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Getting an in-depth Targaryen history of the days of Aerys I to Aerys II before we have all Dunk & Egg stories would most definitely ruin much and more about all the unwritten Dunk & Egg stories, no matter how they were spun.

George could resort to write more Dunk & Egg stories like TSS which, we can expect, would be covered in less detail by Gyldayn than events with a more crucial importance.

But keep in mind that Gyldayn could also be a huge fan of Dunk & Egg and make their journeys and deeds a huge part of his history just as he focused an entire chapter on Oakenfist's first voyage - which sort of implies that Alyn will stay with us as a main character throughout his long life, with all his voyages being covered in some fashion in future FaB chapters.

Writing around certain crucial events in FaB would cheapen the quality of FaB while still spoiling some of Dunk & Egg. TWoIaF didn't do much in that regard - the Third Blackfyre Rebellion is just a teaser, the account on the rule of Maekar is literally a joke since there is no new information there besides the names of Maekar's grandchildren, whereas the account on Aegon V is completely depersonalized with basically no new characters aside from the core members of the royal family and the planned and actual spouses of the children being introduced.

Yandel's account of the Third Blackfyre Rebellion is a huge tease, it is not a spoiler. We have no idea what happened during that war - where it happened, what houses were involved, what battles were fought, how many men died. All we got was basically confirmation that this war involved (nearly) all the Targaryens that were around and alive at that time - which is something we expected and hoped for, and were glad to see confirmed. But what happened in detail we have no clue about.

A Gyldayn account on that would have to give us much and more detail on that one. And while it would lack, in part, the feeling of a POV character actually being there and doing things it would still greatly reduce the impact such a story could have on a reader intimately familiar with the FaB version of events.

The same would go for other crucial things - Maekar's death, the Great Council, Duncan and Jenny, Lyonel and Dunk, Jaehaerys and Shaera, etc.

I mean, I'm sure you guys all agree that FaB was not that much of a fun read for all the sections that had already been covered in considerable detail by TWoIaF. It was good to read the full story, there, of course, but it was not the same feeling nor the same reading experience as reading completely new material (the Jaehaerys stuff) was.

An FaB on Dunk & Egg would give us not only the destination but also huge parts of the road.

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Lord George  flicked at the dagger with his finger, setting it spinning in place. Round and round it went, wobbling as it turned. When at last it slowed to a stop, the blade pointed at George. “Why, there’s your answer,” he said, smiling They follow the man who pays them.

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1 hour ago, Lord Varys said:

Getting an in-depth Targaryen history of the days of Aerys I to Aerys II before we have all Dunk & Egg stories would most definitely ruin much and more about all the unwritten Dunk & Egg stories, no matter how they were spun.

That might be true for you and your preferences in particular, but it is by no means objectively true.

1 hour ago, Lord Varys said:

Writing around certain crucial events in FaB would cheapen the quality of FaB while still spoiling some of Dunk & Egg. TWoIaF didn't do much in that regard - the Third Blackfyre Rebellion is just a teaser, the account on the rule of Maekar is literally a joke since there is no new information there besides the names of Maekar's grandchildren, whereas the account on Aegon V is completely depersonalized with basically no new characters aside from the core members of the royal family and the planned and actual spouses of the children being introduced.

He wouldn't need to write around events. Giving us some of the stories and beliefs that are well known to the average person in Westeros through a maester would not inherently spoil the experience of witnessing the reality of a particular event through the eyes of Dunk as he experiences it with Egg and his actual words and actions by his side. 

There is no comparison, and a Fire and Blood account of the reigns of Aerys I through Aegon V by Gyldayn would not inherently spoil a Dunk and Egg story set during those times, even if it was quite revealing about what is popularly claimed or believed to have been said, done, or happened during a given time.

At most it would take away some of the mystery, but even then, it wouldn't strip away all the mystery, or the differences between popular account or belief about a thing, and an eye witness's experience of that thing.

1 hour ago, Lord Varys said:

Yandel's account of the Third Blackfyre Rebellion is a huge tease, it is not a spoiler. We have no idea what happened during that war - where it happened, what houses were involved, what battles were fought, how many men died. All we got was basically confirmation that this war involved (nearly) all the Targaryens that were around and alive at that time - which is something we expected and hoped for, and were glad to see confirmed. But what happened in detail we have no clue about.

A Gyldayn account on that would have to give us much and more detail on that one. And while it would lack, in part, the feeling of a POV character actually being there and doing things it would still greatly reduce the impact such a story could have on a reader intimately familiar with the FaB version of events.

The same would go for other crucial things - Maekar's death, the Great Council, Duncan and Jenny, Lyonel and Dunk, Jaehaerys and Shaera, etc.

I mean, I'm sure you guys all agree that FaB was not that much of a fun read for all the sections that had already been covered in considerable detail by TWoIaF. It was good to read the full story, there, of course, but it was not the same feeling nor the same reading experience as reading completely new material (the Jaehaerys stuff) was.

An FaB on Dunk & Egg would give us not only the destination but also huge parts of the road.

All of that is your opinion.

And you are making an extremely poor and irrelevant comparison.

Even if you want to claim that you personally did not enjoy as much the portions of Fire and Blood that we already received much information on in TWOIAF, the fact is, in TWOIAF we received heavily edited and reworded-by-another-maester portions of fuller accounts that later appeared in Fire and Blood.

That is not at all comparable to what we are discussing.

I'm sure many would agree that, even with all the information we received in Fire and Blood, a series of stories from the POV of Aethan Velaryon, Orys Baratheon, or Visenya covering the first four decades of the Targaryen era, or from the POV of Rhaena or Jaehaerys set during the last three quarters of the first Targaryen century, or from the POV of Viserys II or Alyn Velaryon set during the mid to late second Targaryen century, or by a close friend of any notable character during the first 136 years of the Targaryen era, as Dunk is to Egg during the first half of the third Targaryen century, would not be diminished by everything we already know, or are told from the sources, about the major events in their lives.

 

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17 hours ago, The Bard of Banefort said:

Personally, I think he could very easily break Fire and Blood into three books if he wanted to, with the second book stretching from Aegon III to Daeron II. Not all books need to be 700 pages long (although I'm sure he could write more than that on Aegon IV alone).

I think it is completely unnecessary to split Fire and Blood into three books.

The first book already covered over 136 years of Targaryen history in Westeros, which leaves only a little over a decade more than half of the remainder of Targaryen history in Westeros left.

After covering 136+ years in the first volume, I would be extremely disappointed for the next volume to cover only the next 73 years, with the last 74 years being pushed off to another volume.

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11 minutes ago, Bael's Bastard said:

I think it is completely unnecessary to split Fire and Blood into three books.

The first book already covered over 136 years of Targaryen history in Westeros, which leaves only a little over a decade more than half of the remainder of Targaryen history in Westeros left.

After covering 136+ years in the first volume, I would be extremely disappointed for the next volume to cover only the next 73 years, with the last 74 years being pushed off to another volume.

More than that. By the time FaB2 is published we will have more 1 or 2 D&E and TWoW. Which means we will have a lot of the information of what happens in the last 90 years of targ rule. I doubt grrm will write in dept about someting we already know.

So given that what we will miss is the end of egg's reign or details about aerys and rhaegar I am almost sure that grrm will want to write about it in D&E and asoiaf instead of seriously spoiling it in FaB2.

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@Bael's Bastard

Why do you point out that my opinion is my opinion? That's pretty evident to anyone who can read...

You apparently don't care about being spoiled, but I do. And it is objectively a significant difference between TMK as I read it back before TWoIaF and those poor fellows who only happen to read that story after they have read Yandel's account on it. I didn't know the Second Blackfyre Rebellion was as much a failure as it was, but people knowing what we know now will have an objectively cheaper reading experience in relation to the conspiracy in TMK as well as in relation as to who survives and who doesn't.

Nobody said anything about FaB necessarily spoiling everything about Dunk & Egg. But I'm pretty sure the series as such will become less interesting to both myself, many other readers, and George himself if he has given us all the basic outlines of Dunk & Egg's life via Gyldayn. When I fell in love with Dunk & Egg it was when the only things about their lives were known that Egg would one day become king. That was it. And I'd like it if remains that way. Which means I want either no FaB II until Dunk & Egg are finished, or I want FaB II only covering Aegon II to Daeron II so that Dunk & Egg don't get spoiled.

Not to mention that FaB II wouldn't be a good or very detailed book if it had about the size of FaB I and were to cover all the remaining Targaryen kings. There are quite a few very important events especially in the first half of the era it were to cover that do deserve to be covered in as much detail as the Regency, the Dance, and Jaehaerys and Alysanne - most notably Daeron's Conquest of Dorne, the First Blackfyre Rebellion, Baelor's erratic reign, and the exploits of Aegon the Unworthy before and after he took his throne. Even the reign of the Dragonbane would deserve 200+ published pages considering the length of his reign and the coverage his minority got in FaB I.

If we had a 700+ pages book for the remaining kings one can guess how much pages Aegon III would get if were going with the hint that crucial wars get a Dance-like treatment. This wouldn't be a good book. In fact, it were likely to repeat the mistakes made in FaB I - the strange imbalances and coverage pretty insignificant things in great detail while crucial historical figures (like the Conqueror and his sister-wives) are effectively pretty much ignored.

I'd be very pissed if we only got, say, 50+ pages on Aegon III's actual reign, for instance.

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17 hours ago, Lord Varys said:

@Bael's Bastard

Why do you point out that my opinion is my opinion? That's pretty evident to anyone who can read...

You apparently don't care about being spoiled, but I do. And it is objectively a significant difference between TMK as I read it back before TWoIaF and those poor fellows who only happen to read that story after they have read Yandel's account on it. I didn't know the Second Blackfyre Rebellion was as much a failure as it was, but people knowing what we know now will have an objectively cheaper reading experience in relation to the conspiracy in TMK as well as in relation as to who survives and who doesn't.

Nobody said anything about FaB necessarily spoiling everything about Dunk & Egg. But I'm pretty sure the series as such will become less interesting to both myself, many other readers, and George himself if he has given us all the basic outlines of Dunk & Egg's life via Gyldayn. When I fell in love with Dunk & Egg it was when the only things about their lives were known that Egg would one day become king. That was it. And I'd like it if remains that way. Which means I want either no FaB II until Dunk & Egg are finished, or I want FaB II only covering Aegon II to Daeron II so that Dunk & Egg don't get spoiled.

Not to mention that FaB II wouldn't be a good or very detailed book if it had about the size of FaB I and were to cover all the remaining Targaryen kings. There are quite a few very important events especially in the first half of the era it were to cover that do deserve to be covered in as much detail as the Regency, the Dance, and Jaehaerys and Alysanne - most notably Daeron's Conquest of Dorne, the First Blackfyre Rebellion, Baelor's erratic reign, and the exploits of Aegon the Unworthy before and after he took his throne. Even the reign of the Dragonbane would deserve 200+ published pages considering the length of his reign and the coverage his minority got in FaB I.

If we had a 700+ pages book for the remaining kings one can guess how much pages Aegon III would get if were going with the hint that crucial wars get a Dance-like treatment. This wouldn't be a good book. In fact, it were likely to repeat the mistakes made in FaB I - the strange imbalances and coverage pretty insignificant things in great detail while crucial historical figures (like the Conqueror and his sister-wives) are effectively pretty much ignored.

I'd be very pissed if we only got, say, 50+ pages on Aegon III's actual reign, for instance.

It is apparently necessary to remind you that you are just stating your opinion because you make statements like "Getting an in-depth Targaryen history of the days of Aerys I to Aerys II before we have all Dunk & Egg stories would most definitely ruin much and more about all the unwritten Dunk & Egg stories, no matter how they were spun" as if they are a matter of fact. That is not a fact, just your opinion on the matter, which you are certainly entitled to.

Gyldayn can easily write about the reigns of Aerys I through Aegon V without omitting much of the important stuff that would be known to the realm, and without spoiling mysteries and excitement he could put into the stories he intends to tell in Dunk and Egg. No doubt Gyldayn's account will tell us about John the Fiddler, yet, he will be doing so after we have already read about that mystery. If someone happens to read TWOIAF or Fire and Blood Volume 2 before they read TMK, his reveal as Daemon might be spoiled, but it's not going to suddenly render TMK a poorer story, as anyone who has reread it and reread it again can attest.

An outline of the reigns that the tales of Dunk and Egg occur in is not going to give us all of the magic that occurs in a tale of Dunk and Egg, no matter how you spin it. The idea that an outline, even a somewhat revealing one, is going to ruin or make a tale of Dunk and Egg less interesting to readers doesn't make any sense. We all know, even in some detail, some of the major events that have occurred in Westerosi history, and yet those of us who are interested in the stories outside the main series would eat up a POV that takes places during pretty much any era or year in the Targaryen era.

I think it will be just fine if GRRM matches the second half of Fire and Blood to the first half. It's intended to be a popular history book, not a security camera giving us every detail of what actually happened every moment. Even if the first half had been 1400 pages, many of us would have been able to think of plenty of things we wish we'd learned more about. That is always going to be the case, no matter how much we get.

There is simply no need to split the second half of the Targaryen era into two books.

Only 17 Targaryen kings ruled, and we just got an account of the reigns of all of 6 of them and around a fifth of the reign of a 7th. Two of those kings alone - Aegon I and Jaehaerys I - covered over two thirds of the first 136 years of the Targaryen era, and if you add in a third - Viserys I - that covers all but 18 years of the first 136.

Yet, out of just over 700 pages, the 37 year reign plus conquest of Aegon I received 48 pages, the 55 year reign of Jaehaerys I received 244 pages, and the 26 year reign of Viserys received about 38 pages, a total of about 330 pages covering around 120 years.

The 11 years of the reigns and wars of Aenys and Maegor receive just under 60 pages, the 2 years or so of the reign of Aegon II and the Dance of the Dragons receive nearly 180 pages, and the first fifth or so of the 26 year reign of Aegon III receives almost 140 pages, a total of around 380 pages for around 18 years.

I would expect the Dornish Wars, the Blackfyre Rebellions during the reigns of Daeron II, Aerys I, and perhaps Jaehaerys I, and Baratheon rebellions during the reigns of Aegon V and Aerys II to get significant pages, but I don't think we can assume that a longer reign automatically means a lot of pages, or that a shorter reign means less pages.

I am not sure what about the rest of Aegon III's reign you think requires much more than 50 pages, but, while I am sure George is capable of inventing such things, I would rather hear about the interesting things over the course of the remaining reigns that we have been given hints or small descriptions of. I think we need to hear some nice descriptions about the growing up of Aegon III's children, Viserys's time as Hand and as the backbone between the end of the Dance and his own family taking the Iron Throne, the dying of the dragons, and Aegon's attempts to hatch new ones, but I don't think we need a hundred pages for the rest of his reign.

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58 minutes ago, Bael's Bastard said:

It is apparently necessary to remind you that you are just stating your opinion because you make statements like "Getting an in-depth Targaryen history of the days of Aerys I to Aerys II before we have all Dunk & Egg stories would most definitely ruin much and more about all the unwritten Dunk & Egg stories, no matter how they were spun" as if they are a matter of fact. That is not a fact, just your opinion on the matter, which you are certainly entitled to.

But it is clear that I'm giving my opinion there, considering that me rambling about an unwritten cannot possibly be seen or misinterpreted as a fact.

58 minutes ago, Bael's Bastard said:

Gyldayn can easily write about the reigns of Aerys I through Aegon V without omitting much of the important stuff that would be known to the realm, and without spoiling mysteries and excitement he could put into the stories he intends to tell in Dunk and Egg. No doubt Gyldayn's account will tell us about John the Fiddler, yet, he will be doing so after we have already read about that mystery. If someone happens to read TWOIAF or Fire and Blood Volume 2 before they read TMK, his reveal as Daemon might be spoiled, but it's not going to suddenly render TMK a poorer story, as anyone who has reread it and reread it again can attest.

It wouldn't change the quality of the story, but I'd still advise anyone to read Dunk & Egg before reading TWoIaF (just as I'd advise anyone to read TMK before ADwD to actually be able to savor the great moment when Bloodraven is introduced in Bran's second chapter there - without knowing who Bloodraven is ADwD actually becomes a cheaper reading experience). What's your advice to new readers in this regard? Would you advise them to spoil themselves by reading TWoIaF first?

If TWoIaF is any indication then Gyldayn's account of the reigns of Aerys I to Aerys II would pretty much suck. After all, we do know that George had rather detailed notes on key events in those eras, notes he actually shared with Ran and Linda to a point, and which did it not make into TWoIaF. A similar thing is bound to happen for an FaB coverage of that era as well. And that would diminish FaB worth as a history book, writing around rather than actually covering crucial events.

58 minutes ago, Bael's Bastard said:

An outline of the reigns that the tales of Dunk and Egg occur in is not going to give us all of the magic that occurs in a tale of Dunk and Egg, no matter how you spin it. The idea that an outline, even a somewhat revealing one, is going to ruin or make a tale of Dunk and Egg less interesting to readers doesn't make any sense. We all know, even in some detail, some of the major events that have occurred in Westerosi history, and yet those of us who are interested in the stories outside the main series would eat up a POV that takes places during pretty much any era or year in the Targaryen era.

No, I'd not care much about an Aethan Velaryon POV during the apparently largely uneventful reign of Aegon the Conqueror.

A novel or story needs a plot. If there is no plot then there is no story there to be told. And the basic plots details of the entire life and reign of Aegon V would have to be given by Gyldayn in a history of his reign. George is a writer who greatly plays with twists and turns. Could there be any great surprise now in a novel or a series of novels on the Dance, say? Or Maegor's wars and reign? I don't think so. There could be additional details and small surprises around characters that weren't mentioned in FaB, but we already do know what happens to all the major characters.

I'd also not call a detailed history of the reigns of Maekar or Aegon V an outline. Portions of it could be as detailed as the Regency material or the reign of Jaehaerys I. And that's very detailed.

58 minutes ago, Bael's Bastard said:

I think it will be just fine if GRRM matches the second half of Fire and Blood to the first half. It's intended to be a popular history book, not a security camera giving us every detail of what actually happened every moment. Even if the first half had been 1400 pages, many of us would have been able to think of plenty of things we wish we'd learned more about. That is always going to be the case, no matter how much we get.

It would still be a ridiculous imbalanced two volume history if the Dance and the (pretty uneventful and irrelevant) Regency of Aegon III got much more detailed coverage than the reigns of other, more crucial periods. And George's tendency is to make it all more detailed anyway. The Regency material and the material on Jaehaerys I is the youngest material written for FaB. It is the most detailed material, and chances are that the reigns of Aegon III, Daeron I, Baelor I, etc. are going to get only more detailed.

The Regency establishes an entire ensemble of main characters - we don't have the kings as main characters and their children as extras/future main characters. To continue all that is going to take a lot of pages. George isn't the kind of author that looks at an ensemble and then says 'Well, this was supposed to be just two books, let's cut the cast back into size and change the narrative tone of the book so that I can finish this in a couple of hundred pages.' Else ASoIaF would have been finished a long time ago - and it would have remained the trilogy it was supposed to be.

FaB wasn't a planned book. Its oldest texts have the scope of those side bars George was supposed to write for TWoIaF. They started to grow and escalate in time. The newest material is very detailed, and there is no indication that he is going to go back to this 'side bar' level anymore (else Jaehaerys I would have gotten as many pages as Aegon I). But he would have to do that to put all the Targaryen kings in one future volume. 

What really worsens the quality of the book is the obvious difference in tone and style due to those changing approaches during the writing process (and no proper rewriting to amend all that afterwards). Just take Septon Moon as an example to illustrate this - the man only gets name-dropped in TSotD but in the first Jaehaerys chapter he is suddenly a character in his own right and entire pages are spent on his eventual demise. That was a waste of pages. Moon's introduction didn't warrant such a great focus on his end - to make this fit properly in the overall conception of the book the man should have gotten more space in TSotD.

If George were just to reduce the main characters that grew to great prominence during the Dance to extras again then this two volume history would become an utter disaster on a conceptual level. And he is not likely to do that. He obviously grew very attached to all those characters who he created for/during the Dance. Else there wouldn't have been this much material on the largely uneventful and pretty much irrelevant Regency era. Both Alyn Velaryon's first voyage and the Lysene Spring were completely irrelevant for a history of the reign of Aegon III. They could have been covered in a couple of paragraphs.

Those books are also not written to explore on hints or details given in other materials (although that may happen as well). Jaehaerys I's laws on the judicial privileges of the Faith were not addressed, whereas a lot of stuff was invented out of whole cloth we had no clues about whatsoever. The same thing is likely to happen for all the reigns of the future kings, especially those we don't know anything about at this point (like Aegon III or Maekar).

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The idea that one book can cover adult Aegon III-Aegon V or Aerys II is patently ridiculous. The sheer compression that would necessitate means each king could only get about fifty pages worth of material. And can anyone tell me with a straight face that the FBR or the Conquest of Dorne could honestly be covered in just that many pages? Not to mention Aegon IV, who GRRM has enough thoughts on to write a whole book about in another world where he had more time.

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It isn't at all ridiculous. It is obvious from the first volume that we can't make assumptions about how much each king will or should get based on the number of years they reigned.

The 2 year reign of Aegon II/Dance of Dragons civil war received just under 70 pages less than the 55 year reign of Jaehaerys I, which was one of the newest pieces written, and more than the reigns of Aegon I, Aenys, Maegor, and Viserys I combined.

The 5 year regency of Aegon III received just over 100 pages less than the 55 year reign of Jaehaerys I, and about as many pages as the reigns of Aegon I, Aenys, Maegor, and Viserys I combined.

The 11 combined years reigns and wars of Aenys and Maegor received more than the 37 year reign of Aegon I or the 26 years reign of Viserys I.

During the last almost 11 full reigns left, over the last less than 150 years of the Targaryen era, we have two kings that ruled for less than 5 years combined (Viserys II and Jaehaerys II), two kings that ruled for a combined 14 years (Daeron I and Baelor), three kings who each reigned 12 years each (Aegon IV, Aerys I, Maekar), and three kings who each ruled over 20 years, but whose reigns combined were only about 11 years more than Jaehaerys I alone (who got 244 pages total).

While there is no doubt plenty to write about for that period and those reigns, the assumption that GRRM must write two books for a period covering only about a decade more than he covered in the first volume, is delusional. It remains to be seen what he will actually do, and whether he will get on a roll that requires expanding to three books, but I seem to recall it being stated that he still has every intention to fit everything he wanted to write about the remaining half of the Targaryen era in a second volume.

I am as greedy for information about Targaryen era Westeros as anyone, but some of the assumptions people are making are unreasonable. 
 

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It is unreasonable to assume that a man trying to write a trilogy ended up writing a series spanning five books at present which are supposed to now be seven books in total - assuming he can finish ASoIaF in seven books (which I don't think he will) he would have still more than doubled the number of books he originally wanted to write.

The 700+ pages of FaB grew out of short and condensed 'side bars' for an illustrated book that was not supposed to grow as large as it did, either. If George could actually limit himself when he really wants to write or actually write according to plans, we would have neither TWoIaF nor FaB in its present forms. We would just have condensed side bars in TWoIaF.

Making FaB II covering Aegon III to Daeron II would be the smarter move on at least three fronts:

1. It would not spoil anything about Dunk & Egg.

2. It could provide interesting background information on various characters featuring in (future) Dunk & Egg stories, especially in relation to Blackfyre stuff.

3. It could be written and published before ASoIaF is completed and before the Dunk & Egg stories are completed.

By making the conscious decision to make another split there the tale doesn't really have to grow in the telling or being split when grows too large, but could actually be split exactly as planned. The split after the end of the Regency of Aegon III is completely arbitrary and has literally no narrative purpose. There is not even any attempt made to make this 'a natural end' of the narrative.

I'm pretty sure the part of Gyldayn's history that covers Dunk & Egg will not be published before Dunk & Egg are completed. If George were to stick to the two books plan he would try to finish ASoIaF and Dunk & Egg before returning to Gyldayn. I honestly don't see George returning to Dunk & Egg ever if he covers Egg's life in detail first. It would not longer interest him enough to continue writing about their lives. And since he actually has other unwritten/unfinished projects in his drawer - two unfinished novels, numerous unfinished short stories series' - the chances are pretty high that if he were to write anything after finishing ASoIaF and FaB he would turn to some of those rather than Dunk & Egg.

I mean, honestly, we could just as well ask him to have Gyldayn write up an account on Robert's, Joffrey's, Tommen's reign - and whoever comes thereafter including throughout the entire War for the Dawn - and only then finish ASoIaF. Do we want a history as detailed as that on the Dance or the Regency on ASoIaF before we get all the books? I don't think anybody wants that, nor does it make much sense to claim one would not be spoiled if one get that. Which is precisely my view on Dunk & Egg, too.

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6 hours ago, The Grey Wolf said:

The idea that one book can cover adult Aegon III-Aegon V or Aerys II is patently ridiculous. The sheer compression that would necessitate means each king could only get about fifty pages worth of material. And can anyone tell me with a straight face that the FBR or the Conquest of Dorne could honestly be covered in just that many pages? Not to mention Aegon IV, who GRRM has enough thoughts on to write a whole book about in another world where he had more time.

See, that's how I feel as well. I do think he'll try to contain it to one book, but judging with George's history of his books multiplying into several more installments than anticipated, I have a hard time envisioning him pulling it off, especially when one considers how much he clearly loves writing histories. Jaehaerys' reign spanned eight chapters. Aegon's regency alone was a good 150-odd pages. Judging by how long Aegon IV, Daeron II, Aegon V, and Aerys II were in power, I imagine that they'll each have multiple chapters as well. In addition to that, we have the Conquest of Dorne, the Blackfyre Rebellions (the first two should be covered, at the very least), the War of the Ninepenny Kings, and Robert's Rebellion. 

This doesn't bother me, because I love GRRM's history books and stories, although I can understand that not everyone shares that enthusiasm. On the bright side, he probably already has the majority of the this material written.

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32 minutes ago, The Grey Wolf said:

Can't remember. If you look up V2 I'm sure you'll find it.

My reason for thinking he has probably written most of V2 already is because a lot of the material was already in TWOIAF, which we know was cut down for length. I'm also guessing that, assuming that he was on a roll, he probably kept writing for a bit after finishing the Regency. 

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