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GRRM's new Not a Blog post


marwyn

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Wall and Beyond

Varamyr (prologue)

Bran

Jon

Melisandre

The North

Reek

Asha

Davos

The South

Jaime (Riverrun)

Cersei (King's Landing)

Areo (wherever Doran is)

Essos

Arya (Braavos)

Dany (Mereen)

Tyrion

Quentyn

Victarion

Barristan

This means depending on who Mystery (Wo/)Man is we have no Vale or Reach POVs.

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I´ve got impression that he hinted about Jorah being viewpoint in the past... I am a little disappointed about absence of Sam and a lot of people will be disappointed about Brienne.

Well, he more or less gives the game away on Brienne, I don't imagine her next chapter in TWOW is one long piece on strangulation.

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So, no Brienne?! I'm disappointed if her cliffhanger is not resolved in this book. Will we really have to wait for Brienne's last words as much as heirs of the Twins have to wait for Late Frey's last words?

I hope though that this cliffhanger is resolved by somebody else's POV either Jaime or Mystery Man (Robin Hood, Sandor or even Blackfish). I want TO HEAR HER ROAR now and not 10 years after she was left dancing on a rope.

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"Sansa, Sam, Aeron Damphair, Arianne, and Brienne have no chapters in A DANCE WITH DRAGONS. Several of those characters had chapters written, completed, and polished that have been moved into THE WINDS OF WINTER. Part of that editorial process I mentioned up above."

Kinda doesnt say if Brienne has any chapters ever... :fencing:

(although i wasnt a great fan of her chapters, makes me kinda annoyed if her cliff"hang" aint resolved

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Also interesting to note that Martin comfirms that AFfC is actually the shortest book in the sequence. I think the common opinion was always that AGoT is the shortest book. The actual order is:

1.) A Storm of Swords - 1521 pages

2.) A Dance with Dragons - 1510 pages

3.) A Clash of Kings - 1184 pages

4.) A Game of Thrones - 1088 pages

5.) A Feast for Crows - 1063 pages

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I'm surprised that Theon seems to have the 4th most chapters after Jon/Dany/Tyrion. I thought he would get one or two since he was in such rough shape. Looks like he will be an important part of ADWD when I thought he would be more of a sideshow.

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Interesting post all around.

I worry that we won't be getting very much resolution, even temporary/limited, in the viewpoints that don't fall within the arcs of the big three. The big three have 35 chapters out of 73, which leaves just 38 chapters for 13 viewpoint characters. Since George singles him out as the fourth in terms of number of chapters, it seems safe to assume that Reek will be getting at least, say, five, bringing us down to 33 for 12 characters and an average of between two and three per character. I figure the likes of Jaime, Quentyn, Aryo, and the unknown POV are likely to get one, and we know that two Cersei chapters were written, though one of those admittedly could have been pushed back. Mel and Barristan are wildcards - they might get one a piece or three or four. In any event, I don't know that just two to three (perhaps four) chapters will get Bran or Arya too much closer to the end of their respective training regimens, assuming of course that Arya decides to stay the course in Braavos.

Oh, and I wonder which "fans" have already had the chance to "gulp down the book"?

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A few things that occur to me:

- It's a shame that we won't see Sam, Brienne or Alayne, but I'm not really surprised. Sam and Alayne are both in holding patterns for the moment; and whether Brienne's going to kill Jaime next or capture Sansa, it could plausibly take her a while to get in a position to carry out her mission.

- The fact that Jaime as well as Cersei will have a POV chapter or two in ADWD feeds my suspicion that he's headed back to King's Landing to set things straight there. Nothing else has been set up that would require his presence in ADWD.

- Brienne not being a POV character doesn't mean that her cliffhanger will go unresolved--GRRM made it clear in ASOS that Theon was still alive and in captivity with a few sentences, so something similar could happen here. Jaime could get reports of a woman meeting Brienne's description riding with the BWB, or something to that effect.

- I'm guessing that the final mystery POV is probably also in Meereen, like Quentyn and Ser Barristan. People have theorized that Quentyn would be hitching a ride with the Golden Company, so he could be our POV there as he gets drawn into their schemes somehow. So the mystery POV doesn't have to be with the GC. It could be one of the Sons of the Harpy, or somebody in Yunkai.

- Areo Hotah having a POV is interesting. I think that his chapter is going to be the long-delayed arrival of Balon Swann with Ser Gregor's head, at which point shit will likely hit the fan.

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- Areo Hotah having a POV is interesting. I think that his chapter is going to be the long-delayed arrival of Balon Swann with Ser Gregor's head, at which point shit will likely hit the fan.

I recall GRRM saying, somewhere during the writing process of DwD, that something was going to happen in the book that would require an almost immediate reaction from Dorne. He initially hoped to push that reaction back to tWoW but apparently he had to restructure it to include it in this book. The Areo Hotah chapter(s) will likely deal with this reaction.

I suppose the whole Myrcella subplot might escalate, yeah.

As for chapters:

I suppose that Arya and Cersei and Jaime will not have more than 1/2 chapters per person. THey are likely just to give some temporary resolution after the FfC cliffhangers.

I can't really see Melisandre having more than 1 or 2 chapters either, unless she goes to a separate location from Jon. Having 10-12 Jon chapters and then another 4+ Mel chapters would seem a bit useless to me.

Barristan was more of a PoV that was useful to slice the Meereenese knot, I can't imagine too many chapters would be needed for that either. But maybe GRRM decided to restructure the entire thing so that Barristan is a big part of it now.

Bran, I'm personally hoping he gets 3/4 chapters, just like in aSoS. It will mainly be travelling I guess, but I hope he reaches someplace useful at the end of the book (and that we get some satisfying hints/answers about what's going on with magic and the north n stuff).

Let's see. Asha and Victarion we don't quite know, they were both in FfC as well, but timeline-wise the Ironborn stuff happened during the end of aSoS (right?) so there is a lot room for them, time-wise. It seems likely we'll get some Asha/Theon interaction at least.

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I recall GRRM saying, somewhere during the writing process of DwD, that something was going to happen in the book that would require an almost immediate reaction from Dorne. He initially hoped to push that reaction back to tWoW but apparently he had to restructure it to include it in this book. The Areo Hotah chapter(s) will likely deal with this reaction.

As I recall, GRRM said that the "Dornish reaction" would consist of three Arianne POVs and a complementary POV; so I think that the reaction is still in TWOW, while the incident itself is at the end of ADWD.

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I am trying to guess the new mystery POV by looking at where the other POVs are.

I think the situation across the narrow sea is sufficiently covered: Dany, Tyrion, Quentyn, Barristan, and probably Victarion. So 5 POVs there

At the Wall we have Jon and Melisandre, and Bran beyond it. Davos, Reek, and Asha should let us know of whatever else is going on in the North. So I think the Wall and the North are also covered.

Jaime is in the Riverlands and Cersei is in King's Landing. Either one of these regions could do with another POV.

If it would an established character, then it could be the Blackfish, Edmure, or Sandor (I don't believe he is dead). A less established character would be the High Septon or Qyburn to give a different perspective to the situation in King's Landing. (of course I am guessing here)

Areo Hotah will give another view, probably brief, of the happenings in Dorne.

With no Sansa and no Sam, then we will have no known POV in either of those regions. For the Vale, I know somebody mentioned Harry the Heir. However, I don't think the Vale will be featured much or at all in ADWD.

On the other hand, I think it might be important to know what is happening with the new ironborn invasion. Victarion may cover some of that, but we could also get a new Tyrel POV such as Willas or Garlan. Or maybe get another POV at the Citadel, one of the briefly shown characters in AFFC.

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Yeah, he"s been referring to getting something done as "another monkey off my back". Adwd logically became known as king kong after that. The ending is just him "welcoming" the new monkey that will be twow. As fpr when hell actually start writing it though, i suspect a few months at least

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I think if we needed another POV on the riverlands, we'd have a Brienne chapter. If we needed one in the Vale, we'd have a Sansa chapter. If it was the Reach/Oldtown, we'd have a Sam chapter. If King's Landing, more Cersei or Jaime chapters. Even with the inclusion of some AFFC povs, I suspect that the complex wheeling and dealing will take place in the North and Slaver's Bay (and ma-aybe Braavos), and I'd be surprised if we had a new POV anywhere else.

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- It's a shame that we won't see Sam, Brienne or Alayne, but I'm not really surprised. Sam and Alayne are both in holding patterns for the moment; and whether Brienne's going to kill Jaime next or capture Sansa, it could plausibly take her a while to get in a position to carry out her mission.

- Brienne not being a POV character doesn't mean that her cliffhanger will go unresolved--GRRM made it clear in ASOS that Theon was still alive and in captivity with a few sentences, so something similar could happen here. Jaime could get reports of a woman meeting Brienne's description riding with the BWB, or something to that effect.

I fully expect the epilogue of ADWD to be a member of the BWB - clearing up the Brienne cliff-hanger, then we catch up with her at the start of the next book off doing what she's convinced UnCat to let her do.

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I think if we needed another POV on the riverlands, we'd have a Brienne chapter. If we needed one in the Vale, we'd have a Sansa chapter. If it was the Reach/Oldtown, we'd have a Sam chapter. If King's Landing, more Cersei or Jaime chapters. Even with the inclusion of some AFFC povs, I suspect that the complex wheeling and dealing will take place in the North and Slaver's Bay (and ma-aybe Braavos), and I'd be surprised if we had a new POV anywhere else.

so this may be a stupid question, but my biggest take away from the Not A Blog Post was that there is a GRRM special collection at Texas A& M. Is it open to the public? It would be fascinating to check out his papers.

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I fully expect the epilogue of ADWD to be a member of the BWB - clearing up the Brienne cliff-hanger, then we catch up with her at the start of the next book off doing what she's convinced UnCat to let her do.

Why wouldn't GRRM just include a Brienne chapter, rather than putting in an epilogue from another character?

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