Spoiler Surprised the Mother of TVWriters isn't here to defend her children yet. I was thinking of rewatching the last season but thinking of all the bullshyt that happened. That whole fakeout scenes to throw off the audience about the sisters plot against baelish. I thought halfway through no way they'd pull something that cheap, but thats exactly what they did.
My brother gave me a box of books for Xmas...I read the first 198 pages of Game of Thrones last night. I get why the book people have been so insufferable over the years....it's damn good reading.
Just wait... it gets worse. Books start off great and then GRRM gets really long winded about the 3rd/4th book and there are just too many damn threads going every direction.
You are gonna be reading 3 of the best books you will ever read. Licking your chops to continue this awesome saga. Then you will get to books 4 and 5, and you will understand why the show had to start going in it's own direction if it wanted to retain viewers. 3 books of clear, crisp, page turning storytelling. 2 books of meaningless side stories, often involving characters we don't give a f**k about.
Apparently I have 18 or so months to read all the books before the show starts/ends in '19. I'm fully committed. That bridge will be crossed in due time.
I was also given Black Prism by Brent Weeks, my brother highly recommended it as well. I've never been a huge sci-fi/fantasy reader but I'm coming around. I'll check out the Wheel when I get a chance, thanks.
All these are quality fantasy epics. Wheel of time.. one of the best detailed and explained system of magic in fantasy books.. And in comparison to Martin ,Jordan was a much better writer in keeping up with the myriad of his characters. if you like the ending books then take a look also at Sanderson's work who had to finish them because of Jordan's death. Well for me it's a given that someone will have to finish Martin's work as well.
I just finished watching the last episode of season 7. Noooooo!!!!!!!! Now I’m in the same boat as everyone else. Guess i will check out all the extras and most likely watch the series over. Damn, 2019 is going to be a long wait.
I really liked "The Wheel of Time" series but will have to return to it; I dropped out somewhere in the middle, not from lack of interest, but from, "Where the **** is this going to go?" Awesome writing, and I love long books, but I have other long books to read! George R.R. Martin, I don't know what's going on with the dude. He really painted himself into a corner (too many characters and side-plots, although some of the material excised from the books would have been awesome to see on a screen) and took on too many side projects. Hell, Book 6 isn't even out and there are supposed to be seven books. He talks about those last books being super-sized. I wish he had split them out and just told his publisher, "Look, we'll go to nine books," although it would have been difficult given Martin's penchant for changing his mind and re-writing his drafts from scratch. And thus delaying his books even more. I almost feel sorry for him. I guess I'll read what I get when I get it.
I doubt publishers would squawk about him deciding to extend it to 8 or 9 books. Hell, his original pitch for this story was 3 books, I believe. More books means more money. The problem is with his health I seriously doubt book 7 gets finished by him, let alone another book or two beyond that. The guy just takes too long to write.
He certainly f**ked up the book series after the initial trilogy. You can tell by the length between releases that he had no direction. 3 books in 4 years, and then 2 books in 18 years. I'm sure he had a big picture end in mind for the series (Jon and Dany were always supposed to join together, fight the dead, and I imagine have a kid), but he had no clue where to go with the details of the 100 other stories, so he just started basically author stalling. And the more he stalled, the more threads he had to find a way to unwind. Combine that the with quality of the original trilogy being so damn high, I imagine he felt a ton of pressure suddenly, on top of a narrative mess. Now he has a TV show that has basically usurped his story as de-facto canon to the public. I honestly never expect him to finish.
I don't think that Martin has a writer's block. I believe it's more of a symptom of our times. He has too many distractions. He "wastes" his time going to festivals, symposiums, fan meetings , conventions all over the world, and with the tv series. The authors of previous eras even decades didn't have all that huge attention even if they were famous and reknown. Jordan's readers were also lucky in a way. His wife was an editor working in a publishing house, and he knew he might not make it when he got his disease so he started taking all the appopriate measures years before his death. In cotrast with someone like Herbert who died and left a labyrinth of notes with no definite guide to how he wanted to progress and even end Dune. I hope someone from Martin's publishing house or family has pressured him and made sure to have clear notes about the layout of the rest of his story because he's already 69.
Not too excited for this season, as demonstrated by the lackluster writing of season 6 and 7 (second worst season behind season 5). The ending will likely be a CGI orgy, while doing no justice to the character development and beautiful dialogue of the first 3 seasons, thanks in large part to not having a source material to work off of, and D&D. It's really sad, because I would follow production from the start of their work and be hyped for every first look trailer. The real hype will be towards the prequel series, which will get a fresh start without D&D's predictable, nonsensical plot lines.
"She said, '69'". (Beavis and Butthead laugh) True, though. Martin said he didn't dream about the TV show passing him up but when you take 6 years to write a book, well.....there you go.
Which is fair. Now that he's famous, he's living that side of life before he kicks it. Most writers don't get that chance. There's been assurances that the producers at least know what he had in mind to resolve threads, but yeah it would be nice to have proper resolutions rather than sloppy consolidations (mass deaths just for the sake of them) and time warps you see on TV.
Is the writing worse or is the show now focused on younger characters played by actors who don't have the weight (yet) to pull off the dialogue?
