Now he just needs to finish the fucking book.
April. So I have 3.5 months to get a decent TV and HBO. Heh.
If I had to choose between having him finish the book or having a DVD of the entire first season, I’m not sure which I’d go with. Probably the book… but not by a huge margin.
It was a pretty cool sneak peak. I would have wanted to see more of the sets though, because this whole production looks so detailed and monstrously expensive.
I remember some website mentioning that GRR wrote on his website that the next book could be finished by end of the year. Though whether it would really happen is another question.
Did he specifically mention which year? Because if not, there’s his out.
He’ll be dead before he’s done.
I used to believe he could do it, but it’s taking forever. 
I’m hoping that this miniseries will put added pressure on him to finish. It looks pretty promising, and I’d hate to have HBO write the end.
So apparently the video that HBO released online yesterday was a bit truncated–the full-length one is here. It has a bunch of neat stuff–a glimpse of the Iron Throne, Tyrion talking with Jon, a shot of Arya receiving Needle…I can’t wait to see it all.
wow… looking awesome… only quibble so far is that I wish Ned didn’t look so much like Boromir. They could have styled him a bit differently somehow…
Aidan Gillen as Littlefinger is going to make my year. OMGIcan’twait!
I’ve been holding off on reading these books because I didn’t want to get strung along forever only to have the author die of a heart attack first. The TV series is going to be hard to pass up though, it looks amazing.
I’d just read them. The books aren’t really driven by much of an over-arching plot, so even if another one is never published, I don’t think it will really take away from the series very much.
Wow - the HBO trailers look good. Robert Baratheon and Tyrion and Littlefinger look especially on the mark. Did you notice that GRRM said "Ned Stark
is the center of the series." I’m glad he’s not spoiling it. Let people think Ned makes it through alive. Mwuhahahahahaha.
Agreed. Don’t deprive yourself of the pleasure of the books by any means.
I avoided them because I perceived the series as yet another interminable Tolkien ripoff. After my periodic rereading of the wonderful Fevre Dream, I realized they were written by the same George R R Martin.
So I ripped through the series pretty quickly & enjoyed it. Yes, he should have planned things better. George, ever hear of making an outline? But I’m not as angry as the true believers who have been waiting for years.
Now, I’ll probably have to shell out for HBO…
You’ll want to read his equally wonderful Tuf Voyaging, one of my all-time favorite sf books.
And if you’re at all interested in the superhero genre, the Wild Cards series that he edited and co-wrote.
My husband and I got a chuckle out of that part too. I hope there are a lot of people who watch the series without having read the book, and I wish I could see their faces when that scene happens.
Or even better - pick up his 2-volume short story anthology/autobiography Dreamsongs. It has some of the finest science fiction, fantasy and horror stories I’ve ever read.
I couldn’t second this strongly enough. My local library got both copies in. It was the first short fiction i’d read from Martin and it was pure pleasure all the way through
GRRM’s Sandkings also has some excellent short stories, esp. the Hugo- and Nebula-winning title story, and “The Way of Cross and Dragon.”
Both of those are also in Dreamsongs.