Holy crapoloa…bout damn time!
I’d say “sort of”. This is pretty mild info about what he’s said will be in books 4 and 5, but it is spoilerish, so I’ll box it:
Originally book 4 was going to be A Dance with Dragons, which would pick up five years after A Storm of Swords ended, and any relevent events between the two books would be revealed in flashbacks or just related through the narrative. The big plot point of this book was going to be Dany’s return to Westeros. But after working on that for awhile, he decided the gap just wasn’t going to work, and scrapped that idea, and started on A Feast for Crows, pushing A Dance with Dragons back to book 5.
Then AFfC grew to the point where it was too big, so he decided on this approach of splitting the POVs, with the ones that aren’t included being pushed back to book 5, still entitled A Dance with Dragons. And that book is half done, since it will now include a lot of material that was meant for AFfC. However, since that is the case, whether ADwD will be able to cover all that he originally wanted the book to cover (Dany’s return, and whatever plot points he had in mind) is anybody’s guess.
Oh, and I wanted to say, I doubt the book will be out by the end of July. There’s been no official annoucement of a publication date yet, as far as I know, and I’d guess sometime in September or October.
This is very good news, but I’m still not holding my breath. So many deadlines have already been missed.
Martin’s writing is worth the wait, however long it may be. I respect his prerogative and good judgment as author. I’ll be glad to get the books whenever he and his publisher agree they’re ready to be sent forth.
But please, GRRM, don’t make us wait TOO long…
The first time I ever heard of this series, the reviewer called it a Trilogy and made no mention of any other books, already written or in progress. Interested, I went down to my local bookstore, and found that all three of the Trilogy were alread in paperback. So I put down my (approx.) $25, went home and fell in love with the series.
About 2/3 of the way through A Storm of Swords, I came to the realization that there was not a chance in hell that all these stories were going to be resolved in the next 250 or so pages.
If I ever get a hold of the reviewer that called it a Trilogy, I’m going to break his fingers, and force him to write “I’m a doo-doo head (of a planned series of six or seven)” 20,000 times with a dull pencil that has that little scratchy bit that doesn’t write properly and gives you the shivers. And no pencil sharpener. I’ve been fruitlessly checking Martin’s website almost weekly for the past two years. Trilogy my ass.
But yay! The new book’s coming out! Woo!
Hey, anybody heard anything about the next Robert Jordan book, out of idle curiosity?
Ducking behind riot shield
Martin:Jordan::gourmet restaurant:__________
A. fast food
B. greasy spoon
C. roach coach
D. all of the above
Yeah, in October, I think. “Knife of C something or other”.
Shows you how much I care anymore.
… I just saw the title while I was trying to figure out which one I’d stopped after. And I still can’t remember it. Definitely something about a knife, though.
googles
Dreams! Knife of Dreams.
promptly forgets it again
On the other hand, I can tell you off the top of my head that Martin’s A Feast For Crows will be followed by A Dance With Dragons, and that the supposedly-last book will be The Winds of Winter.