[ADWD SPOILERS] After ADWD, how big is your anticipation for the next book?

[Howdyphillip]

I also tend to think the hyperbolic reactions, ie: I SO DISAPPOINTED AND I HATES GRRM FOREVERZZ sound like spoiled teenagers.

I haven't actually read much of this at all. I have read really thought out and articulate reasons that people haven't enjoyed aspects of the story. I am in disagreement with a large portion of this talk, but also feel like there is some very valid points that have been addressed. I have enjoyed reading others opinions even if they are not my own.

[cutters10c]

When the release date is announced and it is 6 months away, I'll start getting excited. But at the moment it's hard to have that much anticipation for something that is likely 5+ years away at best.

[wingman]

I really look forward to the next book :D. I can't wait to see dany triumph! I want to see what will be of Jon and Tyron. I also want to see Bolton and the freys to suffer painful deaths. About the complaints about a dance with dragons, I loved the book and even if it's not the best grrm's book, it's much better than a lot of books around.

Thank god I have the tv serie to keep me busy until god knows when.

[gmavridis]

I wonder how the time will pass until it gets published.

Hopefully the TV series will be a good companion.

[A Song Of Vice And Ire]

Unfortunately, I just plain don't care about the characters any more. And from the way GRRM (and some folk here) is talking, I'm can't pretend that the parts of ADWD that disappointed me are a good reason to think TWOW will be better. There's no guarantee of a resolution of anything, or an interesting plot, or an interesting and original bit of world/character development. And it's likely to be overlong and badly edited.

Unless he's honest and admits that AFFC and ADWD are not perfect and not actually what he'd want to read if he had a bit more time in hindsight to write them over then I'm not going to anticipate the next book. I expect I'll read it if and when it comes out, though I also expect I'd be as satisfied checking it out on wiki to see what happened. If anything.

[Alexia]

It will come when it comes. What I really am looking forward to is the release of the paperback with the spoiler chapter, hopefully of Sansa.

In the meantime, I will entertain myself by rereading ADWD at some point in the next couple months, discussing everything on this site, watching the HBO series, and reading other books. I have a stack of unread books on my nightstand at the moment to work though.

I'm deliberately trying not to get keyed up too much right now. I don't expect another book for at least three years.

[L’Age d’or]

I'm on the same boat with the OP. I just feel too exhausted to eagerly anticipate anything anymore being a WOT fan and now this, you catch my drift.

[Riverrun]

I don't know if my opinion here really counts because I only waited for Dance since Christmas when I read the other books, but I liked it. Sure Dany was kind of boring, but she has always been less fun for me, and I thought Theon, Davos and Bran really took off! Sure Cersei and Daenerys' storylines moves at a snail pace (some people have been waiting a decade for Cersei's trail, all she did was walk around naked) but lots of others really did move, it's like a preperation stage where the world needed a respite to recuperate before the next round in the game of thrones! By the time TWoW starts;

Jaime will have arrived with Briene to see Lady Stoneheart (I think the nonchalant "come with me, dude" entrance of Briene was that way because she originally finds Jaime in her own POV but then hers gets pushed to TWoW so it feels forced)

Davos will navigate to Skaagos and find Rickon -claim to Winterfell

Littlefinger will marry Sansa off to someone (Harry/Aegon?) - claim to winterfell

Bran will gain further powers of greenseeing, since he spent three books tyring to do that I don't understand why people keep mentioning nobody doing anything! Bran finished his decade long goal, everybody! xD

Cersei will (FINALLY) have her trial, followed by a Tyrell/Lannister Power struggle

the (Heavily) prophesized man with blue eyes and a red sword in his hand (Wight Jon) will come to be

Melisandre will look into her fires about Stannis being dead

Arya may or may not continue training with the faceless men, not sure where this story is going but it's still refreshing to read, for me at least

Stannis, if alive will negotiate with the iron bank and war with the bastard Bolton. If dead, he will try his darndest to be the best lawn ornament he can be!

Varys will... I have no idea. I can never tell what he is about to do

Asha will try to use Theons abscence to nullify the kingsmoot and have a do over!

the Mereenese knot can be resolved in a prequel POV showing some major part of the conflict, then we have one from Tyrion, Barristan, and possibly Victarion in a row all in the battle, the Daenerys arrives in the artermath and they all head off home. That one is wishful thinking, admittedly

My point is, everyone is refreshed and well positioned to make some major moves in the next round of the game of thrones! There was a lull and some recovery time after a storm of swords, but now it's hopefully going to be back in the thick of things! So yes, I am rather looking forward to the next book, which I have faith will be more like the first few instead of a respite! :D

[BoldAsYouPlease]

I'll buy it and read it when it comes out, but my expectations have definitely been lowered. The Dany chapters were very disappointing. Since she's a pivotal character in this story, I foresee a lot more Dany chapters to slog through in the next two books, and I'm concerned that the much more interesting Tyrion and Victarion POVs will be subsumed into Dany's POV. I also no longer feel confident that Martin will be able to pull off the larger story arcs, though I'm certain that I'll find some great reading in the upcoming books.

[memmorio]

I feel like I have a very dependent excitement. A desire to see the future I guess I should say. If I could know that at least some of the plot lines go where I would like them to go, then I will be drooling at the prospect. However the tension that things could go poorly for certain characters makes me really not want to continue. I appreciated some of the deaths in the early books. Ned was my favorite point of view next to Tyrion, but his death was surprising and needed to really spark some of the more insane plots of the books. Robb dieing was upsetting, but again I get it. Characters cannot be safe and the absolute ruthlessness of the Frays needed to be done. Cat dieing was a bit odd but also needed for some of the weird potential plot devices to take shape. I don't however see any reason for Jon to die. He is an imperfect character, but one that should have some more truly great events. Certain characters just shouldn't die. Tyrion, Dany, and Jon are the only characters in the books who really feel like constants to me. I don't really want GRRM to get rid of Jaime either. He is a character that the author went to great lengths to makes amiable, and that was proof of his brilliance as a writer. I would rather him not squash that for the sheer purpose of proving that no characters are safe. Quentyn dieing was just fine to prove that, Stannis possibly being dead and Theon being forever ruined gave further proof that characters are not safe.

Anyway, I rambled and I need to stop. But in short form, if I could tell the future I could tell you how much I'm anticipating it. My fears that bad plot decisions will be made however keep me from greatly anticipating it.

[Eponine]

I liked a lot of both Feast and Dance, but my anticipation level is low. I'm fine with waiting and we never get another book, I'm fine with that too. I'll probably never anticipate another book as much as Feast, but I was younger then, was excited to be part of the board, and had no idea how long it would take to come out. Between Feast and Dance, when it became apparent that Dance would be much longer coming than first estimated, I moved on mentally and barely thought about it. I was very excited for the last two weeks before Dance was released though, and that kind of surprised me in a good way.

It's hard to make a real comparison, because I was only 19 when I read the first three books, right in a row and couldn't wait to read more. My tastes have changed a lot since then.

What I do think is that the first three books have become a complete story, as far as I'm concerned. They answered almost all the things I really cared about, and left characters in places that even if they weren't ultimately stable, had some closure. Arya was on a ship to become a faceless man, Sansa had escaped KL and LF had gotten rid of her crazy aunt, Tyrion had killed his father and was escaping, Jaime was back in KL and had sent Brienne to find Sansa, Jon had just become LC, Stannis was at the wall, Dany had decided to stay and rule Meereen. Although of course not every end would be wrapped up and characters wouldn't cross paths again, it's possible at that point to invent a very fast ending that leaves all the main characters in a decent place. Arya becomes a FM, LF keeps plotting but Brienne rescues Sansa, Tyrion becomes an exile, Jaime stays in the KG and Jon on the wall and Dany in Meereen, Stannis and Mel go to fight the Others. Everyone had an arc, and everyone ended up with a conclusion, even if we don't know what happens in the future. In fact, now that I've written all that, a lot of the character's positions haven't changed significantly.

A major problem that I have with the story from here on out is that the characters who have been set up to be the main event are ones who I don't care for. It would be odd if the last two books weren't largely about Jon and Dany - if not, it's even odder that so much time has been spent developing their story lines which have been far from the more interesting political action. That isn't a story I really care to read, so I'll keep reading the first three books out of love, and read the last two out of curiosity.

[Raskolnikov]

What I'm actually concerned about is the sheer number of POVs for TWoW. AFfC and ADwD introduced a bunch of new POVs, and only 2 of them got perma-killed. Some POVs only get a chapter of two and can be either hit or miss. Areo Hotah was awesome as we get a pair of eyes in Sunspear, but Melisandre? Okaaaaay, she wants to fuck Jon, whatever.

[salmonprotocol34]

i'd say i want to read the next book, i want to finish the series regardless, even if it's not as well written as the first three i think that i want to see it to it's end.

i'm not really willing to just dismiss these books because they don't advance the plot a lot, i agree with the sentiment that this was autumn and as such it's just the build to winter and winter is what we've all been warned about it's what we've all been waiting for and what the characters have been dreading for the duration of the series. winter has come and i think things are finally going to fall into place.

i think these were the hardest books for GrrM to write, he's got the ending all planned out, it's just a matter of getting there in an interesting way, i trust that the rest of the series will be very well done now that all the pieces are in place

[Goral]

At this point my anticipation is nonexistent but when some chapters will start to leak out and AWOW will be done I'll probably eagerly await it. So if Martin will deliver another filler-book like ADWD I won't buy it and definitely I won't pre-order it.

[Ethan Dirtch]

After finishing ADWD, I've come to realize that I'm not really actively looking forward to the next book. Don't get me wrong, I want to read it when it comes out, but it's not really something I think I'm going to think a lot about until it actually happens, the way I was looking forward to AFFC after ASOS.

To explain, I thought ADWD was okay, had its moments, but at the same time, it didn't really do anything for me emotionally. Too many characters I'm not interested in, to little development. And I've come to realize that ASOIAF as a series may not be something I connect as much with as I did with books 1-3, which has affected my anticipation of the next books.

Anyone else share this newfound attitude of 'it'll come out when it comes out', or is everyone still as hungry for the next developments as they were before ADWD?

I'm personally still very hungry for the next book to come out in the next decade or so.

AFfC/ADwD definitely aren't books 1-3 material, in terms of the 'complete package' of writing quality AND plot movement as well as big "it" moments. But they're still very good books in my mind. And, as I've said in other threads, my caveat is that--despite each costing me somewhere in the neighborhood of 25-30 bucks each--they're both essentially half a book. 4.0 and 4.5, so I can forgive the slower pace a little in that regard.

With that said, the frustrating conclusion to 'book 5', and the dangling plot threads, the years of emotional investment into the characters, and the still stellar writing, are enough to get me to be a first adopter when the next book comes out. Still so many secrets and mysteries that we've all been theorizing on and wanting to find out about need to be revealed. Who are Jon's parents? Will Stoneheart ever kill all ten million Freys? Where's Blackfish? Where's Gerion? Will Dany ever reach Westeros? Will Dany and Jon ever get it on Wildling v. Dothraki style between the sheets? How many more times will her hair get burned off before Dany decides to just stay bald? etc and etc and etc.

Nothing in ADwD put me off being excited for the rest of the series.

[groovatronic]

I can't wait for the next book, hopefully we can see some action from the others. Really looking forward to that epic battle

[Erekose]

I think it will be Storm of Swords-ish in size and what happens. So , yeah, I cant wait to read it.

[Lannes]

I'm surprised that people aren't more excited for it. We have it on pretty good authority that big stuff got moved from the end of this book to the beginning of the next book. We should see the North get resolved, Meereen get resolved, and Jon's death resolved.

Which is why so many folks are up in arms....ADWD is mostly front-loaded gun powder and no BOOM!

[MattTaz]

excited about a book in 2014, 2015 or 2016??? Ummm No!!!

[rhaze]

Before ADwD I was super excited about all the forthcoming books. After ADwD I will no longer be at the bookstore the day of release waiting for the door to open. I will probably wait until I see alot of good reviews from readers, or possibly wait for it to hit the used bookstore. If I see same type of reviews I saw from Dance, I will wait until the series is finished before I read more. And then on the stipulation that people are talking about how good it ended.