A Song of Ice & Fire

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/articl...-delayed-again

He said: "Believe me, it gave me no pleasure to type those words. You're disappointed, and you're not alone.

"My editors and publishers are disappointed, HBO is disappointed, my agents and foreign publishers and translators are disappointed... but no-one could possibly be more disappointed than me.

"For months now I have wanted nothing so much as to be able to say, 'I have completed and delivered The Winds of Winter' on or before the last day of 2015.

"But the book's not done.

"Nor is it likely to be finished tomorrow, or next week."

Wanker.

Discuss all things bookery and/or just slate George for taking fucking ages to write.

[randomlegend]

Having the books and TV program 'diverging' seems really stupid to me.

[John]

The fat wanker has written about four other books since he was supposed to have started that one, hasn't he? HBO et al should just drop him and take the franchise away. The world is well enough realised at this point that any writer of skill should be able to tell compelling stories in it.

[Giggles]

Am I having serious deja vu or is there another thread with this title? I've no idea what it's about but it's just distinctive.

[Adamski]

Old board @Giggles, no?

It's a bit of a joke, 6 years this book has been being written for.

[Giggles]

Old board @Giggles, no?

It's a bit of a joke, 6 years this book has been being written for.

Possibly.

[John]

Definitely.

[Disco]

And in other news the sun rose in the East, Pope remains confirmed bachelor etc etc, who could ever have predicted this would happen when they started making the tv series.

[Yevrah]

This is good news for HBO, right? In that now no one can blame them for messing up the ending vs. the books and they presumably get more interest from book only people after their fix.

[Disco]

Speaking as someone who read the books long before the series was a thing I can't see how this would tempt me back (I stopped somewhere during the second series). The differences and changes were what put me off, be that deliberate alterations to the story or the normal changes made when adapting long books into serial tv, having the story and characters depart even further from the source material doesn't sound that appealing.

I'll just wait for the books, like I've been waiting for the last decade or so. You just get used to it as a reader of this series unfortunately, the best thing to do is not read anything he says (and if you do see something immediately disregard it as bullshit) and steer clear of his blog that outlines all the things he does that aren't finishing the next book. Oh, and try not to think of Robert Jordan.

[John]

That he's a belligerent twat with people who ask him how the book's going doesn't help his case when he tries to come across all magnanimous and apologetic. Not long ago you were shouting 'fuck you' at anyone who dared suggest your age might be slowing you down and it was time to focus on the important series, you bulbous shitstain, you can't throw age out there in the hopes of a sympathy vote now.

[Vim]

The Winds of Winter will never be published.

[Alex]

I haven't read the books, but am I right in saying this one that keeps getting delayed isn't even the last one? At this rate the show will surely be over several years before he finishes the series of books. If he ever does finish them. You would have thought once the show started almost five years ago (and certainly after it became very clear it was going to be a huge success) that would have given him more than enough drive to finish the books in time and avoid exactly this sort of situation.

[Jimmy Floyd]

If I had to put a tenner on it I'd say he can't work out how to get Dany over to Westeros without it being fucking awful.

[Disco]

I haven't read the books, but am I right in saying this one that keeps getting delayed isn't even the last one? At this rate the show will surely be over several years before he finishes the series of books. If he ever does finish them. You would have thought once the show started almost five years ago (and certainly after it became very clear it was going to be a huge success) that would have given him more than enough drive to finish the books in time and avoid exactly this sort of situation.

He's done the same thing with at least the last three books, you could have a gun pointed at his wife and he'd probably piss off to a convention or write three more Wild Cards books instead. He's an incorrigible prevaricator, the idea that tv deadlines would daunt him any more than the hundreds of other ones that he's missed is highly lolworthy. This exact situation was always going to happen, when the series was commissioned the first thing I talked to one of my friends about wasn't who would be cast or how they would handle particular themes or scenes but how they would deal with all the actors being 10 or 15 years older by the time he gets the books finished.

[Disco]

If I had to put a tenner on it I'd say he can't work out how to get Dany over to Westeros without it being fucking awful.

If only she had some means of flight...

[Ian]

Get Brandon Sanderson on speed dial for when the fat bastard dies.

[Andrew]

Just looking at the state of him and his age his heart will explode in his chest before he even comes close to wrapping this all up.

Eriksons, Malazan book Of The Fallen is a far better choice to get stuck in to.

[Vim]

In my opinion, even if he lives to 90 years old, the next book will not be published. He's missed deadlines set by publishers, he clearly does not want to write the book. He'll drag it out until he is old/ill enough that it's acceptable for him to retire and stop writing. At which point, the TV series will be over, all the book readers will have lost interest and 'hype'.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Decided to buy the graphic novels, haven't had a chance to read it yet but I've flicked through and the artwork is brilliant.

[Jimmy Floyd]

Looking at the related items on that link, I like that the Dothraki language course they have made is significantly more expensive than the Italian one I use.

I've also bought a Margaery Tyrell figurine, because I'm not creepy at all.

[Mazuuurk]

The worst thing with GRRM is that he seems to influence Patrick Rothfuss to also take fucking ages to release Doors of Stone, which I'm looking forward so fucking much to. It's back to Harry Potter levels when you were 13.

[Disco]

I made a 'bet' last week with a friend that the series would be wrapped up before the next book was published. I'm pretty confident.

[Ian]

Sanderson wants to just do the fat bastard in and get the job done.

Or I want him to.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

I'm really hoping that Varys was sent away so he ends up killing Kevan and Pycelle like the books, if not ugh.

Also, did he know about Griff? I can't remember but if he did hopefully that gets that ball rolling.

[Jimmy Floyd]

I can see them not using Griff in the show and just sticking with Dany.

[phonics]

Was Griff the other Targaeryan that gets randomly introduced in the middle of one of the books and then just dies?

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

I can see them not using Griff in the show and just sticking with Dany.

Sadly yes but I still hold out hope because Dany is so shit.

Was Griff the other Targaeryan that gets randomly introduced in the middle of one of the books and then just dies?

He didn't die but yes.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

I've just seen the Targaryen family tree (warning it's mahoosive):

Toggle Spoiler

Imagine how malformed so many of them would be if all the incest actually made mutant children like they do in real life.

Edit: I'm guessing the board auto resizes shit because that's coming out tiny for me, here's the link http://i.imgur.com/qNQbGRX.jpg.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

So GRRM has signed up to co-write a GOT play (based around the tourney of Harrenhal) and HBO has given him a FAT contract to make "several" TV shows for them.

He's never going to finish the books is he? Maybe he doesn't know how to end them so is just stalling until he dies.

[Jimmy Floyd]

I don't see how you'd possibly resolve it from where he's got to. The pretender Targaryen was just too much.

[Ian]

Yeah I've thought he must have written himself into a corner for a while.

Get Brandon Sanderson on speed dial for when the fat bastard dies.

As a correction to the above: just get Sanderson on it now.

[Andrew]

The final series has killed off any interest I had remaining in this to be fair.

[Disco]

I was already at the point where I wasn't going to care or take notice unless the next book came out, I also had many hearty lols when people still cared about the tv series and thought it would make Martin finish the books.

[Spikey M]

Surely the last book would have to track the last 2 or 3 series to some extent? I don't blame him for fucking that off. Who would want to relive that anyway?

[Jimmy Floyd]

I think deep down he knows it's pointless, because he probably started it with the 'big reveal' being Jon = Targ, but everyone knows that now (and did even before the series due to the internet, which didn't exist when he started), so what's the point.

[Disco]

He'll write it however he wants I imagine, following the plan he always used to say he had. The Jon Snow stuff was pretty well telegraphed in the books, if he thought he was keeping that up his sleeve then more fool him. I appreciate that he hasn't just slung the last two (three?) books out after the series finished but it's a good decade too late for me to start giving a shit until the book is in my hands.

[Lofty]

He complained a lot about the last book being a pain so imagine his biggest concern right now is social distancing preventing him getting uncomfortably close to the geek fan girls.

[Disco]

When I used to read his blog his main pasttime seemed to be going to conventions and pissing everyone off by talking about how much other writing he was doing.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

The main thing he seems to be doing now is claiming it should be done by X and then seething when people are angry he's missed the deadline.