[ADWD SPOILERS] After ADWD, how big is your anticipation for the next book?

[Brightflame]

Of course I'm looking forward to it, I'm just that attached to the characters.

I just hope WoW really thrusts the characters into action. I'm terrified of secquences that involve Dany uniting the Dothraki, marching to Pentos, beseiging the city, etc... I'd like her first chapter to begin about a month after DWD so we don't have to deal with filler.

[Fez]

I'm very excited to read the next book. However within a month or two I'm going to go back to not thinking about the series until I hear GRRM announcing the book is done; then I'll do some serious speculating until the book is out. (Exception: I will watch the HBO series and have great fun watches the various n00bs on the internet trying to figure out what it all means)

[Brienne the Beauty]

I can't wait for the next book. Unfortunately that will not be for at least 4 years judging by past performance. :(

[sentence]

Anyone else share this newfound attitude of 'it'll come out when it comes out', or is everyone still as hungry for the next developments as they were before ADWD?

I do agree 110%

[Howdyphillip]

That's what made Tolkiens LoR so good, is that each book even of itself forwarded the story, we knew what the journey was , but each time we felt like the characters were moving one way or another, and at the end you felt a bit exhausted, and ready to relax before going on.

I can not disagree more with this. The LOTR was written as one book, and was never intended to be three stories. When the publisher decided to split it in three volumes, Tolkien fought against it because there was no clear stopping point in the story.

As a matter of fact, the ending of Fellowship is a terrible place to end the book. Borimir is killed, Merry and Pippen are captured by Orcs, Frodo and Sam leave the group, Aragon, Gimli, and Legolas are in the middle of the wilderness and Gandalf is apparently dead. It is every bit as bad as leaving off all the plot resolution that is left in ADWD. The difference is since the story was completed, there was no wait at all to find out what was going to happen, as you could pick up The Two Towers immediately afterwards.

I think that by the time we can read ASOIF in its entirety, then we will get just as much satisfaction in it as we did LOTR. (at least I am hoping)

[Matarreyes]

None of my favourite characters were in ADWD, so I was already awaiting the sixth book while paying for the fifth at the store.

[Wouter]

I want it by tomorrow, ideally.

Seriously, I also missed some of my favorite characters in ADWD and on top of that, I want to know the resolution to the cliffhangers and see the resolution/progress from a lot of story lines. And sooner rather than later, if possible. So, eagerly anticipated.

[Ferrum Aeternum]

More, actually.

We knew that ADWD was going to cover largely the same period of time as AFFC. So it seemed likely to me that nothing truly earth-shattering was going to be happening, else characters in AFFC would have been aware of those things.

The story arc in the North really ramped up, with Ned's old bannerman showing loyalty, Rickon on the verge of re-emergence, and the Freys and Boltons about to get the smackdown. That looks to me to be fun as hell going into the next book. And I doubt Danaerys will be spending the entire next book in the east, which will be an improvement as well.

This. Now that the setup phase of AFFC/ADWD is done, it's time for the final tumblers to start clicking into place. While I doubt TWOW will be wall-to-wall insanity a la ASOS, I believe the pieces are in place for a ton of meaningful action and story movement. The resolution of the ADWD cliffhangers alone should make for a great first 1/4 - 1/3 of the book.

[cseresz]

To explain, I thought ADWD was okay, had its moments, but at the same time, it didn't really do anything for me emotionally. Too many characters I'm not interested in, to little development.

2008. július 28.

Cseresz,

...

I think good characters are the most important thing in a book. A man can be sitting in a room and, if it's well written, it can be interesting. But I see no reason why good characters and good story can't go hand in hand. The world would be the least important aspect for me, even if it is fantasy…

Best,

Joe Abercrombie

[Gomi]

I'll be at the local bookstore the morning it drops to pick up my preorder. I think Winds will have some events in it that make the Red Wedding look like a third grader's field trip. My anticipation is off the scale.

[Zeromus]

I don't think he has another book in him.

[Joy Lannister]

Frankly, almost nonexistent. I can hardly believe it - there isn't a book or book series I've loved more and a world I have been so unable to detach myself from, emotionally. I waited for aDwD with great anticipation - so great that I often reread the first three books (and some chapters of Feast) and tried to guess where GRRM is going with the story.

The reason I'm not looking forward to tWoW (aside from merely finding out (not necessary reading) what will happen with Jaime and Jon) is that I don't believe it will be better than Dance or Feast. The biggest flaw of those two books is the change in GRRM's mindset, I think, and maybe even writing style. He has lost something essential to the greatness that were aGoT, aCoK and aSoS - the sense of what is important and what is not, of what he should put an accent on and what should be merely told in a paragraph or two. Back then, he was still descriptive, the world-building was still vivid, but the story was alive too, and the chapters had purpose. He devoted chapters only on important events/moments when an important decision was taken/moments that had great effect on certain characters, the rest he told in passing. Back then, he did not need 3 chapters to show how critical a situation was, he made that clear in a few pages and moved on to show the effects, the results. That was how the story moved forward. Now, he has taken "show, don't tell" to the extreme.

What is most disheartening is that he's convinced that the way he has written Dance and Feast is the right one - as shown in his blog. It may be right for some people, but for me it's frustrating. And I had no complaints about The Crossroads of Twilight (although now I can't really remember what happened there...). Granted, I was not nearly as emotionally invested and had already read Knife of Dreams (I skipped books 9 and 10 and read them later), but still, I'm usually a patient reader - as long as my patience is rewarded, which I don't think was the case with Feast/Dance.

That said, I'm still invested in the story (or I wouldn't write here). Much less excited, and very disappointed in GRRM (anything else aside, the cliffhangers are an insult to those of us who have waited for years for the book - the Feast/Dance arc should have ended with some kind of resolution, not a "buy my next novel if you want to know what this one was all about"), but I won't give the series up until Winds comes out and I can judge if the change in his writing style is permanent and he hadn't learned anything from Dance. I only hope that, despite his answers to criticism on his blog and what I consider to be willful blindness, he'll manage to get back to the way he wrote the first three novels, because those novels won my love, support and loyalty, and those novels made me recommend the series to anyone who I judged could be even remotely interested.

[Topher]

Zeromus,

Wanna Bet?

[Kaitscralt]

I am more excited for season two than book six.

I can't wait for TWOW, but I'm not thrilled with the direction the story is heading. I am more interested in Stannis and Davos, Jaime and UnCat than the bigger storylines.

[iamthedave]

Dance deflated a lot of my anticipation. It's not that I think it was bad (I've voiced my feelings in various places here), just that it doesn't end in a way which demands I read on. Some of the cliffhangers I cared about were addressed, but poorly, and that doesn't help.

The big problem is legitimacy. Dance's ending hinges on a few things:

1. Caring about Meereen and Dany

2. Believing Jon is dead

3. Believing the letter

I don't care about Meereen and dislike Dany more than ever. I didn't think for one second that Jon was dead, and the chances of that letter being real are slim, though not nil. Theon, the banker of Bravos, and Asha are all with Stannis. I'm supposed to believe that all three of those just got randomly killed off, despite the fact Theon's one of the keystones of Dance?

So I didn't come out of Dance thinking ZOMG MUST READ MORES!!!!!!!010101010111110001110

I came out of it feeling 'hmm, cool' and put it to one side until such time as I read it to my girlfriend (who's eating her way through Feast at the minute. Which is a rather appropriate sentence, come to think of it).

Too much of what happened in Dance either didn't connect with me or actively put me off, I guess.

It's like when that Q & A opens saying:

you probably had at least one heart-stopping shock along with more than a few somewhat less cardiac-endangering surprises.

Not

a

single

one.

Certainly none that had any impact, since I can't think of any. OH! I was surprised when Jorah turned up.

[Sword in the Morning]

I've got a huge amount of anticipation, and I can't believe it's going to be years* before I get to hear more from my absolute favorite book series. So many people on these forums are terrifyingly pessimistic. I feel like I ought to stop coming here...but until my friends get caught up in the series it's my only place to talk about up-to-date spoilers.

*even though I somehow managed the entire 6-year gap

[Lugez]

I still want to know what happens...But I'm less excited. I only waited about two years for this book, and I'm glad I didn't wait six.

To me, it seems very clear that GRRM had a hard time with these last two books. Hopefully with the narrative finally consolidating, GRRM can write a bit easier and focus on preparing the end, which he implies to have a plan for already. But he seriously can't add any more POVs. If he tightens things up for the last two, I think we can have books which can rival the first three.

[Hoya Karsa Orlong]

My anticipation is big, like a pickle. As long as Penny graduates to having her own Little People, Big Westeros show in the first chapter and we never see her again, then TWOW is a success. I will buy every book in this series, even if he dies and Joe Abercrombie has to finish it with six extra books. He earned that much cred with me with the first three books, that I will buy whatever come out, whenever it comes out as soon as I can. I did not do the same with WoT because of Winters Heart. I have seen enough in AFFC and ADWD to know TWOW >>>>> Winters Heart.

That said if there is another god damn zombie, I may change my mind.

[Zeromus]

Zeromus,

Wanna Bet?

Yep.

[LAJN]

Still massive. But at this point I've adapted to the fact that the book could take years to be released, and only a week for me to read. So that balances out any "can't wait" feelings.