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Winds of June- Not a Blog Post


TyrionsFlagon

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23 minutes ago, Takiedevushkikakzvezdy said:

I remember bets from veteran fans that Winds would be released in 2014. I still need some milk of the poppy from that pain.  :bawl:

you destroyed my optimistic mood:bawl: in 2014 , I was hardly old enough to read the books

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5 hours ago, The Bard of Banefort said:

What makes you think it will be out next year?

a sheer amount of unreasonable faith! 

but ,seriously, I've got three reasons :

First of all , I count feast and dance as one book and I expect Winds to be a book as big as those two combined . Storm was published in 2000 , Dance was published 11 years later. so , I think Winds could be done after , say, 11-13 years which means 2022-2024 :) 

then , during quarantine George made a lot of blog posts about writing Winds and it was right when I was re-reading the series with more passion and really became obsessed , so , naturally , I believed George about his progress . I know that afterwards he made the comments about "hundreds of more pages" and hasn't seemed exactly excited about Winds, but ,believe it or not , the more he goes on and on about his other projects , the more I wonder if he is just doing last minutes edits on Winds and that the book is more or less written

and lastly , I am simply not yet ready to accept that I've put an awful lot of time on reading, re-reading and exploring theories about a book that will never be finished! (note that GoT was the first book of this size I read in a foreign language , therefore , it did take a while )  

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It's worth remembering that GRRM's current fans are just a fraction of what he hopes his readership will be for generations to come. Compare how many people read LotR when it was released to how many have read it since, and will probably continue to read it into the future. So I can understand that he wants to get the ending right so that the series will stand the test of time and secure his place in the pantheon of fantasy greats, and that trumps getting it released quickly to satisfy a relatively small section of people.

This is his magnum opus, by his own admission, and as such he has his lifetime to complete it. I hope he does because I love this story, and the way he tells it, and I want to read the ending in his words. I think he will. So may the Mother grant him mercy from the wrath of his fans, may the Smith bless his typing finger. He doesn't need the Crone's lamp to guide him because he knows exactly where he's going. So Smith, let's go before we make it the Six.

 

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I grieved a bit over the last few announcements but I'm over it.  I just don't look at these things anymore and I've recently discovered some very entertaining and interesting podcasters.  There is still a lot of fun conversation to be found if that's what you are after..  I suspect GRRM will be discussed for decades after all is said and done.

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4 minutes ago, LynnS said:

I grieved a bit over the last few announcements but I'm over it.  I just don't look at these things anymore and I've recently discovered some very entertaining and interesting podcasters.  There is still a lot of fun conversation to be found if that's what you are after..

podcasts , videos and discussions are all so much fun (albeit they are usually dreadfully long) , however , I can't imagine how can people enjoy them if they don't think there will be a conclusion to the story , especially when it comes to theorizing contents. 

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3 minutes ago, EggBlue said:

, I can't imagine how can people enjoy them if they don't think there will be a conclusion to the story , especially when it comes to theorizing contents. 

It's something people can express opinions on with absolute conviction without fear of being proven wrong.

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22 minutes ago, LynnS said:

I grieved a bit over the last few announcements but I'm over it.  I just don't look at these things anymore and I've recently discovered some very entertaining and interesting podcasters.  There is still a lot of fun conversation to be found if that's what you are after..  I suspect GRRM will be discussed for decades after all is said and done.

What podcasts do you listen to?

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11 minutes ago, The Bard of Banefort said:

What podcasts do you listen to?

I've been binging on In Deep Geek lately.  And Valar Rereadis (History of Westeros), Joe Magician and Not A Podcast Reread.  All of these produce content on a weekly basis or so and  I just find them interesting, entertaining and a lot of good energy.

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1 hour ago, EggBlue said:

podcasts , videos and discussions are all so much fun (albeit they are usually dreadfully long) , however , I can't imagine how can people enjoy them if they don't think there will be a conclusion to the story , especially when it comes to theorizing contents. 

It keeps my mind ticking over in a positive way.  We are always reassessing what we think we know or how we understand the story and characters.  That's as true now as it was ten years ago.  It's more an exchange of ideas now, much less adversarial and confrontational than it was early days.  Plus there is still lots of speculation about where the story goes from here that is still so enjoyable to contemplate.      

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2 hours ago, three-eyed monkey said:

It's worth remembering that GRRM's current fans are just a fraction of what he hopes his readership will be for generations to come.

The number of people who will read a series of 1000-page novels is fairly limited, though. GRRM got lucky that the show became as popular as it did, and even then only a fraction of show watchers actually read the books

I honestly don't know how much room for growth there is at this point.

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1 hour ago, Takiedevushkikakzvezdy said:

I honestly don't know how much room for growth there is at this point.

It really depends. People are reading Tolkien's works a hundred years later. I can't see Martin's works generating that sort of generational following if he doesn't actually finish the novels.

Sure he has the show and it's spinoffs. But considering the way the show ended, will people really be watching that in 30+ years? I don't know. Guess it depends on how the spinoffs do.

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If George manages to finish Dunk and Egg (which could happen if he goes into one of psycho-inspired phases, like he apparently was with FnB) then that story will live on. I know people who couldn’t get into ASOIAF but loved A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. They can be enjoyed on their own. In this instance, ASOIAF would just be the supplementary material.

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1 hour ago, Takiedevushkikakzvezdy said:

The number of people who will read a series of 1000-page novels is fairly limited, though. GRRM got lucky that the show became as popular as it did, and even then only a fraction of show watchers actually read the books

I honestly don't know how much room for growth there is at this point.

To be fair, he writes 1000-page novels, therefore people who will read 1000-page novels are his target market, and so far it is estimated that he sold 90 million copies.

I'm not comparing it to television figures. I think the show did about 20 million viewers a week at it's peak, and I fully accept that most viewers don't read the books. The show did great for book sales though, moving GRRM form around 10 or 15 million copies before the show, which are numbers 99.9% of writers can only dream of, to 90 million by the time the show was done. That's what happens though, whenever there is a television or cinema adaptation. I bet a lot of copies of Dune have been sold in the last couple of years.

In 1999, LotR had sold an estimated 150 million copies. Since then, largely due to the Peter Jackson's movies in the early 2000's, it is estimated that LotR sales have grown to around 400 million. These books were published in the 1950's, and JRRT died in the 1970's. Yet more copies have been sold in the first 20 years of this century than the last 50 years of the last century. I doubt JRRT could ever have envisaged Amazon paying his estate a reported $250 million to adapt his work all these years later, and that's not to mention the bounce in book sales that is almost inevitable as a result of the show bringing his story to the attention of a new generation of potential readers, who do exist if growing book sales over the last number of years is anything to go by.

So I would say there is always room for growth. There are people still buying copies of Don Quixote 400 years later, with estimated total sales for that book running close to half a billion now.

However, Don Quixote and Lord of the Rings are complete. If GRRM doesn't finish ASoIaF then it is unlikely to stand the test of time, because readers like an ending and are less likely to start a series that has no ending, so that will have a big bearing on any potential future growth. In fact I would be fearful that the story could fade into obscurity over time if it remains unfinished, and that would be a pity because I think it's a great story, but great stories need great satisfying endings, or at least an ending.

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