List of mistakes in the books

[Hangover of the Morning]

I only very recently find out that ADwD was edited by Elio & Linda (see quote below). It is slightly unsettling to see that George uses his fans (rather than actual professionals) to do proof-reading and editing for him. And they didn't have enough time so they only "caught" about 90% of the mistakes. What was the rush? People were waiting six years, they could have waited a week or month more.

Sounds like there is really no beta-reading or feedback involved and the publishers take whatever George gives them. No wonder AFfC and ADwD were such uneven bags and quite a disappointment for me. I feel that a decent editor would tell George to reduce to minimum some of the pointless travelogues or to insist on the books actually having some beginning, middle and resolution for the major characters. Just my opinion.

Linda and I alone passed along over a hundred typo and detail corrections for our part, and we still missed a few (most notably, I hold myself responsible for the kingsmoot -> kingswood problem; kicking myself for just having missed it). There were hundreds of little fixes across the text, and some not so little (you have Linda and I to thank for not having to wonder what the hell the Hornwoods were doing beyond the Wall with the wildlings), so compared to the amount that got through ... not 100%, but I'd say at least a 90% success rate, as far as such things go.
Had George finished it three months earlier, I think it would likely have been much more polished. Editing is really the sort of thing where you want to edit, put it aside awhile, and then come back to it fresh and edit again. They just didn't have the time to do it.

[Lord Varys]

GRRM has professional editors as well, but as somebody who is working on the German editions of these books I can say that this is not really easy, not even if you are as inversed in the material as Ran and Linda. And I'm pretty sure he and Linda only proofread the stuff after George was finished.

But it's pretty clear that ADwD was way too rushed for its appearance. That's not only evident by the number of mistakes in the chapters of the book, but most especially in the appendix. That thing was poorly hammered together. Some sections reflect the pre-AFfC situation (House Tyrell), others contain spoilers for the books (Beyond the Wall, which reveals the name of the three-eyed crow - I hated it, when that was spoiled in the appendix; the tidbit on Astapor that lists all the successors of King Cleon), others are just messed up, like 'The Boy King' section - there is still the old High Septon in there, not the High Sparrow ('an old man, and frail'), Jaime is listed as a member of the Small Council (which he technically is), as well Qyburn, who has been fired, whereas Ser Harys as Master of Coin and Lord Randyll Tarly as Master of Law is not mentioned at all. The same is true for the members of Cersei's former Small Council, which also omits Swyft and makes no mention of Qyburn.

[Mithras]

I don't know if this was mentioned before but Qyburn's eye color change should be a mistake too. Jaime describes him with brown eyes in Harrenhal and then at Tywin's room after he died, Cersei says that he has bold blue eyes. Jaime is also present in this scene.

[Arya Havinfun]

I don't know if this was mentioned before but Qyburn's eye color change should be a mistake too. Jaime describes him with brown eyes in Harrenhal and then at Tywin's room after he died, Cersei says that he has bold blue eyes. Jaime is also present in this scene.

bold blue eyes... I had missed that... as if Qyburn weren't creepy enough!

[Bori]

I've found one which was not mentioned so far:

in AFfC, Brienne I:

The hedge knights and the septon washed down the meat with ale, but Brienne drank a cup of goat’s milk.

I think it was supposed to be "the merchant" because there is no septon in the inn.

[Mike001]

I'm just reading the 1st book & a conversation (which apparently made it to the TV series as well) that Tyrion has with Mormont up at the wall is bugging me.

How could Tyrion, who's what, 28-30 years old, have seen 8 or 9 winters? It's not possible, even the long summer up until that point has been 9 years long.

[jlk7e]

On that prince thing:

Cat does not become Queen Mother, yes, but when Robert became King Stannis and Renly were pretty much in the same situation than Bran and Rickon were, when Robb was declared king. They were his immediate heirs, but only his brothers. They would be pushed back in the line of succession as soon as Robb had children of his own body. But that would not have excluded them from the line of succession, just as Stannis and Renly remained there. So one should really assume that both Stannis and Renly were styled princes when Robert ascended the Iron Throne, and would continue to be styled that way even after Cersei had given births to 'Robert's children'.

That's even more the case since the Baratheon brothers are the grandchildren of a Targaryen princess. Sure, Steffon Baratheon most likely was not styled 'Prince Steffon' because he was technically a Baratheon and the heir to Storm's End, but he was cousin to the royal couple, and actually not that far behind in the line of succession as long as Aerys had only one son.

Keeping that in mind, it makes even less sense to assume that Stannis and Renly would not style themselves 'princes'.

1. They are brothers to the ruling king.

2. They were already closely related to the Targaryen dynasty before Robert took the Iron Throne.

But we are not assuming anything! Stannis and Renly are not styled as Princes during their brother's reign. That is just a fact depicted, repeatedly, in the books. Similarly, Victarion and Aeron are never styled as princes after Balon claims the throne. On the other hand, Robb's brothers are so styled. There doesn't have to be any consistency here. In the British system, sons and grandsons (in the male line) of the monarch are automatically princes, but a brother of the king would not automatically be so styled. This would have to be a specific decision made by the King. Similarly, the younger son of a Duke is "Lord Firstname Lastname," but the brother of a duke (whose father was never duke) is just "Mr. Firstname Lastname," unless he gets special permission to be styled as the younger son of a duke.

This seems to be more or less how it works in Westeros. Robert never bothered to grant his brothers the title of Prince, so they aren't princes. Robb did decide to call his brothers princes, so that's how they're called. I don't understand why this is something you feel you need to "fix."

[Lord of Moat Cailin]

One thing George has said was that, in retrospect, he wished he had varied titles a little -- having all the lords just be lords wasn't as colorful as he wanted. I believe he speculated on using the title of 'Earl' for the lords of the Great Houses. So I think a change along these lines might be one that would be in the spirit of his intentions.

I may be mixing this up but I thought Earls were lesser lords, wouldnt it be like Duke or something

[ilikethesebooks]

I disagree with what your doing. It isn't your story and you should tell it as it was written

[ilikethesebooks]

I disagree with what your doing. It isn't your story and you should tell it as it was written