Apologies for the slightly off-topic post…
It’s not looking good, folks…
George R R Martin confirms he hasn’t written anything for the 2 remaining A Song Of Ice And Fire books since 2022.
He wishes that they were finished.
The last published book in the series, A Dance With Dragons, was published in July 2011, now 13 years ago.
Obligatory song that’s now 12 years old… https://youtu.be/j7lp3RhzfgI
The last published book in the series, A Dance With Dragons, was published in July 2011, now 13 years ago.
The whole of Malazan Book of the Fallen was released over 12 years. I think he just needs to admit he’s not going to finish at this point.
Malazan has the benefit of it all mostly having been played out already. It’s just a question of how to tell that story.
George still hasn’t figured out where the story is going. Or if he did, he probably changed his mind once the show aired.
True. I think he’s written himself into a bit of a hole or maybe just fallen out of love with the project.
Book of the Fallen was not mostly played out, the gameplay was mainly the backstory of the Malazan empire
he’s an old man, who finally enjoyed some success late in life, let him enjoy his last days in peace ffs.
GRRM is a fucking clown.
Bah don’t be such a hater. The written story so far is so freaking good that even if he never finishes it i’m quite happy to have read it.
It’s been so many years that I can’t imagine picking it back up and continuing to write anyway.
Lol, I’m not exactly a fan of the series (I only really liked the first two books) but this is ridiculous. At this point he is just trolling. I’d say I’m happy I moved on. I haven’t even bought A dance with dragons because I couldn’t finish the one before that as I didn’t really like it. That being said, I’d like to get a conclusion to the story and I’m willing to go back to the series AFTER it’s concluded (which most likely will never happen).
Maybe he realized they’re bad.
Imagine you’re writing an epic tale that gets converted into the world’s most popular TV show, then flown into the side of a mountain by some shitty director. I’d imagine the hate mail and public ridicule he probably got would make anyone lose the drive to finish.
What if the ending to show is actually really, really similar to the ending of the books? I’ve seen theories floated about how certain book-only events might make it more satisfying even if the broad strokes (Bran becoming king etc) are the same - but damn seeing people completely reject your series conclusion would take the wind out of anyone’s sails.
I don’t think many people rejected the conclusion outright, just the path of getting there. So much of the last season was totally nonsensical. Dothraki ride off into the darkness and get obliterated by zombies; next episode, they’re back! Everyone forgets about the Iron Fleet. Jamie ditches a 7 season character arc in a second. Arya subverts expectations and undermines the existential threat in an instant. The all-seeing, all-knowing Bran serves no purpose except to have “the best story” somehow. Dany heel turns from saving the world to destroying it on a whim.
Most of Game of Thrones, books and show, is predicated on causality. Things happen for a reason. And they happen realistically, not necessarily in the way we want. It was a breathe of fresh air in the beginning. Honor isn’t rewarded for honor’s sake. Strength is a tool, but a slippery slope. Travel takes time. When that realism is thrown out to force plot, it undermines the entire show.
So it’s not necessarily the ending that was bad, it was how it got there.
He should just finish it off writing it like a historical retelling the way Fire and Blood was done. POV chapters are nice but when he isn’t going to release anything with that approach something is better than nothing so the last impression of the final arc isn’t HBO’s Game of Thrones.
How to kill your fan base by making them wait decades: a GRRM story
Twist the knife with that God awful last few seasons to the show, too. Really kill any good will you had with your fans.
I’m afraid what happened is that he saw the fan reaction as a hate of the major plot points themselves, rather than of the abysmal pacing and handling of it all. We’ve been told that the broad strokes were from his drafts and plans for the series.
I liked most of the last few seasons. Everything up to the Night King’s death was good IMO; it went to shit when they rushed Daenerys going nuts afterwards
You think the ending of the show sucked? Imagine how he felt watching that shit.
I think he was fine with it, watching from his hot tub filled with money.
He probably couldn’t see the tv due to the big pile of money sitting between him and the screen covering his view.
I would suggest that it was the broad outline of the same ending he planned and shared with DnD just implemented badly. He’s probably more pissed that they made his ending so unpopular by completely botching the landing as he now can’t use that same ending without risk of rejection. I still maintain it would have sucked as an ending even if it had been implemented at the same standard as series 5, but what we got made it far far worse.
Yeah, he basically spoiled the ending with the tv show and now he needs to come up with a new one. Not that he actually will. He’ll never finish the series
I’d be happy if he did the same ending again, just with his characteristically excellent writing
I understand, it would probably make sense narratively, but he would receive a lot of backslash.
The reason he hasn’t finished (or isn’t even trying any more) is because he’s written himself into a corner. There are a lot of loose ends and parts that don’t make sense, and that’s not even counting the parts that the show left out!
He probably felt dread, because he was probably hoping that they’d fix some of the mistakes he made, and make writing the book simpler.
Honestly, what a piece of shit.
Relax, it’s just a book.
If I were grrm I would hire the last seasons writers to help me finish the books. Ultimate troll.
This is probably not the place to discuss just how fragile IRL feudalism was to actual runs of bad winters and sub-par summers, which were notorious for causing famines that spread across nations. I can’t speak about how it works in Westros, but volcanic winters and bad solar weather shifted the tides of history here on earth.
Considering the notion of decades long winters, the people of Westros would likely be forced to be migratory much like the Dothraki.
That all said, it still was a rich world, and I suspect Martin just wrote himself into a bunch of corners.
And his understudies have all flown the coop to become famous in their own writing
Eventually winter came and they all rolled over and died. The end.
George R. R. Martin
I imagine this is about all he’s come up with since the show started…
Genius, what world building!
Rocks fall, everyone dies.
Yes, we knew that, George.
Good for him. I would also want to pretend the last season didn’t exist.
Shocking.
GoT’s final half and definitely last season pissed me off to no end at the time, but in retrospect I’m glad I don’t have to care about this anymore.
