Kevin's Watch

When's it coming out? August-something?

Spoiler

I can't wait for this book. I've been re-reading ASOIAF, and I can't wait to see what happens to Jon, Tyrion, Stannis, Arya, and all the other (living) characters! Winter is coming

"The winters are hard," Ned admitted. "But the Starks will endure. We always have."

Tell me about it. I checked Amazon a couple of days ago and they had pushed the date back to August instead of April.

Well, I only have 200 pages to go in AGOT, so only, what, a couple thousand pages to catch up before Crows?

Mr. Martin claims that we fans will be the first to know when it is finished, after himself, of course. Just keep checking his website. He's been putting up periodic sample chapters from time to time, too.

www.georgerrmartin.com

In answer to your question, Mhoram, since the book isn't finished yet, there is not firm date.

He's close, though - >900 manuscript pages, and that was last time he updated (few months ago now) so he could be finished soon. I'd expectit towards the end of the year. Amazon's release dates are never accurate, they just like to guess.

HE STILL HASN'T FINISHED! GODS!!!

I know of at least one person who has set Martin's website as his homepage so he can check to see if the book is done everytime he goes online.

Talk about dedication.

When I last checked a couple of days ago, still not done...

Well, a delayed book is eventually good, but a bad book is bad forever.

It's hard to wait , but I would rather he take his time and get it right then rush something that is perhaps a bit subpar into print.

In Stephen King's book, Danse Macabre, he states that any professional author who can't produce a novel in six years is "just dicking around." Martin is now two-thirds of the way there, with no signs of completion in the near future.

Chances are, Martin cares more about this book than you or I do. He's freaking making it. Has he let us down before with the past three books? No.

And dicking around or not, it took Tolkien something like 14 years to write Lord of the Rings.

My fear, Lord Foul, is that Song of Ice and Fire will never see completion.

I've seen this thing happen before. I became a fan of David Gerrold's War Against the Chtorr in the late seventies, for Heaven's sake. And he's what - halfway finished over a quarter century later? Is Martin smacking his fans in the face like Gerrold? No, but the ominous signs are starting to emerge.

At least King finally knuckled down and completed his magnum opus. He was already my favorite writer, anyway, but when he did this, I've come to admire him even more.

I realize Martin wants to make this work the finest it can be. Well, he did just that with the first three volumes, and he didn't take half a decade between books to do it.

Let's be honest - there is no way on God's Green Earth that A Feast for Crows will be published before 2005. Not if he isn't even finished writing it yet. And how much longer to wait for the final two (or three) volumes? I'm fifty years old.

If Martin was writing a half page per day, he would have completed Feast before now. I don't think that's too much to ask in a professional writer myself. But maybe that's just me.

Hey! (Stee from the TB forums);)

I agree 100% with you, Martins work is beyond fantastic, but i question his devotion to it. Four years is just way to long, Buy now he should have 1500 pages or book at least.
He is an overweight, passed middled aged man, who if he doest get his act together soon, my die before he finishes book 5.
I just hope that Feast is the problem, and that book 5 and 6 are written alot more clear in his head, so they dont take as long.
Cail

Mr. Martin lives just up the road from me in Santa Fe. I've met him twice and will see him again at Bubonicon '04. He'll outlive us all and would kick yer butt if he ever heard such.....

Story is that A Feast For Crows was originally not going to exist. He was going to go straight to A Dance with Dragons, with the events that will now occur during AFFC being shown in flashbacks. He then realized that this was not going to work out. So a good chunk of the book which will follow AFFC has already been written/plotted out. Hopefully, once AFFC is released, it will not be a very long time before we are treated to A Dance with Dragons.

Thank god, That means Book five might come out in a good amount of time after Feast comes out. This better happen, im tierd of waiting damnit.

and as for him kicking my butt, from seeing pictures of the man, and knowing people who have met him, i doub that he could move out of his own way
Cail