Haven’t read the whole thread (because omg too long) but just wanted to chime in because while I’m a newcomer to the series (I’m not quite a quarter of the way through Storm of Swords), I want to stay out of the spoiler-free threads because the constant sniping is driving me nuts.
And I actually find it necessary to spoil myself on this series. I was rather reluctant to start reading it at first, because I heard how crapsack world it was, with lots of violence against women, among other things. Real life violence against women, for me, is icky and anxiety-inducing enough, so I typically try to avoid it in fiction. But the HBO series came out and my boyfriend persuaded me to start reading it (because while I wanted to watch the series, I generally prefer reading the book first). So I did…and while I like it (once I get started reading, I can hardly put the book down) the violent scenes are still pretty unpleasant to read. So whenever I’m reading a particular passage and things start looking bad, I stop reading and look on wikipedia to see what happens. Forewarned is forearmed, and all that. It’s worked so far–I’m less disturbed by the violence I already know is coming. I know it’s probably a Sin Against Literature, but that’s just the way it is.
And it’s not like I need my literature to be all sunshine and rainbows–I prefer horror to comedy, and one of my bookmarked webpages on Chrome is the SCP Foundation. It’s just that stuff like real-world sexual violence gets under my skin far more than typical horror violence does.
Yeah, based on the posts in this thread, I was thinking I’d do just that. I also know about the Red Wedding. Made me wince when I heard about it (then went “HOLY SHIT” when Dany saw the “king with the wolf’s head” in the Palace of Dust), though I’m glad to hear that the Freys made themselves unpopular with that move.
My problem is going to be when new books come out, and folks haven’t had the chance to record what happens on the intarwebs. I don’t know if this is going to be a problem with A Dance with Dragons, per se (because I’m not even on Feast of Crows yet, and by the time I’ve finished both of those I’m pretty sure DwD will have been out for awhile), but I might have to wait a bit after the last two books come out so I can properly spoil myself.
Just finished reading AFOC. I thought I was rereading the first four books, but I honestly didn’t remember anything that happened in the second half of AFOC, so I cleverly deduce that I didn’t read the whole thing the first time through. Dumb, because the second half moves a lot faster than the first half.
There is a preview chapter in AFOC on Dany. And there is a preview chapter on GRRM’s website on Jon. I just finished reading both of those.
Now what in the hell am I supposed to do for the next 8 days?
So if the books are ready to ship, why not ship them? They can’t possibly have a PR campaign better than the HBO series that’s already concluded, and if the books are ready to go, then every day they wait is another day they aren’t making millions of dollars. I find it pretty hard to believe that there is anybody sitting on the fence, trying to decide whether or not to buy the book, who will have his mind made up only after hearing GRRM speak on his book tour. And if there are people like that, then fine, let them buy the book later.
What is the logic behind sticking to an arbitrary date?
It’s done to give everyone an even playing field - probably to avoid complaints about a publisher showing preference for one reseller over another. After all, if Borders gets their shipment Monday and everyone else gets it on Wednesday obviously Borders is going to sell out while everyone else loses out on sales.
Amazon Germany apparently sent out like 180 copies early. Now German booksellers are saying “fuck it” and just putting them out on the shelves. Or so I’ve read anyway.
Hey, I found something. A big fat (over 700 pages) book called “Warriors,” comprising short stories of all genres (sci fi, fantasy, western, etc.) having something to do with warriors. It’s co-edited by GRRM, and includes a pretty long story about Dunk and Egg.
(If you don’t know, GRRM has written several Dunk and Egg stories that take place in Westeros, a few generations before AGOT.)
Don’t have anything to add except I just placed my order for *A Dance With Dragons *today with the Science Fiction Book Club. I cannot wait to read it.
I know it’s many, many pages later, but can someone please tell me in which book these events are recalled? I just finished AFfC, and I just don’t remember there being anywhere that level of detail about Robert’s Rebellion or Lyanna’s death in any of them. Maybe I got one of the editions with missing chapters? Help!
Things are never recalled in one big chunk, Roberts rebellion has been pieced together by small comments by lots of different characters across many different chapters.
Anyone going to make it to one of GRRM’s signings? Indy is a mere 3 hours from me…seriously considering…
Also, a question for those who watched the show because I did not. How vague were they in regards the promise Ned made to Lyanna? I friend of mine who has read the 1st book or 2 and watched the show thought (like I did at first) that the promise was that he would bring her body back to the Winterfel crypt. He thought the show explicitly stated that, too. Wrong?
Since this is the omnibus discussion thread I have a question…does anyone know what the Doom of Valyria was? I gather that something rather abrupt and dire happened to Valyria, but any ideas of what it was? I remember just scattered comments about it, but I seem to recall that to some extent they brought it on themselves somehow…which sort of rules out an Atlantis type scenario I guess. Any ideas what it might have been?
We know people still can’t go back “the doom still rules valyria”, we know the land broke apart and formed islands, we know the sea that surrounds this islands is called “the smoking seas”, we know there was a ring of volcanos in the valyrian peninsula called “The fourteen fires” and the Valyrians used conquered slaves to dig deep under them.