A Song of Ice and Fire's next installment given concrete release date

[Kimberly 1129]

A NOTE ABOUT SPOILERS: This topic is discussing the 5th book in a series and could potentially reveal vital plot details that could very well ruin it for you if you haven't read up to A Feast of Crows! Read at your own risk.

 

For those who don't know, the last book released in this series was back in 2005. Many of the fans questioned Martin's ability to complete the series in a satisfying manner given all the delays. With his recent wedding, the release of a tv adaptation of this masterpiece, and other setbacks, I was dead certain he wasn't going to finish. But finally...

 

http://www.georgerrmartin.com/if-update.html

 

No. Sorry. Not done yet.

 

I'm close, though. Watch this space. When the book is done, you will read it here.

 

Meanwhile... there is news. Big news. The end is in sight, at long long last, and we're close enough so that my editors and publishers at Bantam Spectra have set an actual publication date.

 

A DANCE WITH DRAGONS will be in your favorite bookstore on

 

TUESDAY, JULY 12, 2011

 

 

 

 

 

Yes, I know. You've all seen publication dates before: dates in 2007, 2008, 2009. None of those were ever hard dates, however. Most of them... well, call it wishful thinking, boundless optimism, cockeyed dreams, honest mistakes, whatever you like.

 

This date is different. This date is real.

 

Barring tsunamis, general strikes, world wars, or asteroid strikes, you will have the novel in your hands on July 12. I hope you like it.

 

(For what it's worth, the book's a monster. Think A STORM OF SWORDS.)

 

The dragons are coming. Prepare to dance.

 

And hey... thanks for waiting.

―George R.R. Martin, March 3, 2011

[Nom 25]

[bleep]. YES. FINALLY.

 

That is all.

[nine naked men 549]

I just finished reading A Feast For Crows, and now I can't wait for this, har. Loving the TV show, too. Hopefully it doesn't get like cancelled before it really gets going, because the whole first book kinda felt like a prologue to me. D:

 

[spoiler=Might as well use a spoiler tag.]I really want to find out how Davos Seaworth died, he's probably my favourite character if I had to pick one.

 

[tripsis 157]

I'm still trying to work my way through the first book :XD: I started reading it like 9 months ago and couldn't get attached to it. But I've been watching and liking the TV show so I think I'll give it another try.

[Nom 25]

I just finished reading A Feast For Crows, and now I can't wait for this, har. Loving the TV show, too. Hopefully it doesn't get like cancelled before it really gets going, because the whole first book kinda felt like a prologue to me. D:

 

[spoiler=Might as well use a spoiler tag.]I really want to find out how Davos Seaworth died, he's probably my favourite character if I had to pick one.

 

 

It's already been picked up for a second season.

 

 

And he didn't? I need to reread the books but I thought his fate was unknown as of AFfC.

 

[nine naked men 549]

I just finished reading A Feast For Crows, and now I can't wait for this, har. Loving the TV show, too. Hopefully it doesn't get like cancelled before it really gets going, because the whole first book kinda felt like a prologue to me. D:

 

[spoiler=Might as well use a spoiler tag.]I really want to find out how Davos Seaworth died, he's probably my favourite character if I had to pick one.

 

 

It's already been picked up for a second season.

 

 

And he didn't? I need to reread the books but I thought his fate was unknown as of AFfC.

 

 

That's awesome. :3

 

 

There were a couple throwaway lines in Feast for Crows about one of the Manderlys executing him, in one of Cersei's chapters, if I recall correctly.

 

[Kimberly 1129]

His update page now officially states that the book is done and shows a picture of the cover.

 

[tripsis 157]

Martin is doing a book signing tour for A Dance With Dragons and is stopping by near my town. I bought a ticket today :P I guess it's time I finish the books now? XD

[Kimberly 1129]

You're very lucky :( Closest he's getting to me is New York. Bah.

[nine naked men 549]

[spoiler=Will spoil for food.]Finished it last night.

 

All in all, [bleep]ing loved it. Feast For Crows was kinda meh for me, but this one is probably my second favourite book of the series.

 

I'd have to say the Reek chapters were the best. Poor Theon. : ( I must admit part of that comes from the TV show, where his bromance with Robb is awesome. And I'm quite glad Davos isn't dead, though I would have enjoyed reading him meet Jon/meeting with Stannis again, though it seems unlikely those will happen. Unless Melisandre goes all resurrecting on their asses.

 

I really hope Brienne or Sansa will get POVs next book just to explain what the hell is going on.

 

The series is certainly leading up to something... [bleep]ed if I know what that something is... but yeah I hope to see the conclusion in like, twenty years.

 

Also HOLY [bleep] WYMAN MANDERLY IS A BADASS. A terrifying, terrifying, evil, awesome badass.

 

[Alg 2522]

[spoiler=Will spoil for food.]Finished it last night.

 

All in all, [bleep]ing loved it. Feast For Crows was kinda meh for me, but this one is probably my second favourite book of the series.

 

I'd have to say the Reek chapters were the best. Poor Theon. : ( I must admit part of that comes from the TV show, where his bromance with Robb is awesome. And I'm quite glad Davos isn't dead, though I would have enjoyed reading him meet Jon/meeting with Stannis again, though it seems unlikely those will happen. Unless Melisandre goes all resurrecting on their asses.

 

I really hope Brienne or Sansa will get POVs next book just to explain what the hell is going on.

 

The series is certainly leading up to something... [bleep]ed if I know what that something is... but yeah I hope to see the conclusion in like, twenty years.

 

Also HOLY [bleep] WYMAN MANDERLY IS A BADASS. A terrifying, terrifying, evil, awesome badass.

 

[spoiler=Will food for spoilers]Holy [cabbage] I did not see the end coming

I'm guessing Melisandre will resurrect Jon. She saw him in her fires, and apparently he fits her prophecy well. I'm even thinking there'll be dueling prophecies with him and Danaerys.

 

 

[tripsis 157]

Martin is doing a book signing tour for A Dance With Dragons and is stopping by near my town. I bought a ticket today :P I guess it's time I finish the books now? XD

I got this tonight! :D

 

[Nom 25]

... So. Not. Fair. You haven't even read them all lol.

 

Closest he came to me was Indy. Gah.

[tripsis 157]

I finally finished a Clash of Kings. I wasn't that crazy about it tbh. I feel like nothing particularly epic happened. While I enjoy the overall story, I'm finding that it takes far too long for exciting things to happen. The things that do happen, I don't really care about.

[Kimberly 1129]

I finally finished a Clash of Kings. I wasn't that crazy about it tbh. I feel like nothing particularly epic happened. While I enjoy the overall story, I'm finding that it takes far too long for exciting things to happen. The things that do happen, I don't really care about.

 

But what about Tyrion?!!?!

 

WHAT ABOUT WINTERFELL?!

 

WHAT ABOUT SER BARRISTAN?!?!?

 

Idon'tknowhowyoucouldsaythat ;_;

[tripsis 157]

Idk, maybe it was the way it was written but it just never felt very intense or exciting to me D: Especially with Winterfell...

 

[hide=Half Spoiler]I was thinking, "It's just a castle.. I'm sure they'll get it back." And no one I really cared about died. Even when he tried to be tricky about Bran and Rickon it seemed really obvious to me that they were both still alive.[/hide]

 

I must have strange standards.

[Alg 2522]

Idon'tknowhowyoucouldsaythat ;_;

If she says that about book 3, we panic.

[tripsis 157]

As I told my boyfriend.. A Storm of Swords is about 1.5x as long as A Clash of Kings. As such, I expect it to be at least 1.5x as good :P

 

EDIT: Okay I decided to write up my main problems with the characters, which will then shed some light on my problems with the events and the books as a whole. Doing it by characters because it's easier for me :P

 

[hide=Spoilers]Arya

• I absolutely love her. I think she is the coolest character. I guess the main problem I have here is that her story is written so realistically. And I guess that's a good thing, but for a story, that makes things slow... because life is slow. She is young so she's not totally kick ass/epic (yet?) and she still has a lot of growing up to do. But since I love her desire to be a pro swordsman and her logic and her will to fight and speak her mind, etc., I keep wanting and expecting her to do awesome things. But at the end of the day she is just a 10 year old so there's not much she can do. So maybe at some point she'll be able to do some awesome things, but the time isn't really there yet. She did have a few great moments towards the end of A Clash of Kings but that's not even the beginning of what I hope for her. I also really want her to reunite with her wolf. I keep waiting for that to happen and every time it they mention wolves in her chapter but it doesn't happen I get disappointed. Also I totally want her and Gendry to fall in love... but then once again, I remember that she's 10.

 

Sansa

• At first I absolutely despised her. She was such a stupid brat. Now that she has realized how stupid Joffrey is she has gotten better. But in her chapters I feel like nothing exciting happens. We gain information in her chapters and we see her start to plot to escape... but nothing actually *happens*. It all just feels like idle chatter to me and doesn't particularly interest me.

 

Tyrion

• I guess I enjoy his wit, but I honestly like his character in the movie a lot more than the book. I can't decide if I actually like him or not, mostly because I dislike what he represents (Lannisters). It's like one minute he does something cool and the next he's annoying me. So I'm kind of stuck in the middle with him. Once again, his chapters aren't of particular interest to me because I feel like most of it is idle political chatter, except for that one battle near the end of A Clash of Kings. The chapters are just scheming and politics, which aren't really my thing.

 

Bran

• Meh. I felt sorry for him in A Game of Thrones but since then, his character has just gotten a little boring and stale IMO. He just spent a lot of time moping, which is understandable given what happened to him, but not very fun to read. In his chapters it's mostly just listening in on conversations and picking up bits and pieces. Once again, all chatter and not much actually happening.

 

Jon

• I don't mind his character so much, but his section of the book hasn't interested me. I feel like I've been given no reason to become attached to the Night's Watch or anything beyond the wall. Then when they finally do go beyond the wall, it was like 5+ chapters worth of just walking around and finding a random cloak and arrowheads, etc. before anything exciting actually happened (Jon "pretending" to yield).

 

Catelyn

• Once again, I don't really mind her character. I don't dislike her but I have not grown attached to her either. One thing that irks me here is that any exciting bits that occur around her are given to us "second hand" through Catelyn. For example, Robb's battles. We hear about them mostly through Catelyn's chapters but we don't actually see the intensity. We just see her receiving letters about how he won x battle or did y and z, etc. Just hearing about it like that isn't particularly thrilling.

 

Davos

• I honestly just never cared about him. At all.

 

Theon

• I don't really care about him. His chapters haven't interest me. Although I did LOL when he was hitting on his sister. That was hilarious.

 

Daenerys

• I LOVE her and I'm totally rooting for her. She was my favourite character from the start. At first I couldn't get enough of her chapters. I always wanted to know what was going to happen next and I was so disappointed that there were so few of them... but about 1/4 or 1/2 way through A Clash of Kings I realized that her chapters had completely and 100% come to a halt. After she settled down in that city literally nothing happened. Nothing at all. It was just chapter after chapter of, "I could use a bunch of ships," "No I will not marry you," "Hm what should I do now?" It got dreadfully boring and disappointing. I want her to do something and I want her dragons to grow up and be epic.

[/hide]

Edited August 29, 2011 by tripsis

[nine naked men 549]

Not caring for Davos? How is that even possible? D:

[Alg 2522]

Not caring for Davos? How is that even possible? D:

In her defense, I didn't care about Davos much either until Storm of Swords. Then [cabbage] got awesome :thumbup:

[Kimberly 1129]

I found Davos pretty hard to like. Every time he touched his luck charm I wanted to punch him in the face.

[tripsis 157]

I made some good investments :shades:

 

I was just browsing today and came across this eBay sale: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&_trksid=p4340.l2557&item=270935337341&nma=true&rt=nc&si=CWPtItAI4u8QmJ6zhSuFI430wEU%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc#ht_1216wt_1163

 

A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin ARC Advance Reading Copy 1996

 

Item condition: Very Good

Ended: Mar 23, 2012 23:47:19 PDT

Sold For: US $440.00

 

About 1.5 years ago when I wanted to start reading the series I went to Amazon.com, clicked on the latest hardback version of A Game of Thrones and bought a used copy. The seller didn't mention anything so I should have received that hardback. Instead, they sent me an Advanced Reading Copy, which at the time I determined to be worth ~$100. So I paid $15 for a $100 book. Cool beans.

 

I then got interested (since I'm a book/first edition addict) and bought the Advanced Reading Copy of A Clash of Kings, first edition/first impression of A Storm of Swords, signed first UK edition of A Feast For Crows, and I got my own first edition/first impression copy of A Dance With Dragons signed.

 

Now obviously with the TV shows prices have gone up. The collection that I spent about $350 on is now worth over $1000 :P I'm pleased.