolkein. Obviously, D.D.

Heard on a podcast that Dance with Dragons weighs in at 1,500 pages, and of that…

at least half deals with Daenerys.

Hardly a surprise re: the spoiler. Book 4 focussed on King’s Landing, and Book 5 will be what was happening at the same time everywhere else; it probably won’t move the grand narrative too far forward.

I fear we’ll see nothing of Arya in Book 5 - who knows how long we’ll have to wait to find out what’s happening to her. I do hope to find out what’s the deal with both of the Clegane brothers.

That’d be too bad. Arya’s a favorite. And I think the Cleganes are settled matters.

I am loving this show. It’s brutal as hell and pulls no punches. All the characters are awesome even though the majority are scum (everyone spit of Joffrey now), and it just looks ravishing. I really hope that this goes on for more that just two seasons (it’s just been picked up for a second). I really want to see Joffrey get his comeuppance.

The show’s turned out pretty well. I think I like all of the actors now, although it took a while for me with the guy who plays Jon. Mormont father and son are both terrific, as is Joffrey. Not enough of the Hound, however.

God knows how non-readers are keeping track of the politics or the characters: we’ve got central political figures like Stannis that haven’t even appeared on screen yet, and other “key” characters (the Nightwatch guy who helps out Arya) disappear for weeks at a time. And I really don’t know how a TV show is going to leave the mysteries of “Who tried to stab Bran?”, or “Who killed Jon Arryn of the Vale?” hanging for so long - we don’t find out the answer to the latter until book four, do we? Most viewers will have forgotten there’s even a mystery by then.

The ending was solid: good cliffhangers for almost all the characters. Dragons looked fine; I hope they find the budget for CGI direwolves next season.

Jaboney: I really doubt the Cleganes are settled…

[spoiler]There’s the giant lame guy who gets along with dogs at the island monastery; and there’s Cersei’s seriously twisted master of whispers, with his Frankensteinish experiments in the dungeons, placing an order for the largest armour breastplate ever made.

I did hear somewhere that Arya will be in Book 5, thank goodness: she’s one of my favourites too.[/spoiler]
(Nerding out over.)

Next book’s out Tuesday.

Early reviews are saying it’s the best book in the series, to date.