A Song of Ice and Fire (Possible Spoilers, tread carefully)

[Jeff]

I read on a SoIaF message boards that Feast of Crows was soooo long the publisher made him go back and split it in two.  Opinions are mixed if this now means there will be 8 books or still 7.  It also sounds like the first book will deal solely with the South and the second with the North and they should both be out this year

Straight from the horse's mouth:

"About three weeks ago I hit 1527 pages of final draft, surpassing A STORM OF SWORDS... but I also had another hundred or so pages of roughs and incomplete chapters, as well as other chapters sketched out but entirely unwritten. That was when I realized that the light I'd seen at the end of the tunnel was actually the headlight of an onrushing locomotive.

And that's why my publishers and I, after much discussion and weighing of alternatives, have decided to split the narrative into two books (printing in microtype on onion skin paper and giving each reader a magnifying glass was not considered feasible, and I was reluctant to make the sort of deep cuts that would have been necessary to get the book down to a more publishable length, which I felt would have compromised the story).

...

The division has been done, and it think it works quite well. The upshot is, A FEAST FOR CROWS is now moving into production. It is still a long book, but not too long; about the same size as A GAME OF THRONES. The focus in FEAST will be on Westeros, King's Landing, the riverlands, Dorne, and the Iron Islands. More than that I won't say.

Meanwhile, all the characters and stories removed from FEAST are moving right into A DANCE WITH DRAGONS, which will focus on events in the east and north. All the chapters I have not yet finished and/or begun are moving into DANCE. I think this is very good, if truth be told, since it will give me the room to complete those arcs as I had originally intended, rather than trying to tie them up quickly in a chapter or two so I could deliver the massively late Big FEAST. "

Dated 5-29-2005

There is more, this is just an excerpt... head here to read the whole big long explaination of the cut.

 

[Scott]

I'm glad I got in to this late because its been a long, long time between books, hopefully he finishes the series before 2010

[Scott]

Finished A Storm of Swords a few nights ago.  Good twists at the end and I loved the whole thing very much

The changing of who you care for and their nature is soooo great

I also like the threats of outward invasion being set up by The Others and Danaerys

A couple of things too:

Think Rickon will eventually take a larger prominence somehow.  Shaggydog and him seem like they will be Wildlings or something.

Think Benjen Stark will ever come back?  I was thinking he was going to pop up again but hasn't

I'm also interested to see how the Tyrion/Cersei/Jamie plot turns out

Can't wait for Crows, I really can't.  I also think in the end Jon Snow will be the King of Westeros

And, for the love of all things holy, check out these books!

[Scott]

Just about half way through with Crows right now. 



The fact that the book got tore in two shows immensly, Tyrion and Jon are probably my two favorite characters and neither one show up in the book (outside of some beginning stuff).  I really like where he is taking Arya but the rest of the stuff so far has been moving the pieces slowly around the board.

[Scott]

Got this from Amazon yesterday.  Its pretty cool...what is even cooler is that many of the characters I have been seeing with my mind's eye are close to what the artists are interpreting

Also, I have about 50 pages left of Crows

I like where its going, really I do, but the book didn't really further the plot a whole ton

[Scott]

It sounds like A Dance with Dragons is being pushed back to 2007 now

Jeff did you ever read Crows?

[Jeff]

I am about 1/2 way through with Crows.

I've been a bit sidetracked lately, but I still plan to finish it soon...

[BillCable]

Crows is in the mail on its way to me.  Can't wait!

[Scott]

Almost too good to be true

Ice and Fire on HBO!
Full seasons by each book!!
Oh my good lord what an crock of awesome kickassness.  I finally have something to look forward to!

[Jeff]

Dagnabit, I might finally have to break down and get HBO... 

[BillCable]

That is freakin' sweet!  It'll be interesting to see how they end up doing it.  I suppose they'll have to make many of the characters a little older... can't have 14-year-olds getting married and what-not.

[name]

can't have 14-year-olds getting married and what-not.

didn't stop them with Big Love....granted she's not yet married, but she's promised and the intimacy is implied.

I have no idea why I was even reading this thread....had never even heard of these books...but I caught the last few posts mostly because of the mention of HBO.  I swear, everything they touch in the original series department is gold.  Except for that thing they did with the chick who played Phoebe on Friends...that sucked, and tanked.

Anyway...read the HBO article...here's a quote:

"They tried for 50 years to make 'Lord of the Rings' as one movie before Peter Jackson found success making three," Martin said. "My books are bigger and more complicated, and would require 18 movies. Otherwise, you'd have to choose one or two characters."

doesn't that seem just a tad arrogant?  "sure tolkein made a cute little story, but mine is faaaar more sophisticated."  Should I be turned off already?

[Jeff]

doesn't that seem just a tad arrogant?  "sure tolkein made a cute little story, but mine is faaaar more sophisticated."  Should I be turned off already?

No, I don't think you should be turned off from that statement. 

In essence, the LOTR series is "just" about Frodo and the Ring... you can really boil it down to that if you needed to trim the fat.  Sure the other characters are important, but the ring drives the story.

The Fire and Ice books are waaaaay more complicated than LOTR with dozens of Main Characters who come and go and interact/intersect in different ways.   I guess maybe it does come off as a bit arrogant the way he said it, but it's probably true - each of his books (and there will be 7 when he's done) could probably be made into 2-3 movies like he said.

You could say the same thing about Harry Potter - some of the books have so much going on that you could make two movies out of one book if you wanted to split them.  It doen't mean that HP is "better" than LOTR, just that there is more stuff going on.  Same here I think...

[Biffette]

It's only more complicated because it isn't finished yet-- once the whole thing is done it shouldn't be too hard to look at the beginning and the end and prune, prune, prune.  I won't watch the show as it runs, but for the right price I'll probably pick it up on DVD.

And yeah, he's gotten pretty arrogant, but it's understandable considering he's probably surrounded by worshipping fans and yes-men 24/7.  Happens to a lot of people.

[Scott]

Update...no...not Dance with Dragons, from GRRM

I have some exciting news to share.

(But please, guys and gals, don't get TOO excited. This is what it is, and so far that's all it is, so don't make any assumptions).

HBO has just exercised its option, and purchased the television rights to A GAME OF THRONES.

For those of you who don't know Hollywood, an option gives a production company the right to buy a property (a book, a screenplay, whatever) at a certain agreed-upon price for a certain period of time (a year, six months, whatever). When that time runs out, they can let the option lapse, renew the option, or exercise the option and buy the property. The last is what HBO has just done.

What they have NOT done is greenlight the project. A GAME OF THRONES remains in development. They're still budgeting, still looking at locations (Spain and the Czech Republic at present, I hear). No decision has been reached, so any celebration would be premature. In Hollywood it is always best not to assume something is going to happen until it actually happens.

Even so... this is a very encouraging sign, and one that suggests a continued high level of enthusiasm and commitment for A GAME OF THRONES at HBO.

So keep your fingers crossed.