Winter Is Here - A Dance With Dragons

The original title for the final book was "A Time for Wolves" so I'm pretty sure the Starks will return, also Jojen said "the wolves will come again" in ACoK. I hope GRRM doesn't take five years to finish the winds of winter.
 
I'm still waiting for Arya's direwolf to re-enter the story. It's been alluded to plenty.
 
No1newts said:
...About the series being too long, which ties in with Jon, there is a lot of friction between GRRM and his fans/publisher. He didnt want to produce the last 2 books, he wanted a five year in story time gap just missed out and related back too in future novels between a Storm of Swords and whatever his now next published novel is called...
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Any links to this information? I too think the 5-year gap sounded awesome, and would be highly p.o'd if it transpires that the money-grubbing publisher basically pushed Martin into modifying his narrative :mad:

My thoughts on the book (highlight to read):


I greatly enjoyed it - a vast improvement on the "nothing" that happened in A Feast for Crows, and returns to some of (imo) the best characters. Not really happy with the way Dany is portrayed as naive all of a sudden - it does seem to jar with her portrayal in previous books, although not entirely out-with the realm of reason.

Loving the whole Connington angle - did not expect it at all. Also, pretty sure that Jon will survive without being Azhor'd by the Melisandre...time will tell.

There is a feeling that the series has stretched too much and is losing focus, but at least it has not done so to Wheel of Time proportions (which I lost interest in eventually). It is a humungous undertaking and some fans can be thankless. Here's to GRRM having a good writing streak to get the next (and next) books completed :)
 
I seem to remember reading that he abandoned the five year gap thing when he realised most of what he was writing was flashbacks, nothing to do with the publisher.
 
For any of you that want this series in hardback, they're available to pre-order now.. :D

Book 3 is confusing though, doesn't come in two parts like paper back, I don't know if they've squashed into one or what...

600~ pages per parts to book 3 yet only 950~ for book 3 in the hard back... sure the two parts don't contain that much gumpf in the back/front.
 
I've still hardly started, shame on me, shame on me. Just been really busy and it fells harder to just sit down in piece and quiet and read a book than say throw on a DVD. I'll have to have a word with myself.
 
I've expressed my displeasure with the Kindle edition of this book, but fair play to Amazon. Last night I got an email telling me they had an update for ADWD, when I downloaded it they'd corrected a lot of the defects. Maps are now in (still a little difficult to read though), as are ornate headers at the start of each chapter and they fixed the first character of each chapter too. Next time they need to get it right on Day 0 though, since that's when people read the book for the first time.
 
This is beyond depressing, it's been a long slog to get this far and the book has been moving at roughly the same pace as "A Feast for Crows" in that it takes ages to go anywhere. Perhaps I'm a little spent having gone through the entire series again but it does seem like Martin has lost focus.

Now Jon is dead! I had to put the book down, there's two chapters left but I don't think I have the heart to read them tonight. Nearly all the original characters are gone, certainly the more interesting ones. Jamie is most likely dead as well at this stage though that can't be assumed until it's written.

Think I'm going to need some light reading after this, it's far too depressing.
 
Antar Bolaeisk said:
Spoiler below:

Now Jon is dead!
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Is he? I don't think the book is explicit about that, especially after GRRM used the same misdirection technique on two characters in AFFC. It's annoying because it's lazy writing, but I've read two plausible explanations of why we've not seen the end of that character.
 
Not sure if its lazy writing but he's got to Jordan stage of being clever for being clevers sake (though Jordan was slightly different in that he was being descriptive for no reason other than he could)

He started the series brutally and unrelenting, no one was safe. Now that his "main" characters have become apparent they are depressingly "invicible" as many poor authors do and they walk from one implausable situation to another and survive.

The narrative built around them becomes inherently boring because you KNOW nothing will ever happen to them of a serious nature.

I will finish the series because I have enjoyed it in the early stages and to be fair I want to know what happens with the characters I have invested a lot of time in, but I think it would benefit from a swift finish because Martin has lost the plot. A Wheel of Time esque situation with a new author picking up the frame work then hammering it out in an interesting manner would be much preferable to what the series has become. :(

Jon as you mentioned above is the most obvious example. I can't put into words how pointless his story arc has become, same with Danni. I just feel that their whole appearance in this book could have been boiled down to a couple of exciting chapters and cut out all the dross. Why make Jon Lord Commander to kill him off (or not as it may well end up) five minutes later? An overly elaborate plot device to move the Wildlings beyond the wall *yawn* and Danni becoming a ten year old love struck girl after being a hardcore leader of armies... LOL! :rolleyes:
 
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Yeah im kinda browned off about Jon. The only character left rooting for. I can't really see why you would base the first book on the Starks, clearly building them up to be the good guys, then removing them all.

I suppose there is still character left in Theon. Obviously Sansa is still knocking about but she's a vapid moron of little interest. Arya, of course, may be fun, but i'm worried that she will adapt to her new role, and forget her nightly prayer.

Sigh.

I found it hard to continue after The Red Wedding. Now, it's really hard. I suspect i will only continue because i'm this far invested.
 
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scorza said:
Is he? I don't think the book is explicit about that, especially after GRRM used the same misdirection technique on two characters in AFFC. It's annoying because it's lazy writing, but I've read two plausible explanations of why we've not seen the end of that character.
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People tend not to walk away from a knife wound to the stomach though, like you, I don't believe this is the end for him just yet. He'll either be brought back to life by Mellisandre or return from the dead like Coldhands.

No1newts said:
Jon as you mentioned above is the most obvious example. I can't put into words how pointless his story arc has become, same with Danni. I just feel that their whole appearance in this book could have been boiled down to a couple of exciting chapters and cut out all the dross. Why make Jon Lord Commander to kill him off (or not as it may well end up) five minutes later? An overly elaborate plot device to move the Wildlings beyond the wall *yawn* and Danni becoming a ten year old love struck girl after being a hardcore leader of armies... LOL! :rolleyes:
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Speaking of pointless plotlines, what the bloody hell was the point of Quentyn Martell other than to let loose the dragons?
 
I suspect it's to set up that Doran Martell wants to enter the arena opposite teh Lannisters. Since Oberyn was the braver of the two, people expect Doran to do nothing. Now we know he is seeking quite extreme options to challenge them.

Quentyn's ending was written really nicely, though.
 
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What will happen to Dany? I doubt the Dothraki will be kind to her.
And I think Jon is dead, using the same trick as they did with whatshername would be annoying.
 
Antar Bolaeisk said:
I suspect Daenerys is going to take some vengeance on Khal Jhago now that she seems to be more in control of Drogon.
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Entirely possible, but I have a feeling it will end up with an alliance between Dany's forces, Jhago's Khalasar, and I think that it'll be an attack on the Seven Kingdoms if that happens.
Or the Dothraki could capture her and.. have their way with her :o
 
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