140 replies to this topic

[Werthead]

LATEST UPDATE: General update on everything.

I have noticed that a few newcomers we get around here don't seem to realise the increasingly large amount of ancilliary material about the series that is available, so putting up a list of all the materials related to ASoIaF seemed like a good move.

THE NOVELS
If you are here and haven't read these books, something has gone wrong somewhere. Rectify your mistake immediately! [img]http://asoiaf.wester...t/wink.gif[/img]

A Game of Thrones (1996)
A Clash of Kings (1998)
A Storm of Swords (2000 - published in some territories as two volumes in paperback)
A Feast for Crows (2005)
A Dance with Dragons (2011)
The Winds of Winter (forthcoming)
A Dream of Spring (forthcoming)

Note that the novels have been converted into illustrated limited editions, the first two by Meisha Merlin and the latter books by Subterrenean Press. A graphic novel adaptation of A Game of Thrones is currently underway, with the adaptation being published as both monthly installments and as multiple graphic novels (the first of which is now available).

THE SHORT STORIES & GRAPHIC NOVELS
These short novellas (roughly 100 pages each) form an ongoing serial which begins 89 years before A Game of Thrones and is expected (but not confirmed) to run through to about 39 years before AGoT. They chronicle the adventures of the hedge knight, Ser Duncan the Tall ('Dunk') and his young squire, 'Egg'. George RR Martin has said that there could be as many as nine to twelve of these stories.

The Hedge Knight (1998)
The Sworn Sword (2003)
The Mystery Knight (2010)
The She-Wolves of Winterfell (forthcoming)

The Hedge Knight was first published in the Legends anthology edited by Robert Silverberg. This book has been re-issued in the UK and is generally available on Amazon and eBay. MAKE SURE YOU BUY THE BOOK WITH 11 STORIES, NOT THE EDITION WITH 4 STORIES. There is a wonderfully-illustrated graphic novel version by Dabel Brothers which is available now and has recently been reissued in hardcover. Additionally, the prose version of The Hedge Knight is back in print in GRRM: A RRetrospective by Subterranean Press and its mass-market edition, entitled Dreamsongs: A RRetrospective, which is published in the UK by Gollancz. The US edition by Bantam is split into two volumes: The Hedge Knight is in the second one.

It should be pointed out that Legends, although not a large volume, was split into three volumes when published in paperback in the United States. The Hedge Knight is found inside the US volume entitled 'Volume II' with a green cover. It was split into two volumes when published in paperback in the United Kingdom. The Hedge Knight is found inside the UK volume with the blue spine and the Terry Pratchett cover (it seems to have no number or subtitle). If ordering a copy, ensure that you are ordering the right one!

The Sworn Sword was first published in the Legends II anthology, also by Robert Silverberg. A graphic novel adaption by the same team as the first is available.

Legends II was also split into three volumes for US paperback publication. The Sworn Sword is found inside the volume entitled Legends II: Dragon, Sword and King. However, the UK paperback edition was published in one volume.

The third 'Dunk & Egg' story, The Mystery Knight was published in an anthology called Warriors, edited by Gardner Dozois and GRRM in March 2010.

The fourth Dunk & Egg story, tentatively titled The She-Wolves of Winterfell, will be published in a forthcoming anthology edited by Dozois and GRRM. The working title for that anthology is Dangerous Women and should be out in the summer of 2013.

The first four stories will be collected in one volume for publication in mid-to-late 2014 at the earliest.


THE COMPANION BOOK

The World of Ice and Fire (2013)
The companion book for the setting is currently in the planning stages and will be co-written by GRRM and Elio 'Ran' Garcia and Linda Antonsson, whose credentials as masters of all things Westeros are well-founded: they are the admins of this very site and their mighty on-line concordance has served as a reference for GRRM himself when he wants to look up facts in a hurry. Discussion of the world book and what will go in it is ongoing at this location. The book is tentatively scheduled for November 2013, but this is not a final date.


THE MAP COLLECTION

The Lands of Ice and Fire (2012)
This collection of 12 large poster maps - designed by George R.R. Martin and realised by cartographer Jonathan Roberts - features the first canon maps of central and eastern Essos, including the Dothraki Sea, Red Waste, Qarth, Jhogos Nhai, Asshai, Jade Sea and Shadow Lands. Also included are maps of Westeros, the Free Cities, the lands beyond the Wall, Slaver's Bay, the Summer Islands and city maps of King's Landing and Braavos.


THE ROLEPLAYING GAME

A Game of Thrones: The Roleplaying Game (2005)
This handsome book was created by Guardians of Order and distributed by White Wolf. It contains some fantastic artwork, a great concordenance of information on the Seven Kingdoms (including new, GRRM-penned information not seen elsewhere) and a complete roleplaying game based on the D20 system. Sadly, Guardians of Order folded before any of the planned expansions could be written, although a strong fan community is thriving at this location.

A Song of Ice and Fire: The Roleplaying Game (2009)
This new version of the RPG was created and published by Green Ronin and remains an ongoing system. They have released several expansions, including an adventure set in King's Landing and a more detailed account of the Night's Watch.


THE TV SERIES

Game of Thrones is the television series based on the novels. It is produced by the HBO cable channel, with D.B. Weiss and David Benioff serving as showrunners and main writers. There are ten 50-65-minute episodes per season. George R.R. Martin has so far written one script for each season of the show. The third season will begin airing in the USA on 31 March 2013.

Though closely based on the books, the TV series does change some things for budgetary and cast availability reasons.


THE ART BOOK

The Art of Ice and Fire (2005)
The Art of Ice and Fire, Volume II (2011)

These books from Fantasy Flight collects a huge amount of art from various sources and websites, including the CCG, board game and more.


THE BOARD GAMES

A Game of Thrones: The Boardgame (2003)
A Clash of Kings Expansion (2004)
A Storm of Swords Expansion (2006)

The Game of Thrones boardgame is published by Fantasy Flight Games and is a tactical battle game in the vein of Risk or Diplomacy. Players take the role of the one of the Great Houses in Westeros and battle for control of the Iron Throne. The Clash of Kings expansion adds siege rules and House Martell to the mix, whilst the Storm of Swords expansion adds new rules and a new battlemap focusing on combat in the Riverlands.


Battles of Westeros (2010)
Also by Fantasy Flight, this is a modular wargame based on battles in the ASoIaF setting. Several expansions have been released, one each for the Great Houses (lacking the Dornish and ironborn so far) and the Brotherhood Without Banners.


THE CCG

The Game of Thrones collectible card game by Fantasy Flight is one of the most successful in the business and has been running strongly for many years. There are frankly too many sets and game packs to list here, so follow the link for more information.


MUSIC

Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels may have a jokey companion CD of psychotic morris dancers, whilst Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time novels have an accompanying 'new world' music collection, but ASoIaF has its very own dedicated metal band: Winterfell! The band are on indefinite hiatus at the moment, but promise to return. So, if you've ever felt like listening to heavy rock music about the lone wolf surviving or the waves of the Narrow Sea, your tastes are catered for. Note that the band is purely unofficial and does not have the GRRM seal of approval.


COMPUTER GAMES

A Game of Thrones: Genesis (2011)
This is a strategy game, created by Cyanide Studios. In it, the player takes control of one of the Great Houses and wages war on many fronts (economical and political as well as raising armies) to gain the Iron Throne. The game was very heavily criticised on release for its production values, slow pace of play and poor interface, but has been praised for emphasising political intrigue, marriages and assassinations as well warfare.

Game of Thrones: The Roleplaying Game (2012)
The roleplaying game, also by Cyanide Studios, is a story-focused game set just before and during the events of A Game of Thrones. The game sees the player controlling two characters in different parts of Westeros as they follow separate storylines that slowly merge. Again, the game has been criticised for some dubious production values but has been much more strongly received overall than the strategy game. The intricate plot, complex characterisation of the two leads and several startling plot twists have all received high praise.

Seven Kingdoms (2013)
A forthcoming browser-based multiplayer game from Big Point Studios.

Mods
Fan-made, non-profit 'mods' for several games, including Neverwinter Nights 1 and 2, Crusader Kings 1, Minecraft and Mount & Blade are frequently discussed or proposed in the Objects of Ice and Fire thread of this board.

A mod is under construction for Medieval 2: Total War. Discussion is currently underway at this location. When complete, the mod will allow the player to take control of one of the main factions of Westeros and engage in a battle for control of the Seven Kingdoms. A mod is also under construction for Crusader Kings II.


NON-ASoIaF GRRM WORKS

George RR Martin has written more than just A Song of Ice and Fire in his 35+ year career. What follows is a listing of his other works.

Novels
Dying of the Light (1977)
Windhaven (1981, with Lisa Tuttle)
Fevre Dream (1982)
The Armageddon Rag (1983)
Tuf Voyaging (1987, actually a 'fixup' of several linked short stories)
Shadow Twin (2005, a novella cowritten with Gardner Dozois and Daniel Abraham over a period of many years)
The Ice Dragon (2006, reprinting of a 1979 story in a children's book edition)
Hunter's Run (2007, the expanded, novel-length version of Shadow Twin)

Short Story Collections
A Song for Lya (1976)
Songs of Stars and Shadows (1977)
Sandkings (1981)
Songs the Dead Men Sing (1983)
Nightflyers (1985)
Portraits of His Children (1987)
Quartet (2001)
Dreamsongs: A RRetrospective (2003, mass-market edition 2006)

Dreamsongs collects together many of the short stories and novellas from the earlier collections, as well as the pilot script for the unproduced 1991 TV series Doorways. The Hedge Knight is also included.

Wild Cards
George RR Martin is the editor of a shared world anthology series revolving around the adventures and antics of a group of superheroes. This series has extended to more than twenty anthologies and novels, many featuring GRRM's work and virtually all edited by him. There has also been a roleplaying game based upon them, with a new edition by Green Ronin on the way. New additions to the series, again edited by George, are ongoing. The series has also been optioned as a film series. Read more about Wild Cards here.

Wild Cards (1987)
Aces High (1987)
Jokers Wild (1987)
Aces Abroad (1988)
Down and Dirty (1988)
Ace in the Hole (1990)
Dead Man's Hand (1990)
One-Eyed Jacks (1991)
Jokertown Shuffle (1991)
Double Solitaire (1992) - a full-length novel by Melinda Snodgrass
Dealer's Choice (1992)
Turn of the Cards (1993) - a full-length novel by Victor Milan
Card Sharks (1993)
Marked Cards (1994)
Black Trump (1995)
Deuces Down (2002)
Death Draws Five (2005) - a full-length novel by John J. Miller
Inside Straight (2007)
Busted Flush (2008)
Suicide Kings (2009)
Fort Freak (2011)
Lowball (forthcoming)
High Stakes (forthcoming)

The Low Call (2011) - graphic novel written by Daniel Abraham

TV
GRRM was writer, script editor and producer for various Hollywood TV and movie projects, most notably the 1980s iteration of The New Twilight Zone and the Linda Hamilton/Ron Perlman series Beauty and the Beast. His short story Sandkings was also adapted as an episode of The Outer Limits in 1995.

Edited by Werthead, 06 January 2013 - 11:54 AM.

[Ser Condi]

Werthead, on Oct 5 2006, 18.34, said:

A graphic novel version of A Game of Thrones is in the planning stages by Dabel Brothers.

Where did you find out about this? A comic book aGoT would be soooo amazingly sweet!

[Werthead]

Dabel Brothers told us :) Although it's not a signed deal with George yet, I believe, but they are planning to do it after The Sworn Sword. And yes, the length of it is causing them some headaches. They even seemed to be suggesting they might not be able to do it as a monthly comic (at a rough guess - by me - it would take about 45-50 issues at an absolute minimum just to do the first book), which would suggest they'd have to do it with a rotating team of artists (who can work on different sections simultaneously). It would be a massive project and I think how successful The Sworn Sword is next year will play a factor in them deciding how they're going to proceed.

Edited by Werthead, 08 October 2006 - 06:23 PM.

[Lies And Perfidy]

Oh man, Winterfell! I used to chat with their singer Robb on the old Iced Earth message board, before I ever read ASOIAF. I actually got offered their drummer slot once but it would have been too far a move for me at the time. :\ Real cool guy, I hope he can get the band back together. I'm gonna have to buy that album...

[The Wolf Maid]

A Game of Thrones Graphic novel?

I think I just died and went to heaven.

[jannedaarc1]

Thanks so much for the additional info out there.  I simply have not had a lot of time to research all the other resources out there that exist for this amazing series.  But since you have so readily provided me w/ some of them I shall make a greater effort to do so.  I hope that the thread I started that outlines in the simplest of terms my theory for the end comes true in which case I'm taking everyone out to the bars.  

Forgive this off topic comment but Wolf Maiden: obviously you are quite the fan of Goodkind.  I have introduced about a dozen people to the series including my lady-type.  I love certain aspects of it but good grief - what is your opinion on such things as the story threads he has dropped like the Gars and Mriswrith?  Where he hell did they go?  And Scarlet?  Yeah, there is argument that the large bone structure he saw when journeying down south could have been her but what a pathetic way to go...I mean, if that was true, come on Terry.  Hell, even if they do all show up at the end it would really strike me as Terry whipping something out of his ass.  Also, it felt like he created this -huge- world that could happen to Richard and Kahlan.  In my opinion howver, it just really kept getting shaved down and down in size and scope until basically it felt like we as readers had complete and total blinders on and all the more of the world we could see was what isolated events happened to the four or five main characters.  

I really like the series on many fronts but have become very disappointed w/ a number of aspects w/ it.  I would really like your opinion on the series.  Looking forward to it.

[A wilding]

jannedaarc1, on Apr 13 2007, 03.10, said:

Forgive this off topic comment but Wolf Maiden: obviously you are quite the fan of Goodkind.

:lol:

Since no one else has, allow me to direct your attention to this thread Goodkind XVI, and its fifteen predecessors.

;)

[jannedaarc1]

Ok, I'll go there...being a newb sucks...*softly shuffles away from TG comment, acting like he doesn't have anything to do w/ it*

[GhostsofWinterfell]

I just wanna say thanks for all of the great materials relating to ASoIaF! I was just introduced to the series and it quickly became my favorite of all time! I just wanted to let everyone know that HBO recently aquired the rights to make a series out of the books (I didn't see this mentioned, so I thought I'd let everyone know). It should be interesting to see how they interpret this fantastic series... here's a link to the article about the aquisition Variety Article

[RedDeath9]

OMG.

My band was supposed to be named Winterfell :(...

[sholtzma]

FWIW, I have enjoyed the graphic novels (i.e. COMIC BOOKS) immensely.  I first listened to The Hedge Knight on audiobook, then bought the hardcover-bound graphic novel of the same.  It will remain in my book collection always.  The Sworn Sword has three "chapters" out currently, and I have ordered the brand new #4 from my local comic book store.  I also listened to The Sworn Sword as an audiobook from Audible before getting the first three comic books.  If you like ASOIAF, you must read the pre-date short stories.  

If they do ASOIAF in graphic novel format, I will also have died and gone to heaven.  Can't imagine anything better other than a major motion picture.

[xerobull]

Didn't see this in the Bibliography, under Video Games:

Fan Made Civilization 4 (Warlords Expansion) ASOIAF Mod

[About Yea High]

RedDeath9, on Jan 18 2008, 19.58, said:

OMG.

My band was supposed to be named Winterfell :(...

I think Dolorous Edd is still unclaimed, as far as band names go...

(What, I would.)

[Blue]

Oh man, I that is freaking sweet about Winterfell.  I had no idea there was a metal band based on the series!  When I read that paragraph, I lmao, and my bro, who is sitting in my room playing Fallout 3, was like, whats so fun- oh damn it Andrew, you caused me to die, whats so funny?  And I read him the paragraph, and we both started laughing, and he died again, haha.  Anyways, I looked em up on iTunes, and you know they wanted 10 bucks for their album Winter is Coming?  I mean, wtf, it only has 4 songs!  So I bought the 3 that I could, cause one is an album only buy, and started listening.  They are amazing!  I am so sad to hear that the band has broken up, and I hope that they get it back going again, I love it so much.  Reminds me so much of Iced Earth, it rules!

[Son of Abbath]

There is also a ASoFaI themed band by the name of "Skagos"
Skagos

[Tamyrlin Belgarion Targaryen Rahl]

Thank you for all the Wild Card titles, I hope to collect them all... or at least read them all. I think I might have read the first book of that series before I started ASoIaF.

[israfel070]

I've often wondered why we haven't seen more Ice and Fire Rock, like other fandoms have enjoyed... I'd buy multiple copies of a record by 'Dany and the Dragons' or 'Eddard and the Wolves'...

[Werthead]

This post and thread is an attempt to put together the 'factual' history (i.e. of the writing of the series) of A Song of Ice and Fire, something I know has been mooted a few times. I dare say this initial post will be much-edited as we get more info and refine things, but this is, as a rough overview, how things have gone down.

Long Ago
George RR Martin collected toy knights and castles as a child, upgrading to more professional models as he got older. Some of his earliest stories and attempts at fiction in a fantasy world resulted in names thatany ASoIaF fan will find familiar: Prince R'hllor of Raugg and his boisterous, swaggering companion, Argilac the Arrogant were the heroes of a story called Dark Gods of Kor-Yuban (never published). In a planned but never-written sequel, Argilac teams up with Barron, the Bloody Blade of the Dothrak Empire, to slay the winged demons who killed Barron's grandfather, Barristan the Bold.

Years later, GRRM reused some of these names in his fantasy series: R'hllor is, of course, the red god of Essos; Argilac the Arrogant was the last Storm King slain by Orys Baratheon during Aegon's Conquest; the Dothrak Empire obviously was recast as the Dothraki khalasars; and Barristan the Bold transformed into Ser Barristan Selmy of the Kingsguard. More on this can be found in GRRM's essay, 'The Heirs of Turtle Castle', in Dreamsongs.

Career Divergence
In 1983 George RR Martin was a successful author, thanks to the immense success of Fevre Dream, a horror novel about vampires on the Mississippi after the American Civil War. In that year he published The Armageddon Rag, his next novel, about a rock band called the Nazgul and fantastical events surrounding their attempt to reform for a new tour. Whilst very well reviewed and nominated for major awards, the novel bombed commercially and Martin felt that it had almost killed his literary career. He abandoned work on his novel-in-progress, Black and White and Red All Over (the extant material can be found in his collection Quartet) and ended up working in Hollywood, on The New Twilight Zone (1985-89; Martin worked on the first two seasons). In 1987 he moved to Beauty and the Beast, an urban fantasy series set in New York, and worked as a producer, scriptwriter and script editor. He worked on all three seasons of the show before it was cancelled in early 1990.

Whilst working in Hollywood, Martin kept his hand in with fiction, publishing Tuf Voyaging (a fix-up novel of previously-published short stories and novellas, with some new material) in 1986 and beginning the Wild Cards series of 'mosaic novels' (short stories by different authors held together by a tight continuity) in 1987. These works sold quite well, with Wild Cards going on to become a major success, restoring Martin's reputation in the literary SF world.

A Beheading
After Beauty and the Beast's cancellation Martin worked on some pilots and other projects which never made it to the screen. Feeling frustrated creatively in Hollywood (despite being well-paid), Martin returned home to Santa Fe to work on a new novel, Avalon, an epic SF book set in his 'Thousand Worlds' mileu. In 1991, whilst work on Avalon was proceeding satisfactorily, Martin was suddenly struck by the image of a man being beheaded whilst a young boy watched. He wrote the scene and found it expanding into a second chapter and then a third. He was initially unsure if this new work was a short story, a novella, a novel or possibly even more than that. He ended up writing over 100 manuscript pages before he received a telephone call from Hollywood: a pilot script he had been working on, Doorways, had been put into development by the studio.

Abandoning work on the new book, Martin decamped to Hollywood to work on the Doorways project for about two years. During this time he found himself thinking about the story, wondering what Tyrion Lannister's story was going to be whilst attending casting sessions and so on. After Doorway's pilot failed to impress the networks, he returned to Santa Fe in 1993 and resumed work on the book. For a time he considered writing a book set in a fictional world but with no fantastical elements. He reconsidered after a talk with his friend and colleague Phyllis Eisenstein, who urged him to 'put the dragons in' and make it a broad, sweeping fantasy epic. By this time he had decided that the series was going to be a trilogy called A Song of Ice and Fire, consisting of the novels A Game of Thrones, A Dance with Dragons and The Winds of Winter. His agent began shopping the project around and it sold to Bantam in the USA and, after a fierce bidding war, to HarperCollins in the UK for the impressive sum of £450,000 (over $600,000 at the time).

Expanding the Series and Splitting Books
By late 1995 or early 1996, A Game of Thrones had ballooned into a massive novel, more than 1,200 manuscript pages in length. Martin had planned to end the first book with an event called the 'Red Wedding' but he was barely halfway there. He extracted 1,088 manuscript pages, climaxing at a dramatically-satisfying point and delivered it to his publishers. He now believed that the series would be four books in length, with the second half of AGoT now dubbed A Clash of Kings. He resumed work on ACoK whilst AGoT was published in the UK and USA in August 1996 to a reasonably strong reception. In the UK HarperCollins Voyager previewed the book with a free 100-page extract of the novel, whilst in America the Daenerys chapters were condensed into a novella called Blood of the Dragon, which went on to win a Hugo Award in 1997.

Whilst work on A Clash of Kings proceeded, Martin was asked to submit a story to Robert Silverberg's Legends collection. He agreed, penning a story set much earlier in the history of Westeros called The Hedge Knight. By this time Martin realised that the story he was telling was much bigger than he first realised. Pausing briefly, he penned a rough outline which convinced him that A Clash of Kings was also going to be two books, and The Winds of Winter was going to be two as well. He also envisaged a 'five-year gap' between the two halves of the story to help the children and dragons age and grow up.

When Legends was published in early 1998, the introduction noted that  A Song of Ice and Fire was now a six-book series consisting of A Game of Thrones, A Clash of Kings, A Storm of Swords, A Dance with Dragons, The Winds of Winter and A Time For Wolves. A Clash of Kings followed and was published in October 1998 in the UK and in the USA in February 1999. Once again, Martin had a lot more manuscript pages written, including a lot of Tyrion's story for the following story, and this gave him a head start on the third book. He completed A Storm of Swords in late April 2000. By this time, the sales of the series had reached the point where the publishers were prepared to 'rush' the book out: the UK edition hit the shelves just three months later in July, whilst the American edition followed in November, hitting the lower reaches of the New York Times bestseller list. The novel was nominated for the 2001 Hugo Award and came second, narrowly missing out to J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.

The Five-Year Gap
Martin begun work on A Dance with Dragons in earnest towards the end of 2000. As planned, the story picked up five years after the events of A Storm of Swords. Initially, this approach worked well, with the younger characters now older and more realistically capable of handling their new storylines. However, as the writing wore on Martin found a growing reliance on flashbacks and exposition to explain why certain ongoing storylines had not progressed for half a decade. By the middle of 2001 this tendency appears to have overtaken the book, making the worth of the five-year-gap questionable. Finally, in September 2001 Martin announced that he had completely scrapped and deleted all of the material he had worked on in the preceding year and started again from scratch with a new book, A Feast for Crows.

Work on A Feast for Crows continued for the next three and a half years but was plagued by problems. Martin attempted a new prologue structure which touched base with many 'lesser' characters from Dorne and the Iron Islands rather than just being from one POV. This got far too long and was eventually broken up into a series of smaller chapters scattered through the books. Martin also found that whilst 'filling in the gap' worked well for some characters, such as Brienne, Cersei, Jaime, Sansa and Arya, it did not work out so well for others, such as Tyrion, Daenerys and Jon, who seemed to be ready to move into their next storylines (i.e. the ones planned for A Dance with Dragons) immediately. This introduced timeline problems as the storylines for the two sets of characters threatened to get out of synch with one another.

By May 2005, the novel was almost three years overdue. Martin had managed to release a sequel to The Hedge Knight, entitled The Sworn Sword, but the novel remained incomplete and had ballooned to over 1,600 manuscript pages in length. Martin had completed several character arcs, but many of the others only had small amounts of material written for them, or were incomplete. After discussing the situation with his friend and occasional writing partner Daniel Abraham, Martin decided to separate the characters by location, as this also corresponded with the characters whose storylines were complete and those who were not. Characters in the south of Westeros and a few others remained in A Feast for Crows, which comprised 1,100 manuscript pages, and the characters in the North and in Essos were moved into the next book, which now had almost 550 manuscript pages completed for it. Rather than split A Feast for Crows in two, Martin decided that the next book in the series would remain entitled A Dance with Dragons, suggesting that he hoped to combine the originally-planned events for that novel with the 'flipside' of events in A Feast for Crows. A Feast for Crows was delivered in May 2005 and published in the UK in October 2005, and a month later in the United States.

Upon A Feast for Crows' publication, the book hit the #1 spot on the New York Times bestseller list, shifting half a million copies in hardcover in its first year on sale and attracting many award nominations.

Dancing in the Dark
Martin's original plan - as outlined in the now-infamous 'Note' at the end of A Feast for Crows - was that the 550 manuscript pages he had held back for A Dance with Dragons would remain unchanged and an additional 500-600 manuscript pages would be required to bring the novel to completion. Using the writing speed he achieved at the end of A Feast for Crows (when he wrote 300 MS pages in about six months), he estimated it would take approximately one year to complete the novel.

However, this plan proved to be optimistic from the start. After delivering the book, Martin's publishers requested that, after the lengthy gap since ASoS, he take part in the most ambitious signing tour for the series seen yet, including numerous dates across the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom stripped over a period of six months. Once he returned to work on A Dance with Dragons in early 2006 he appeared to reconsider his previous plans for the book, reporting on changes requiring the rewriting of much of the extant material he had left over from A Feast for Crows. The plans for A Dance with Dragons also grew more ambitious: the book was now going to expand substantially beyond the timeline of A Feast for Crows and hopefully further the stories of characters left on cliffhanger endings in that book. This also introduced fresh timeline complexities to the book that Martin found difficult to resolve.

Work proceeded slowly and frustratingly on the novel in this period, with Martin later admitting to periods of pressure and stress, both from outside sources and from his own growing perfectionism. Several times Martin reported being months away from completion, only for additional complexities to arise requiring extensive rewrites. In particular, the climax of the book proved extremely problematic with a number of important storylines and major characters set to converge in the city of Meereen. Martin's difficulties with this sequence of chapters (initially two chapters, later broken into four) became known as the 'Meereenese Knot' and appears to have stymied the book's completion for a long period of time. In addition, several bookstores and sellers (most notably Amazon) continuously gave out false and apparently invented release dates without Martin's permission, resulting in reader frustration when these imaginary dates were missed.

However, there was also good news: in early 2007 the television company HBO optioned the rights to the series. In late 2009 they produced a one-hour pilot based on the series, and over the second half of 2010 filmed a ten-episode full season based on A Game of Thrones, with Martin acting as a consultant and penning one episode. Martin also completed the third Dunk 'n' Egg story, The Mystery Knight, which was published in early 2010 in the Warriors anthology. Work on Dragons continued through this period.

In early 2010 Martin confirmed that A Dance with Dragons' structure was now more ambitious than originally planned: the first half of the book would run alongside A Feast for Crows and the second half would take place after and incorporate a number of additional POV characters from the previous novel as well. The book was substantially larger than first planned as well, eventually coming in at 1,511 MS pages, shorter than A Storm of Swords by only a hair's breadth.

Finally, in early March 2011 Martin and his publishers announced a final release date for A Dance with Dragons: Tuesday, 13 July 2011. Despite some scepticism from some quarters, the novel hit the planned release date. Propelled by the success of the Game of Thrones series on HBO, the book not only hit the #1 spot on the New York Times bestseller list, but stayed there for a week and later returned, whilst also spending many weeks in the #2 spot. Impressively, shortly after release A Dance with Dragons rapidly became the biggest-selling fiction novel of the year. Critical reviews were positive, although there was some criticism of Martin's decision (revealed in an interview) to move some major climaxes out of the book and into the following novel.

Winter is Coming...
Following the publication of A Dance with Dragons, Martin embarked on a relatively short signing tour for the novel. During this tour he confirmed earlier reports that roughly 100-150 MS pages of material had been completed for the sixth book, The Winds of Winter, and that he would very definitely not be making any promises about its release date. Returning home after the tour, he prioritised finishing the fourth Dunk 'n' Egg story (which has the working title The She-Wolves or She-Wolves of Winterfell) and approving The World of Ice and Fire companion book for publication, both due in 2012. He also revealed that a compilation of all four Dunk 'n' Egg stories would follow in the not-too-distant future.

Martin currently plans to resume the writing of The Winds of Winter in late 2011 or early 2012, but there is no information on when it might be published.

After The Winds of Winter, a further novel is projected to bring the series to a close: A Dream of Spring (formerly A Time for Wolves).

Edited by Werthead, 08 September 2011 - 12:35 PM.

[Rune Targaryen]

Thank you very much for this.
I help me to get some answers , especially about the "five-year-gap".
And do you think that the last book change its name because all the Starks will be dead( Or only most of them)?

[Werthead]

No.

Spoiler

I think Martin did say he wanted to change it as it was vaguely spoilery. I took that to mean that there could be a Stark resurgence in the last book - the 'Time for Wolves' - hinting at possibly the Starks returning to power, one of them (Rickon or Bran or Jon) being restored as Lord of Winterfell etc.