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When is 'The World Of Ice and Fire' coming out?


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Have I mentioned there's also an amazing amount of detail about the future events in the lives of Dunk and Egg?

So, does this mean GRRM has given up on the idea of publishing multiple future Dunk and Egg novellas? (I thought you'd stated earlier that key events of the future Dunk and Egg tales, like how Maekar died, were going to have strategically-placed ink blots over them?) Or is the point that we'll first learn about these events from "the maesters'" perspectives in TWOIAF, but then see them actually occurring from Dunk's POV later on?

the surprising person from whom the Lannisters are descended,

Assuming you're not talking about Lann the Clever here, I can only surmise that there's a Targ in the Lannister family tree. (And even if that's wrong, this kind of statement is going to have people guessing that regardless.) :)

A Stark would be surprising, a Greyjoy would . . . actually make a great deal of sense. Here's a shot in the dark: one of the Lannisters' ancestors married a maegi from the East, thus making Kevan's condemnation of Sybell Spicer's "uncertain blood" hilariously ironic.

Though it would be interesting if, say, the first "Andal adventurer" that founded the Lannister line headed west in the first place because he was fleeing the fallout from some unpaid debts.

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tze,

So, does this mean GRRM has given up on the idea of publishing multiple future Dunk and Egg novellas?

Not at all. The stuff that's revealed is ... pretty devious.

Re: ink-blots, specifically, that was about Summerhall specifically. That will definitely be redacted, though there'll be some new tantalizing hints.

Re: Lannisters, I'm talking specifically the Lannisters as of the novels, not ancient Lannisters. So the surprising person is rather a lot more recent than Lann.

WinterKing,

I can't speak as to whether that specific month and day that catalog site lists will be the final one. I doubt it is. Probably more of a place holder. Plans have changed only recently and I doubt that they have ironed everything out. That said, we aren't privy to those conversations for the most part.

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tze,

Re: Lannisters, I'm talking specifically the Lannisters as of the novels, not ancient Lannisters. So the surprising person is rather a lot more recent than Lann.

If it turns out that Cersei and Jaime are both actually half-Targaryen, I will be mightily disappointed.

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More information is good, but this constant push back of publication is becoming tiresome. A whole 'nother year to wait?

These kind of books - big coffee table things - sell best in the pre-Christmas market. Most likely, Bantam could release this book a lot earlier (say, summer 2014 if not late spring) if they - and Ran and Linda and GRRM - really went for it, but it would not sell as well at that time of year. So any delay at all would pretty much result in a full year's wait.

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These kind of books - big coffee table things - sell best in the pre-Christmas market. Most likely, Bantam could release this book a lot earlier (say, summer 2014 if not late spring) if they - and Ran and Linda and GRRM - really went for it, but it would not sell as well at that time of year. So any delay at all would pretty much result in a full year's wait.

That is to say that they sell best at full price in the pre-Christmas market. These types of books are usually slashed in price within six months and remaindered within a year so there's only a limited period (a few months maybe) to sell them at publisher's recommended price.

I'm really looking forward to the book, I hope it delivers, the previews certainly suggest it will.

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That is to say that they sell best at full price in the pre-Christmas market. These types of books are usually slashed in price within six months and remaindered within a year so there's only a limited period (a few months maybe) to sell them at publisher's recommended price.

Pretty much, yeah. These books are expensive to make and tend to be expensive to buy, so they need to sell largely in the first few months to make the money back. This is exactly like the modern computer game market, where prices fall so sharply on multi-tens-of-millions-of-dollars-budgted material that they need to sell millions of copies within the first month on sale to break even.

On the plus side, Lands of Ice and Fire apparently did all right, and compared to World that's a really niche product. World should do pretty well. They'd also do well to create a 'permanent' paperback edition for later release (say, 5-6 years later), a bit like what was done for the Wheel of Time world book which apparently worked quite well.

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On the plus side, Lands of Ice and Fire apparently did all right, and compared to World that's a really niche product. World should do pretty well. They'd also do well to create a 'permanent' paperback edition for later release (say, 5-6 years later), a bit like what was done for the Wheel of Time world book which apparently worked quite well.

Please do not mention the Big Book of Bad Art in any sort of comparison with Ran's upcoming volume.

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Even George knows it by that name.

It was definitely an example of what not to do when we first started laying out the plans for the book.

But, you know, the book does seem to have done well. Near as I can tell, it's been perpetually in print since it was released. We can only hope our volume will be as successful. I think it will be, because there really is a lot of great art, a lot of great information, and so on... but who knows, really.

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Wouldn't it just be easier to release it after Book 7 is released so there's no gaps in knowledge? A complete guide, so to speak. I liek the concept of it being a Maester guide to the "known" world, but when new revelations come with teh next two books, it will feel like an incomplete source book.

For example, the Lands of Ice and Fire came out, but Arianne's chapter fro TWOW mentions a new location (Torturers Deep). It isnt on the maps because George created it after the map book came out.

I look forward to it regardless.

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I liked the Big White Book. :blush:

In any case, I've waited years for the book, so I can wait another year. Especially since I vaguely remember GRRM saying he'd come up with way more lore for it than he thought he would.

Re: Lannisters, I'm talking specifically the Lannisters as of the novels, not ancient Lannisters. So the surprising person is rather a lot more recent than Lann.

My guess is that Tywin's mother was a Tully, a Stark, or an Arryn. I can't imagine the whole "Papa Aegon II" theory coming up in the World Book.

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Please do not mention the Big Book of Bad Art in any sort of comparison with Ran's upcoming volume.

Hey, even GRRM's made the comparison, joking he briefly considered calling it The World of George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire (the same title format as the Jordan and Brooks books). Obviously this will be far superior, although I note that the content of the Big White Book was pretty much fine (which is probably why it seems to have sold a lot better in the text-only edition with all of the illustrations removed apart from the maps) and as Ran said the book has sold well. In fact, Teresa Patterson's later book about the Shannara universe (for those interested in such a thing) had much better artwork on that, as they learned from the Jordan experience.

Also by an odd coincidence, there's a similar Raymond E. Feist worldbook coming out in late 2013. So these things suddenly seem back in vogue.

Wouldn't it just be easier to release it after Book 7 is released so there's no gaps in knowledge

Yes and no. Obviously it could coallate a lot more information, including stuff that right now GRRM's witholding because it might be spoilery. However, the problems with that are 1) having to wait years for it, and 2) right now interest in ASoIaF/GoT is very high, possibly even close to peaking, and this volume will sell more now (well, within the next few years). Once a series is finished, completed and done, long-term interest in it will gradually decline. It's been interesting watching furiously active WoT forums starting to wind down down the series is done.

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