Only five chapters left and GRRM says he wants to be done by the end of the year. I’ll start holding my breath now.
Sorry, but I’m not holding my breath.
Don’t get me wrong – the day the book is in the stores, I will be there to get my copy – but I’m not believing it until there is a firm date in hand. Too often I’ve gotten my hopes up (whether I had justifiable reason to get them up or not) to be really confident of anything. When I see a firm release date, I’ll start holding my breath, not before then.
Considering the fact that this book was supposed to be a third to a half-written five years ago (don’t forget, Martin had to split A Feast For Crows in two because it too long and the unused chapters were supposed to get put into Dance), I shudder to think about the fact that I’ll probably finish Dance in a day or two and then have to wait seven or eight years (ten??) for the next volume.
Zev Steinhardt
He also said the book was written five years ago in the afterwards of FFC. Anyone holding their breath would be long dead by now.
If Dance with Dragons and Duke Nukem Forever are released on the same day will the universe vanish in a puff of smoke?
But yeah count me as another skeptic. I do think there is a decent chance the book will be released by the end of 2011 though. However I also suspect it will be the last book in the series and I hope Martin at least clears up some of the cliff-hangers and provides a semblance of closure.
I wonder what sort of quality people are expecting from any further books in ASOIAF. It seems to me that GRRM no longer has any real interest in finishing his story, so I would doubt that anything he does write will be of a high standard.
I know many fans will just want resolution to various plotlines, but, is it worth waiting in expectation for a book that could be nothing but a glorified, “Danys met Jon and they all lived happily ever after”? (with blood, pain and suffering instead of the happily ever after bit of course)
I’d imagine that he is under a lot of pressure to finish in time for a release date that coincides with the miniseries premiere.
UK wholesalers are currently listing it as due 29th September 2011, although I’m sure this will slip as time passes…
Until this website changes I won’t believe a word the man says…
I’m not holding my breath either, but I am wondering if he’s getting some pressure to finish with the HBO series starting next year. I’m guessing there’s some money to be made with a book/series tie in, so maybe some money-hungry marketeer has kidnapped him and is keeping him locked up in a remote cabin until he finishes the series.
This will be the last book in the series. Unless he really really works hard and pushes out a book a year to finish the series, he’ll be dead before anything is resolved.
I thought Feast was the weakest book of the series. That’s possible because all my favorite characters were left out, but no, I don’t expect greatness from anything else he puts out.
I think the TV show is a positive development. I can’t imagine HBO agreed to do the show without some kind of assurance that a complete story will eventually be available. My guess is Martin is contractually obligated to write a treatment sketching out the rest of the story. If he doesn’t write the books a screenwriter will write a screenplays based on the treatment. Not perfect but better than being left completely high and dry. Of course all this assumes the show survives enough seasons to get ahead of the books.
Genius. Genius, I tells ya!