It’s not as far as I had read into the books. Martin is not some Gene Wolfe type author who is hyper-intelligent.
Not sure what this means. The good doctor extolled the virtues of the early seasons, complimenting their nuance and complexity. (Quite justifiably, I would say.) Then asked ‘Does it really get that much worse in later seasons?’
To which I replied: Oh you sweet summer child.
Apologies, I honestly thought this was a real expression, I assumed from the south, similar to ‘bless your heart.’ It means essentially the same thing: an innocent or naive person is in for a rude awakening by harsh reality.
Turns out, the internet seems to think it’s an original expression to Game of Thrones. I really never would have guessed that, and you really wouldn’t have any way to know what the heck I was talking about.
Anyway, in their world, winters last multiple years, as do summers. So, for example, a 12-year-old might have lived their entire life in summer, blissfully ignorant of the harsh winter they were surely in store for. And they might ask something like “Are winters really that bad?” Oh you sweet summer child…
It’s been a while since I read the essay, but I think the key quote was “It’s all just stories”.
So romance and mystery and thrillers and crime and fantasy and science fiction… it’s all one single genre? Fiction?
Seems kind of a weird hill to die on.
I think it’s more like that he saw himself as writing George R.R. Martin Stories, and that his “Science Fiction” stories had far more in common with his “Fantasy” stories than they did with others in their so-called genres. It was plot and character that mattered, not whether the characters were riding spaceships or dragons.
Like other writers of his generation - Zelazny, LeGuin, Silverberg, all the way back to Vance - Martin saw science fiction and fantasy as mere points on a sliding scale, and moved freely between them to wherever his muses took his. He wrote the stories he wanted to write, and let the publishers attach the labels.
For whatever it’s worth, I sort of lean toward the “It’s all the same genre” notion myself. In brief, fantasies are stories where impossible things happen. Science fiction are those fantasies where the impossible things have sciencey-sounding words around them.
I wouldn’t say it’s a “hill I’m dying on,” but just an explanation of the way that I see genre. Genres aren’t strict little boxes, they’re much more fluid than that.
In response to the main question of the thread, I’m not particularly excited for the final Game of Thrones novels. But that’s okay, because there is no earthly reason to believe that they will ever be published.
Rather than a hill to die on, I think he’s reacting to those who really do die on the hill of this is X genre. Too many ridiculous arguments have been had over what genre, say, Star Wars is.
A genre definition that’s infinitely elastic would be useless. Yes, it’s all fiction, and yes, there are certainly works that are close to, or over, the line between science fiction and fantasy, but the line is nevertheless there, and most readers will find it useful more often than not. There is no science in LOTR; I have no problem calling it fantasy (or high or epic fantasy, if you want to slice that salami juuuuuust a little finer). There is no science, as such, in GOT either, so I don’t see how it could properly be called sf. Likewise, there is no fantasy that I recall in, say, Asimov’s Foundation Trilogy, so I have no problem calling it sf.
There is entire plotline in Foundation could be fantasy.
The Second Foundation are a bunch of telepaths - as is the Mule
Fair point. OK, then: substitute Clarke’s Childhood’s End, Heinlein’s Starship Troopers, Scalzi’s Old Man’s War or Martin’s own Tuf Voyaging.
All of which feature faster-than-light travel. 
Which is theoretically possible and may someday be achieved; it is not fantasy, as such.
Yeah. No. I mean, I’m Canadian. I’ve seen winters where it was below minus forty for weeks. So it only felt like years. So cold it hardly matters what scale you use. I’ve seen snow piled up ten feet high and take months to cart away. Our summer is sort of hot and humid, but in practice it lasts under twenty percent of the year. I’ve lived in places where you plug your car in at night to keep the battery going and the Old Ones away.
GRRM is a gentleman and a scholar, no doubt, but New Jersey has little to teach Canadians about oncoming winters. He has never driven a sled or zamboni. He probably now lives in a place where you can have citrus trees in your backyard. Wonder how high the wall around it is. What colour is his dog? And its walker?
Official Motto of The Kingdom of New Brunswick: Winter is coming, buy sand and potato chips.
I wasn’t saying it literally. I was saying that the later seasons really do drop off much worse than you can even imagine.
For what it’s worth, Martin lives in Santa Fe, NM. You’re not keeping citrus in the yard at 7,000+ feet in the high desert (or basically anywhere in the state).
Not for long, anyway.
I Googled the ratings by seasons. They decline slowly from the mid nines to the low sixes. Not rapidly, but surely - and a lot of people really disliked the last half dozen episodes. The people who did the series, based on the first few seasons, understand good television, which I assume is complicated to produce and requires many capable people. Was there any particular reason the quality dropped off? Did they lose prominent people, take too little time, include too many subplots, change what they wanted to do, or bring in too many cooks? Or just become victims of success?
They ran out of source material (and inexplicably decided to ignore source material for their own terribly plots - *ahem Dorne). The showrunners are good at adapting the works, but not good at writing their own.
It’s jarring how night and day the difference is. I think the first five seasons were based on published books, then starting at the beginning of season 6 they were past the books.
I’d say the first three seasons were true excellence, four and five were good but starting to get a little shaky, then six was bad and seven was an insult.
Having said that, I will concede there are some good moments in seasons 6 and 7.
Where should I stop watching? Any reason to go beyond the books?
Watch the whole thing. By the time it went off the rails, I was so invested in the characters there was no way I wasn’t tuning in, even if the thrill was gone.
I agree with Ellis that the first 3 seasons were true excellence and very much worthy of multiple viewings. My rewatches usually lose steam somewhere in season 4 and by the time Jaime and Bronn head to Dorne you’re basically watching soap opera level dialogue with excellent production values.