Winter is coming... to HBO As always, use spoilers where appropriate (anything in the books the series hasn't caught up to yet).
I am so stupidly excited for this right now. Although every time I saw Martin talking about the series I was shouting "get your fat ass in front of your computer and finish the fucking books before you kick off like Robert Jordan did."
According to a couple of websites, he's got five chapters left to write for Dance of Dragons, so hopefully it's queued up for a 2011 release - however that does not address the following two books! If you go to his website, there's an interview where he discusses the issue of what happens if HBO catches up to you...http://io9.com/5656513/ among other things.
The websites are always wrong. He is so notorious for going back and re-writing, or scrapping whole sections that even if he had 5 chapters left of this version, he could scrap another 10 and take another year or two to write it. Between the TV show and other projects, I doubt we will see the end of ASOIAF before he dies. There are also no extensive notes like Robert Jordan has if we kicks the bucket, so we're pretty much fucked. It's also been made pretty clear that the writes to the books will never be let go to have someone else finish it, either. I am hoping the TV series will give him the extra push to finish it, but I am betting in reality it will just make him write less.
I've been getting emails every few months from amazon telling me about his most recent push-back release date... For like four years. I'll believe it when it hits my mailbox.
Me too. But I'd rather he get it right and keep the quality up than rush it. Still one of my top 5 authors.
I have started to re-read the series in anticipation of this coming out and in hope that maybe by the time I am through all of them again the next book will be out. I am definitely excited to see what they do with this material. From the trailer, it's looking pretty close and I even just read the section with Old Nan talking to Bran about not knowing fear until Winter truly comes.
George RR Martin was one of the first authors I read who really took convention and fucked it right off. Fantasy fiction was a huge thing for me for years - but it was so formulaic after a while - seeing the 'hero' get fucked over or killed constantly in Martin's books while greed, money and self interest rule was like a fucking revelation. Going on to read China Mieville and Richard K Morgan and that sort of dystopian fantasy/sci-fi stuff really drove my passion for fiction back to the forefront. Dystopian models and anti-heroes are a huge thing for me - so I practically jizzed in my pants when I heard this was coming to television and looked like it would be awesome. If it turns out like 'Legend of the Seeker' - I may cry myself to sleep while mailing anthrax laced hate mail to Martin though. Unfortunately I can't see China Mieville's 'Perdido Street Station' making it as a television series - which is a fucking shame, but the Takeshi Kovacs stuff by Richard Morgan would be a fantastic candidate for television adaption. What I'd really love though is Peter F Hamilton's Commonwealth Saga to go into a television show - I've got a hard-on just thinking about that shit. With Thrones, Sean Bean as Eddard is fantastic casting. Mark Addy as Robert.... Not sure. The guy they've cast as Jamie Lannister doesn't really have the look - I would have thought Charlie Hunnam or Chris Hemsworth maybe. Tom Felton (Draco Malfoy) is probably too old now to play Joffrey - but he's always going to be the mental image I have of that character. The trailers look fucking awesome though.
Come on Scootah, have you to get somewhat excited about Peter Dinklage as Tyrion Lannister as well. He would have been my mental image for the character except I saw a really weird adaptation of The Heart is a Lonely Hunter in high school that colored my image of Tyrion 10+ years later. Spoiler Tom Felton would have made a nice cameo as Viserys as well.
I am beyond excited for this, especially when I heard Jane Espenson (from Battlestar Galactica) was attached to write a few of the episodes. My only concern is the pacing of the series. The first book alone has enough material for two or three seasons and unless they skip over a lot of material, I feel they will never get to the third and fourth books: Spoiler I would guess the first episode ends with Bran being pushed from the tower, while the first season finale could be Robert's death, with a second season ending with Dany hatching the dragons and becoming kahl.
For anyone who hasn't already seen this website, the new preview is up: <a class="postlink" href="http://www.makinggameofthrones.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.makinggameofthrones.com/</a>
Fucking finally. Book five's release date will be July 12. Also, a new 2 and a half minute trailer is up on EW.
I've been following this series since its release, this is good news. Unfortunately I think I'll need to do a full re-read, must be 15 years since I read the first book? Full points to HBO for producing the smartest, most engaging and impactful content around at the moment.
Saw this happen 2 or 3 years ago, then he decided to push it back to re-write a bunch of chapters. I'll believe it when I have it in my hands. Although, I am more inclined to believe it this time since they are probably pushing pretty hard to have the new book out with the TV series.
<a class="postlink" href="http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/GameOfThrones" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/GameOfThrones</a> Shitload of good videos on that one. A lot of family profile stuff. Spoiler I'm sad to know they cast someone as cool as Sean Bean to play Eddard Stark, knowing he'll be dead halfway through the first season.
You (or a mod) might want to edit this, not everyone has read the books, and that's a pretty fucking big spoiler.
The first 15 minutes of the pilot are online and HOOOOOOLY SHIT IT IS AWESOME! It is exactly how I pictured the book and from what I remember, it seems to be very faithful (at least to the prologue and first chapter). I cannot wait to see Kings Landing and the Dothraki (and Dany naked). <a class="postlink" href="http://www.makinggameofthrones.com/production-diary/2011/4/3/exclusive-sneak-preview-watch-the-first-few-scenes-of-game-o.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.makinggameofthrones.com/prod ... ame-o.html</a>
If the first season lives up to the promise of that first fifteen minutes, I'll be scooping the jizz out of my pants after every episode. I have never been this optimistic about the potential quality of an adaption where I was already a fan of the books.