What will GRRM work on after TWOW? Fire&Blood 2 or Dream of Spring?

[Alyn Oakenfist]

So at this point it's pretty clear TWOW is almost finished and GRRM will release it soon. The question is what will he do next? In my mind any of the 2 would be very cool.

[frenin]

He said that Dream.

But i think that FB2 would be simply awesome.

[rotting sea cow]

The Tales of Spotted Pate

 

[James Steller]

Honestly, I’d be happy with Fire and Blood 2. Aegon III is one of the best characters that GRRM has ever created.

[Arthur Peres]

Could also be the 4 book of Duncan and Egg

[kissdbyfire]

Martin has already talked about this, and recently. Here’s what he said:

George did talk about his schedule in terms of the order of things he wants to publish things in. No dates were mentioned and the order sounded aspirational rather than set in stone:

The Winds of Winter

Dunk & Egg IV (either The She-Wolves or The Village Hero)

A Dream of Spring

Dunk & Egg V (either The Village Hero or The She-Wolves)

Fire & Blood II

There will also be more Dunk & Egg short stories after the fifth one.

 

[Daemon The Black Dragon]

8 hours ago, Alyn Oakenfist said:

So at this point it's pretty clear TWOW is almost finished and GRRM will release it soon. The question is what will he do next? In my mind any of the 2 would be very cool.

House of the Dragon probably.

[Lord Varys]

I'm not going to complain if he puts out FaB II next. If that helps him deal with a writer's block/he cannot continue with ADoS (or TWoW, that is) he can certainly also continue the history thing.

Keep in mind he wrote the entire Jaehaerys I material while also working on TWoW. One imagines he can produce more of that sort much quicker than proper novels.

[divica]

2 hours ago, Lord Varys said:

I'm not going to complain if he puts out FaB II next. If that helps him deal with a writer's block/he cannot continue with ADoS (or TWoW, that is) he can certainly also continue the history thing.

Keep in mind he wrote the entire Jaehaerys I material while also working on TWoW. One imagines he can produce more of that sort much quicker than proper novels.

He can t write FaB2 before writting a lot more of dunk and egg.

It would give too many spoilers about the last books of D&E and it isn t a book we really need. With D&E he can give a more detailed story of events slighty earlier than the D&E novels and what actually happens until duncan's death. It is basically the story of F&B2...

[Lord Varys]

18 hours ago, divica said:

He can t write FaB2 before writting a lot more of dunk and egg.

It would give too many spoilers about the last books of D&E and it isn t a book we really need. With D&E he can give a more detailed story of events slighty earlier than the D&E novels and what actually happens until duncan's death. It is basically the story of F&B2...

He could, if he were to only cover the kings from Aegon III to Daeron II in that second book (or, to keep the pattern of weirdo endings, close the FaB II after the Second Blackfyre Rebellion - that would as great a natural ending as closing the book after the Regency of Aegon III).

I'm a strong proponent of the idea that the reigns of Aerys I to Aerys II should not be covered in FaB before Dunk & Egg are not completely. In fact, TWoIaF already spoiled far too much about that era, and a detailed coverage of those reigns by Gyldayn would have to spoil things even more. We would know massive stuffs like many enemies and friends of Aegon V, who sat on his council, served as his Hand (at least at some times), who his sisters married, more details on the Blackfyre stuff, etc.

Just because the content of some obscure Dunk & Egg stories dealing with minor events (sort of like TSS) wouldn't be spoiled, doesn't mean this wouldn't take the fun out of the novellas. It was really great reading the first three novellas without knowing anything about the era and having the feeling that everything could happen.

And I fear that George definitely would lose a lot of motivation to write the stories if he had laid many of the details in FaB. He doesn't like to write about things he already knows all that much.

[Ran]

GRRM has no plans to write a third F&B volume, from what I know of the subject, so yeah, no surprise he's not planning to do F&B's second volume until after ADoS.

[divica]

25 minutes ago, Lord Varys said:

He could, if he were to only cover the kings from Aegon III to Daeron II in that second book (or, to keep the pattern of weirdo endings, close the FaB II after the Second Blackfyre Rebellion - that would as great a natural ending as closing the book after the Regency of Aegon III).

That is like 50 years of history. I wouldn t say that it is really a book… And with asoiaf and D&E covering bloodraven and blackfyre history it isn t a book we really need. On the other hand D&E will give us harrenhall, more details on profecy, more details about dragon hatching...

17 minutes ago, Ran said:

GRRM has no plans to write a third F&B volume, from what I know of the subject, so yeah, no surprise he's not planning to do F&B's second volume until after ADoS.

IT is what makes sense. That way he can have a book with all recent story put together...

Has he changed the amount of D&E novels he plans to write? Because he should end that story before aDoS no?

[kissdbyfire]

6 minutes ago, divica said:

Has he changed the amount of D&E novels he plans to write? Because he should end that story before aDoS no?

There’s a bit on that in the link I posted up thread. 

George noted that he had identified 12 possible stories/episodes from Dunk & Egg's life that could be expanded into short stories, including the 3 already published, so that's 9 potential further stories for the duo. From previous interviews we know that the next two - "The She-Wolves" and "The Village Hero" (both working titles) - are planned in some depth and "The She-Wolves" is partially or even mostly written, but GRRM wasn't sure what order to publish them in. Both are on hold until TWoW is done.

I don’t understand why you think he should finish all the D&E before ADoS?

[divica]

2 minutes ago, kissdbyfire said:

There’s a bit on that in the link I posted up thread. 

George noted that he had identified 12 possible stories/episodes from Dunk & Egg's life that could be expanded into short stories, including the 3 already published, so that's 9 potential further stories for the duo. From previous interviews we know that the next two - "The She-Wolves" and "The Village Hero" (both working titles) - are planned in some depth and "The She-Wolves" is partially or even mostly written, but GRRM wasn't sure what order to publish them in. Both are on hold until TWoW is done.

I don’t understand why you think he should finish all the D&E before ADoS?

Because of the profecy about the ptwp and what happened in harrenhall. I don t think he can finish the main series without giving more details about egg's thought process. And those events are the high points of the last book(s) of D&E.

[kissdbyfire]

7 minutes ago, divica said:

Because of the profecy about the ptwp and what happened in harrenhall. I don t think he can finish the main series without giving more details about egg's thought process. And those events are the high points of the last book(s) of D&E.

You mean Summerhall, right? At any rate, I don’t think he needs to finish all D&E before ADoS... because whatever we learn about the prophecy in Dream won’t spoil anything in the D&E stories b/c we still won’t know what Aegon V thought or tried to do or anything. Only that whoever tried whatever it was, it went terribly wrong (or not!), and we already know that.

[Lord Varys]

12 minutes ago, divica said:

That is like 50 years of history. I wouldn t say that it is really a book… And with asoiaf and D&E covering bloodraven and blackfyre history it isn t a book we really need. On the other hand D&E will give us harrenhall, more details on profecy, more details about dragon hatching...

If the kings were given the Jaehaerys/Alysanne and Dance/Regency treatment then those kings should have more than enough material to dwell on - the rest of Aegon III's reign wouldn't fit together with the rest if he were racing through it in, say, 50 pages or so (like he did with the bulk of the reign of Jaehaerys I), Daeron's Conquest and Baelor the Blessed reign could cover a couple of hundred pages if done right, as could the exploits of Aegon the Unworthy and the buildup for the Blackfyre Rebellion.

Also, considering how the story expanded after the Dance FaB would also become the story of Alyn and Baela and Rhaena and Garmund and their children and grandchildren, Elaena and her children, and, of course, all the secondary characters we met during the Dance and Regency (Cregan and Aly, the Arryns, Lannisters, Baratheons, Blackwoods, etc.).

In the wake of Daeron II's betrothal and marriage (and even before, due to the war) Dorne should also become a major focus which, after Daenerys and Maron marry, should eventually also include a cursory inclusion of House Martell as a cadet branch of House Targaryen.

If you ask me, Aerys I, Maekar and Aegon V aren't important as a history book take. They could be told completely via Dunk & Egg. Jaehaerys II are only three years, and about Aerys II we know pretty much everything we might want to know from TWoIaF (and crucial things that are missing are likely going to be mentioned in the main series).

If you count the kings then 1,000 pages book is likely not going to do the subject matter justice. It would likely be as unbalanced a book as FaB I - where the Conqueror and Aenys and Maegor and Jaehaerys I later years and Viserys I certainly could have deserved more detail of the kind we got for Jaehaerys I's earlier years and the Regency after the Dance. Its those chapters that really present characters, the other chapters are at times very superficial.

If you ask people about the best prose/stories in the book it is Rhaena's story, the Farman voyage, the Aerea tragedy, and the Regency material. That's where you have living, breathing characters. The other stuff cannot hold up compared to that.

And it is this good stuff we should want to read in a second volume.

As for Summerhall:

That seems to be strictly Dunk & Egg business. It should be covered exclusively in a Dunk & Egg story. I'm not even sure whether this matters in relation to ASoIaF. The prophecy of the promised prince matters - but Jaehaerys II was the one believing in that, not Aegon V, and Summerhall apparently had nothing to do with that. There might be some more references to Summerhall in the main series, but this secret doesn't have to be revealed in the main series (and especially not in a history book).

 

[Platypus Rex]

On 11/19/2019 at 10:34 AM, Alyn Oakenfist said:

So at this point it's pretty clear TWOW is almost finished and GRRM will release it soon.

That's news to me.  Did I miss something?

[Loge]

5 hours ago, Platypus Rex said:

That's news to me.  Did I miss something?

Not sure what makes the OP so optimistic. The book has probably been "almost finished" for years. However, GRRM made a statement earlier this year that he wants to finish the book before the 2020 World Science Fiction Convention. 

[Lord Aegon The Compromiser]

Whatever book is in between TWOW and ADOS. This is going 8-9 books folks. There's simply way too much to wrap up in 2 books and GRRM always blows well past his word count.

[Platypus Rex]

6 hours ago, Loge said:

Not sure what makes the OP so optimistic. The book has probably been "almost finished" for years. However, GRRM made a statement earlier this year that he wants to finish the book before the 2020 World Science Fiction Convention. 

Right.  His comment about the 2020 August convention was not a promise of anything.  Nor was it a progress report.  It was just him trying to psych himself up to get stuff done.