Would you like an AFFC/ADWD like split of Winds?

[Beorn Snow]

Especially if it meant something was published sooner.

AFFC was mostly new characters, Ironborn, Dornish, Brienne, Cersei and Sam. The Winds of winter is long, but I imagine it´s not nearly as long as AFFC and ADWD combined so splitting the  book geographically might mean a lot shorter book but there are advantages to such a split. GRRM tends to finish one character´s arc and then move to the next one. That means that some characters might be finished, others not.

Personally, I wouldn´t mind getting a result in the battle of Ice, grand northern conspiracy, Jon´s resurrection or non-resurrection, Bran´s weirwooding continued and knowing the fate of Asha, Theon and Davos (as well as side characters such as Stannis and the wildlings). Maybe that would be the shortest book in the series, but call it Winds of winter part one and then publish the next installment 4 years later would be okay in my mind.

If it is the north that is unfinished then I don´t mind getting other bits.

I think it´s possible that with the amount of characters involved a split might be necessary anyway.

[ellstaysia]

not if the split was by characters. I'd rather half the story than half the characters.

[The hairy bear]

I also would have preferred half the story than half the characters, even if that had meant waiting some more time for Feast.

At this point, the only thing I would try If I were in Martin/the editor's shoes would be trying to release a novella with a single storyline with a single character or arch, as they did with Path of the Dragon (Dany in AGOT) or Arms of the Kraken (the ironborn in AFFC). That would be commercially profitable, could be edited before april, and would reduce the amount of spoiling caused by the show. The problem is, perhaps, that with the storylines starting to converge there's no longer a single POV on Winds than can work on its own.

 

[Isgrimner]

Yeah, count me as one who doesn't want a half the characters split again.  When I did my last re-read, I did that thing where you intermix Feast and Dance, and I liked the flow better.  It helps having ebook versions so its easy to swap back and forth. 

I thinks it better to have a sort of climax for each book, but when (if? please) its all done I'll really look at the series as a single story and will read the entire work when doing re-reads. 

[ckongo]

NO! I hated it in AFFC. It didn't feel like a true ASOIF story, just a fragment of a book, and a rather uneventful one. I'd rather wait.

[Whitering]

Yep, no more split by region, or characters, just half of a book will be fine I would think given the huge battles that will happen at the start of Winds. I'd really like a book in 2016, but thankfully pc rpgs are at an all time high, so I don't really care anymore.

[Fearodh]

Sick and tired of waiting, give me aaaaanything, split by characters or whatever. As long as I get it now, I will gladly take it.

[cutuphalfdead]

Heavens no.

[Metopheles]

As likely the only one that loves AFFC and the idea of the split characters/stories, yes please. I like that. I like hearing bits and pieces of what the other characters do before reading their storylines. It makes for a true pov experience. I know only what eg Tyrion or Victarion know about what is happening elsewhere.

 

 

[Lord Varys]

I think this could work if it would heavily focus on the two battles, the situation at the Wall and beyond, and whatever happens in KL and the Stormlands. That in itself could make a decent book, especially if we get the occasional Samwell, Sansa and Arya chapter in addition, considering that neither of those characters should interact with any other POV in the near future.

[A Ghost of Someone]

as of 4/5th of the way through ADWD, he was caught up mostly. However, now that he released the Alayne I for TWOW, it is clear she is still behind as events unfolding have not yet hit the Vale. I assume Sansa/Alayne will have a few chapters or more in TWOW. I say, send it out to us and hold nothing back.

[JonisHenryTudor]

No. Gosh no.... Half of part 1 would be a Benjen travelogue....

[Cas Stark]

No. No. No. No.

This was disastrous for the last two books, not only did it create a weirdly out of balanced story but it further enabled the author's tendency toward bloat and deadends.  He needs to make Winds one book that gets the story where it needs to be for the final showdown/resolution.  Dany, Tyrion, Arya need to be in Westeros.  Whatever is going to happen with the Martells and Aegon needs to be well under way if not tied up.  We need to see a clear picture emerge of what the end game will look like and focus on those characters.

Two books will simply allow for more meandering, traveling, hanging out, doing the same thing for multiple chapters at a time and god forbid, introduction of more new POVs.

[Good Guy Garlan]

Yeah, because it worked soooooo well for Feast and Dance!

/sarcasm

Of course not, are you kidding? Would you forgive Ishiguro or Atwood or Mitchell or whatever if they just published like literally half their book? Are our standards so low now that we'd let Martin get away with this for a third time? 

He either goes full Dickens/Capote and releases the whole thing serialized, like back in the day, or he gives us paying readers the very minimum we deserve, which is a complete book. 

[Arrow of the Morning]

I would like to read Winds of Winter as only one book. If they would split it, it should not be per POVs as Feast and Dance were. It really messed the timeline of the events. I would prefer a division with all POVs, but with half the story.

[DigUpHerBones]

people hate the split because it was not what they expected when Feast was released...90% of fans back then had unrealistic expectations for Feast in convincing themselves that was the book Dany would head to Westeros (well, at least my group was convinced) OR at minimium we would find our who Jon's mother was...and when Dany did not have a chapter, and Jon did not have a chapter, and the only one if memory serves me correctly that did was Arya, we were f*cking LIVID, admittedly. 

we expected Feast to pick up right where Storm left off and when it didn't, well just lucky for GRRM that was still the relative early stages of social media.

he could get away with it now, short term, but that would risk a massive boycott of DoS when/if that comes out as social media is much less forgiving in 2016 than it was in 2005.

[cutuphalfdead]

No one's boycotting ADOS no matter how GRRM releases his next book(s). People can say what they want on social media, but the second it's announced everyone is pre ordering it.

[Good Guy Garlan]

people hate the split because it was not what they expected when Feast was released...90% of fans back then had unrealistic expectations for Feast in convincing themselves that was the book Dany would head to Westeros (well, at least my group was convinced) OR at minimium we would find our who Jon's mother was...and when Dany did not have a chapter, and Jon did not have a chapter, and the only one if memory serves me correctly that did was Arya, we were f*cking LIVID, admittedly. 

we expected Feast to pick up right where Storm left off and when it didn't, well just lucky for GRRM that was still the relative early stages of social media.

he could get away with it now, short term, but that would risk a massive boycott of DoS when/if that comes out as social media is much less forgiving in 2016 than it was in 2005.

Is it unrealistic to expect a writer to put out a complete book and not just half of it?

[Cas Stark]

people hate the split because it was not what they expected when Feast was released...90% of fans back then had unrealistic expectations for Feast in convincing themselves that was the book Dany would head to Westeros (well, at least my group was convinced) OR at minimium we would find our who Jon's mother was...and when Dany did not have a chapter, and Jon did not have a chapter, and the only one if memory serves me correctly that did was Arya, we were f*cking LIVID, admittedly. 

we expected Feast to pick up right where Storm left off and when it didn't, well just lucky for GRRM that was still the relative early stages of social media.

he could get away with it now, short term, but that would risk a massive boycott of DoS when/if that comes out as social media is much less forgiving in 2016 than it was in 2005.

But Feast does pick up where Storm leaves off.  Cersei literally wakes up to find out her father has been killed

The problem is that 1) the split is insane because Jon, Dany and Tyrion are 3 of the most important characters and to have nothing of them and instead get stuck with 100 Brienne chapters where she travels around looking for the red headed gal....a bunch of random, pointless Dorne chapters,  all of which adds up to a jumble of nothingness in terms of a novel....

That's why people were livid.

[Ser Didymus]

while i would prefer to have a complete book in hand ASAP, i don't think this would be the worst-case-scenario.

i thoroughly enjoyed AFFC and ADWD as both individual books and as pieces to the larger story.  while nothing is flawless in this world, i believe that these books have come pretty close.  i truly do not have a complaint about GRRM's writing style, format or tendency to "over-describe" certain minutiae.  (even that isn't a fair assessment, because i don't believe that he "over-describes" anything.)  he is telling the story he wants to tell, and i am ready to read each and every word he chooses to write.

what i never understood was WHY he needed the 5 year gap in the first place?  what character was too young to live through the plan GRRM had for them?  was it always so that the dragons could grow large enough to support a rider??