Kevin's Watch

George R R Martin has stated on his blog that the seventh and final book of the A Song of Ice and Fire series will be titled A Dream of Spring, rather than the working title used until now, A Time for Wolves.
Here's what he said about it:

I've also come up with a new title for the seventh (and final, I hope, I hope, I hope) volume of the series -- A DREAM OF SPRING. I like the sound of that a lot better than A TIME FOR WOLVES, which has been my working title for book seven up to now, and I also think it gives a better sense of the book that I want to write. So -- A DANCE WITH DRAGONS, then THE WINDS OF WINTER, then A DREAM OF SPRING. Shouldn't take me long (hah).

Personally, I prefer A Time For Wolves, because I think it sounds like the Starks' time of retribution is at hand.

A Dream of Spring sounds more like the type of fantasy Robin McKinley or Patricia McKillip would write.

I also don't believe Martin can wrap this story up in three more volumes. Not unless they grow into pairs like A Feast for Crows did.

it should imo take 4 more. it was supposed to be 3 more after feast but then feast merged. so how could it still be 3? eh we'll see.

and time for wolves might have been misleading. IT prob would have had a dual meaning Just like Feast for Crows wasnt about the 'crows' of the north and was onyl marginaly about euron crows eye so Time for Wolves may have been more metaphor for a world mentality then a literal stark redemption. George has made it clear that the ending will be bittersweet imo. So I would be surprised if it was just the starks sweeping everything before them

I just know he needs to quit worrying about the titles of future volumes and start writing!

Yeah, hopefully he didn't spend too much time agonizing over a title change. That wouldn't bode well for how long it will take to get A Dance with Dragons finished.

I prefer A Time for Wolves aswell, although, A Dream of Spring gives the impression winter will not finish before the series ends.

Roland of Gilead wrote:Personally, I prefer A Time For Wolves, because I think it sounds like the Starks' time of retribution is at hand

Agreed. I would love that... "the starks sweeping everything before them", that would own.



Thanks for the info Murrin.

The more i think abou tthis title the more i begin to hate it.

Sounds like a perfectly okay title to me, and if he says it is appropriate for the story he's writing (which he knows far, far, far better than anyone else) then I'm inclined to simply nod my head and agree.

He can call it anything he wants, as long as he finishes the series!

So, if it's called A Dream of Spring, does that mean that winter is going to finally fricking arrive in one of the next three books? We're only 4,000 pages in, and all I've seen is a few flurries.

Heh, even so, I believe it's been Winter all along there.

I think it was officially Winter as of Feast. Didn't the white crows arrive from the Citadel at some point?

Murrin wrote:I think it was officially Winter as of Feast. Didn't the white crows arrive from the Citadel at some point?

I know some crows arrived somewhere, but didn't that just mean that winter is coming? Or did it mean that it had arrived? I guess that I thought winter meant that it was going to be cold and snowing everywhere, at least down to Kings Landing (or whatever the big city's called; can't remember the name). All I can say, is that if winter has arrived, it's a bit of a disappointment. We're getting a helluva lot more snow in colorado.

The Maesters keep track of the seasons, and it's their job to determine when winter officially begins (since the timing of the season is so variational). They send out white crows to the rest of the Seven Kingdoms when winter starts.
I think in the chapters in the North the weather has certainly been getting worse; remember the long walk through the blizzard after the fight on the Fist? The bad weather started before aGoT and got gradually worse through the series. And snow in the Eyrie in the last book shows the beginnings of it in the south.

Murrin wrote:The Maesters keep track of the seasons, and it's their job to determine when winter officially begins (since the timing of the season is so variational). They send out white crows to the rest of the Seven Kingdoms when winter starts.
I think in the chapters in the North the weather has certainly been getting worse; remember the long walk through the blizzard after the fight on the Fist? The bad weather started before aGoT and got gradually worse through the series. And snow in the Eyrie in the last book shows the beginnings of it in the south.

Yeah, I remember all of the snow north of the wall; I guess I just thought that it was always cold up there. It hadn't really started snowing in Winterfell yet, that I recall. But I guess we didn't get much about the north in AFfC; maybe in Dragons it will be more wintery.

Murrin wrote:I think it was officially Winter as of Feast. Didn't the white crows arrive from the Citadel at some point?

(massive bump)

The white crows arrive early in A Clash Of Kings. But IIRC they not so much herald the coming of winter as the end of summer.

I always prefered A Time for Wolves myself. A Dream of Spring sounds a bit new agey to me, not to mention a bit Robert Jordan-y.

Then again, I have no idea what Martin is doing or planning, so who am I?

Well, after his last message to us (which I thought was rather snotty) regarding the progress he HASN'T made on A Dance with Dragons, I'm not sure that I want to invest all of the time required to keep up with him. You can't publish a book every five years and expect people to follow along. My memory isn't good enough to be able to pick up where we left off. When I started reading AFfC I was utterly, hopelessly lost.

Good for him that he has a billion other projects, but he wouldn't have any of those projects if not for the tremendous success of A Song of Ice and Fire. When I read his blog (and that snotty message), I don't get the impression that ASIF is his top priority. If he doesn't care, why should I?

I might not.

Am I the only one who was a bit ticked off by that message?

I, too am sick of the writers who takes 10 years or more to finish a series of books. Donaldson is another one.

That said though, what is the URL for Martin's web site and blog?

Someone wrote about the slowness of Robert Jordan. didn't he die a while ago, before completing his 11 book so-far series?

Donaldson does ok in my opinion. Three years between books isn't great, but it's better than some, and at least he manages to keep to the promised timeline.