Spoiler Minor quibble: I agree there is a lot of "gray" when it comes to morality in the books, and what you write may apply to someone like Jamie, but I don't think someone like Cersei thinks she is a "good guy". While she uses her kids to justify her actions at times, she is also driven by her own insecurities and seems to take delight in being devious. I doubt the Boltons and Freys consider themselves good either. The bolded part just takes your point (that the characters aren't cardboard cut-outs) a little too far imo. Amoral or morally ambivalent might be a better way of describing them.
Thanks for reading guys. Sorry that some of you do not care for my writing style ha ha. And I'm not the editor at Gunaxin, so no I cannot not go back and edit it. I'm the editor on Texanstribune.com and a manager at Battleredblog.com and Thedreamshake.com but I just contribute at Gunaxin when I have free time.
One of my life philosophies is Hope for the best, plan for the worst.. I wanna believe it. But, according to GRRM himself, posted today, it's not actually done: For what it's worth, I do think he will finish it in time for the pub date. Heck, that's right around my birthday! But still, the guy is a tad flaky.....
Hooray! Instead of being a distraction, the TV series might end up being a good thing for the completion of the books (gives Martin a concrete deadline if he wants to see the later books on screen). Happiness!
900 pages! Just the way I like them and it's the same size as A Storm of Swords which was totally awesome.
This is exciting news. My theory is that he kind of lost some of his passion for the story before., and that's why it was too long and slow in the coming. If he just wasn't that into writing about this story so much, it was easy to let other commitments take a higher priority. I initially thought that the series on HBO would only distract him more, but I now believe it helped focus him, and bring back some of his passion for the series. I'm guessing based on nothing but my own experiences with long projects, that's it. Either way I'm just glad it's really going to finally come out.
The first "FULL" Game of Thrones trailer is up on EW. Can't embed it yet, so click the link. It's chock full of awesomeness and even has the first view of The Wall. http://insidetv.ew.com/2011/03/03/game-of-thrones-new-trailer/
Yeah, he hit some major story structure/planning problems and lost some motivation to tackle these problems I think. (The feeling you get when you see a mountain of troublesome work that you need to get done.) Spoiler Don't know if you keep up with his site/blog, but he has said before that the Feast/Dance books have taken so long because they were originally meant to take place after a time jump of a couple of years for the kids to grow up, but midway through writing decided to do away with the time jump. This complicated the timelines he was originally working with. His blog has hinted that since multiple characters are heading towards Dany, coordinating the timelines for when the different characters show up with the events that he originally had planned has been very problematic and he has had to do a lot of restructuring and rewriting due to this.
The guy has never been prolific. He's been writing professionally for about 40 years, and his library is dwarfed by his contemporaries with similar or less time invested. I don't think he's not interested, I just think he's overwhelmed. But I do agree that the series has helped focus everything for him. Maybe seeing it all come to life has helped. Whatever the case, I hope there's just a couple of years between the next few volumes, opposed to 5 per.
Spoiler That trailer makes it clear that Caetlyn is opposed to Ned leaving, which is a complete reversal from her position in the books. In the book she insists Ned accept the king's offer and he was the one opposed to it. It changes her character significantly, in the books she is far more calculating and not averse to gaining power. I'm not sure why they felt the need to make this change.
First of all, glad to see George got off his butt and finished Dance. Now start on the next one! DANCE MONKEY DANCE! Second, I'm firmly convinced that Peter Dinklage will be awesome as Tyrion Lannister. Nikolaj also looks like an excellent choice for Jaime, but I'm betting Peter steals the show.
Spoiler I may just be remembering wrong, but I don't remember it that way at all. I remember her being opposed to it (and maybe even arguing with him privately) but I remember her accepting that they didn't really have a choice in the matter. But I could be wrong.
This is the role that Dinklage was BORN for. The guy is a great actor and anyone that ever just knows him as "that midget guy" should finally realize that with this series. Especially if it goes multiple seasons. Tyrion only get more interesting with each passing book (save the last one that didn't mention him at all).
What a day!!! First i found out that the sequel to Rothfuss' Name of the Wind, A Wise Man's Fear audiobook is available today but then an hour later that A Dance for Dragons is coming July 12th!! Holy moly I almost yelled for joy while in the office lol. Though I'm overwhelmed that the 5th book is finally coming out, I'm still very very pessimistic about Martin ever finishing the series and wont get my hopes up about that possibility. Instead I'll just enjoy the 5th edition as a little more greatness to an already unbelievable series.
I'll believe it when I see it! Damn, I better start working out just so I can hold the damn book. ;-)-
Spoiler I think Caetlyn did at one point tell Ned he had to accept it, but it didn't seem like a calculating move to me. It seemed like she was genuinely upset for him to take the position but felt she and Ned were both powerless to really stop it. I will say that in the books she isn't altogether a sweet person, and there is plenty I dislike about her character. She's no Cersei, nor even a Jamie, but she can be stubborn, cold, obsessive, rash, annoying, and closed minded. Of course she has good points as well.
