What do you think caused Martin to loose his grip on the material?

[SirArthur]

22 hours ago, Amris said:

What do you mean?

I can tell you are being sarcastic but I don't know why you are. What are you trying to say?

I want to say, in the case that GRRM seriously modeled the Ironborn after the Umbar corsairs, he got it all wrong. And GRRM's quote about Aragorn's tax policy gives your idea some merit. 

[Amris]

13 hours ago, SirArthur said:

I want to say, in the case that GRRM seriously modeled the Ironborn after the Umbar corsairs, he got it all wrong. And GRRM's quote about Aragorn's tax policy gives your idea some merit. 

Okay, thank you for the explanation.

[Song of Zombies v. Dragons]

I feel pretty strongly that it is the pace of the writing, more so then the overall story structure, that is the problem. If Martin were releasing a book every 3-4 (or even 5) years, we would be at least a book or two closer to the end by now and the end would be in sight.

 

While I agree that the structure of AFFC/ADWD is certainly not ideal, I don't think we should kid ourselves into thinking it's totally unworkable. I think a conclusion COULD'VE been written and certainly the plot could've at the least been progressed just by the publication of more material over time.

 

Like many others here, I've lost allmost all hope. The show will finish with its fanfiction conclusion, Winds may or may not be published, certainly Dream or any other future books never will, and that's all there is to it.

[Amris]

On 10/12/2018 at 7:25 PM, Song of Zombies v. Dragons said:

[snip]

Like many others here, I've lost allmost all hope. The show will finish with its fanfiction conclusion, Winds may or may not be published, certainly Dream or any other future books never will, and that's all there is to it.

I've kinda made my peace with it though.

[Ser Kafka]

Yeah, after just over 7 years since Dance there's no way this series will be concluded. And not because of his age - as some have suggested elsewhere - but because I just don't think he's feeling it. 

He definitely took on too much regarding the show. How long does it take to write a screenplay, 2-4 months? He did 5 episodes, so 10-20 months of writing time gone there, not including the liaising needed with the producers, etc. I'm not begrudging him this (and his other releases), these episodes were some of the best of the entire series to date. I just think he underestimated what he needed to do to get Winds done. 

[Angel Eyes]

12 minutes ago, kafkascoat said:

Yeah, after just over 7 years since Dance there's no way this series will be concluded. And not because of his age - as some have suggested elsewhere - but because I just don't think he's feeling it. 

He definitely took on too much regarding the show. How long does it take to write a screenplay, 2-4 months? He did 5 episodes, so 10-20 months of writing time gone there, not including the liaising needed with the producers, etc. I'm not begrudging him this (and his other releases), these episodes were some of the best of the entire series to date. I just think he underestimated what he needed to do to get Winds done. 

He did four: The Pointy End, Blackwater, The Bear and the Maiden Fair, and The Lion and the Rose. 

I myself think he’s lied whenever he said the book would be done.

[Ser Kafka]

1 minute ago, Angel Eyes said:

He did four: The Pointy End, Blackwater, The Bear and the Maiden Fair, and The Lion and the Rose. 

I myself thought he lied whenever he said the book would be done.

Ah - my bad!

I was always optimistic it would get done, but this year the final nail is in the coffin. Actually, that nail has been in a little longer - they've started throwing the earth on top now...

I can see it coming: he'll come out and say that GOT ended it perfectly and he is happy to let it be at that. 

[SuperMario]

5 hours ago, kafkascoat said:

Ah - my bad!

I was always optimistic it would get done, but this year the final nail is in the coffin. Actually, that nail has been in a little longer - they've started throwing the earth on top now...

I can see it coming: he'll come out and say that GOT ended it perfectly and he is happy to let it be at that. 

He has already kind of prepared us for that. He said in an interview how the show version and ending is just as legitimate as the book's. The writing has been on the wall for some time that he won't finish the series.

On his blog he was bragging about the new Funko Pop figurines of D&D and himself. The figures are called "The Creators". Each of them is equal at this point when it comes to creation. GRRM has made peace with that. The books are no longer the source material. The show, books, spinoffs - they are all part of a larger corporation. A Song of Ice and Fire is just one small part of Game of Thrones, Inc.

[Ser Wun Wun]

Reddit is getting hyped because they think the Spanish cover artist just hinted he completed the Winds cover:  https://www.reddit.com/r/asoiaf/comments/9pmf17/spoilers_extended_grrms_spanish_asoiaf_cover/?st=jngi8ktc&sh=6b23f8ce

I don't know what to think about it.  I'm too jaded to feel hype about Winds at this point.  Been burned too many times.    

[M.Alhazred]

GRRM releases a History of Robert's Rebellion and summarizes the entire thing.No last 2 books are published.

[T and A]

13 hours ago, Ser Wun Wun said:

Reddit is getting hyped because they think the Spanish cover artist just hinted he completed the Winds cover:  https://www.reddit.com/r/asoiaf/comments/9pmf17/spoilers_extended_grrms_spanish_asoiaf_cover/?st=jngi8ktc&sh=6b23f8ce

I don't know what to think about it.  I'm too jaded to feel hype about Winds at this point.  Been burned too many times.    

Can it be...? Is this really happening?? It must be this time. It must.

A brand new Wildcards book, with a great artwork.

[Ser Kafka]

1 hour ago, T and A said:

Can it be...? Is this really happening?? It must be this time. It must.

A brand new Wildcards book, with a great artwork.

Nailed on!!

[Takiedevushkikakzvezdy]

20 hours ago, Ser Wun Wun said:

Reddit is getting hyped because they think the Spanish cover artist just hinted he completed the Winds cover:  https://www.reddit.com/r/asoiaf/comments/9pmf17/spoilers_extended_grrms_spanish_asoiaf_cover/?st=jngi8ktc&sh=6b23f8ce

I don't know what to think about it.  I'm too jaded to feel hype about Winds at this point.  Been burned too many times.    

Even if it is a cover for TWoW, it doesn't mean that the book itself is close to being done.

[nickdt]

On 10/20/2018 at 8:10 PM, Takiedevushkikakzvezdy said:

Even if it is a cover for TWoW, it doesn't mean that the book itself is close to being done.

 

Why would they make a cover if the book isn't close to being done, since that doesn't make sense. 

[Rhodan]

Of course possible "close to being done" is relative. Even when Martin announced publishing date of ADWD he did not have a lot of crucial material written and he DID NOT finish it in time in fact, which was one of the things that resulted in some serious issues with it´s climax. I still wait for clear Not a Blog post, obviously.  But that is like a bomb that might blow up any day... Or never.   

[Talking Hodor]

On 9/18/2018 at 11:29 AM, Firefae said:

Or, y'know, die from hypothermia.

The show doesn't make sense, and it hasn't for a pretty long time now( ever since season 5, and tbh already a bit in season 4).

Hypothermia wouldn't have been as big a deal. Grown men know how to spoon if facing death by ice. The lake freezing would have been worse, but as soon as it froze over enough to fool a bunch of stupid wights, they'd have just shambled across until another hole broke, so again, Jon & Co. might have survived a couple days there. If anything, having a massive battle on top of a freshly frozen lake, as the show did, would have been more unrealistic.

[Talking Hodor]

On 10/22/2018 at 12:08 AM, nickdt said:

 

Why would they make a cover if the book isn't close to being done, since that doesn't make sense. 

They've had a semi-official cover for WoW for almost a decade. There is absolutely no reason why they couldn't paint a cover for WoW, DoS, and the eight novel Springtime for Hodor right now and wait another 30 years for the writer to catch up.

[Takiedevushkikakzvezdy]

1 hour ago, Talking Hodor said:

They've had a semi-official cover for WoW for almost a decade. 

I thought that cover was fan-made, though.

[SuperMario]

On ‎10‎/‎21‎/‎2018 at 5:08 PM, nickdt said:

 

Why would they make a cover if the book isn't close to being done, since that doesn't make sense. 

This means nothing. ADWD's cover was done a few years in advance.

But if we're going by that logic, we should see Winds in 2021.

[Ser Wun Wun]

On 10/23/2018 at 10:03 AM, Takiedevushkikakzvezdy said:

I thought that cover was fan-made, though.

George confirmed it was official a couple years ago (with the caveat that it could change):  Link

That would be the US/UK cover though.  This cover artist does the Spanish cover, which is usually different than the US/UK one.  For Dance, he drew Dany riding Drogon in the dragonpit. for instance.  He likes to draw an actual scene from the book for his cover, even if it's a spoiler.  

And he hinted in a twitter reply that the cover he just did for George is "spoilerly",  Plus he retweeted someone who replied to him that they had a weird dream about Winds.  The publishing house he works for in Spain doesn't do Wild Cards books, so that's probably not it either.  

All in all, I am leaning about 80% towards him teasing a Winds cover.  But there is also a chance he did a new cover from some anniversary issue of one of the first 3 books I suppose....although I don't know why he would say this new cover is "spoilery" in that case, since it would be for a 20  or so year old book.  You'd have to be one hell of a prick troll to do that.  I don't know this guy well enough to rule that out though.

Even if it is a Winds cover, it doesn't necessarily mean the book is going to be finished soon.  The Spanish publisher could have ordered it without even asking George, or George could only think he close to done, like in 2015, and we all know how that turned out.