George R.R. Martin Pulling Back From Game of Thrones Season Five

Kontarek

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Exterminas said:
I can't understand how you concile your optimism with the data at hand. I just checked his bibliography again:

The second and thrid book took him two years to write. The fourth took him five years, the fith six years.

Now, If I am being optimistic and assume that the next two books will only take him six years, I get the following time table:

Next book: 2017
Last book: 2023.

So by the time the last book releases Martin will be 75. How many overweight 70-year-old americans do you know that don't have any serious health conditions that slow down their productivy? Like cancer or diabetis?

And that is not even accounting for the fact that Martin will very likely take longer for the last two books than six years, because he is who he is and has been taking increasingly longer for each book in the past.
My position is primarily one of "who fucking knows?". If he dies before he finishes it will be a tragedy, but there won't be anything to stop it so that'll be that. We can only take these things as they come; we cannot outright assume an untimely death to be an inevitability.

EDIT: Out of curiosity I looked around and found a scientific study that concluded overweight people over age 70 in particular have a slightly higher survival index than their thin counterparts:
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1532-5415.2009.02677.x/abstract;jsessionid=B7DFE101940C2EA47D494433A741DA23.f02t01

Now I'm not treating this as full-blown proof that he won't kick the bucket, but it's a point in his favor at least.
 

IceStar100

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Meh whether he finishes it or not matters little. HBO will have an end with or without him. Much like Full metal alchemist had an end. He can finish it or HBO will get someone to finish it for them. A song of ice an fire is one thing but game of thrones has become it's own being.
 

Uriel_Hayabusa

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Imre Csete said:
Lunncal said:
Woah, how rude? This guy doesn't owe you anything, he's not obligated to finish his book series at all, what gives you the right to call him a lazy ass?
He might be rockin' the jovial grandpa look, but he's far from an all around nice guy (like when he lost to Harry Potter ages ago). I don't care about the lazy part though.
I agree, I remember that open letter back in the day. It really made him look like a petulant child as opposed to a professional author.
 

Triaed

Not Gone Gonzo
Jan 16, 2009
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I am firmly on GRRM's side here.

I do not give a flying fuck how long it takes him to write the next book or whether it will be 8 o 9 of them. I want him to write the best story that he can write, that is all I ask of him, and I am willing to wait for a good quality story... one that he himself would be proud of.

As for the show, it has no bearing on my stance. The show can go any way it wants. It can finish with a different ending or follow alternate plot lines. They will do something similar to TWD which will have a different ending from the book, and I am OK with that. The show will also be a good quality spectacle.

The show and books do not diminish each other by virtue of their own existence.

I say, let the man write.
 

FalloutJack

Bah weep grah nah neep ninny bom
Nov 20, 2008
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To all those who are giving people a hard time because they're being critical of Martin:

I don't have to be nice to someone who tells a million people or more to fuck off. Neither should you.
 

ISearchForTraps

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Jun 22, 2009
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Then GRRM should have had "I may not bother finishing this series read at your own risk" on the cover of the fist book and then we wouldn't be here as far less people would have paid money for it.

If you start a book series those who buy it pay money on the promise of it's completion.
Be honest, how many projects did you start in the mid 90s that you've kept at till now?
 

Sansha

There's a principle in business
Nov 16, 2008
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As a writer, I have works that I've chosen not to complete because my (very small) fanbase turned into a pack of snarling fucking hyenas every time I hinted at a delay or retcon, and I realized that no matter what I released, people would ***** about it.

Some people - some of you - love your literature to the point of mental instability. Cut it the fuck out.

GRRM has neither legal nor moral obligation to finish the story. He might not, and frankly I hope he puts down the pen and says "Nope, retiring, fuck all y'all.". You knew what you were signing up for when you bought the first book; that it may never be completed, so that's your own risk.

I don't understand this frothing fervor some of you have regarding storytelling. The fans and critics of literature are among the most aggressive, whether they love it or hate it. I really don't get it!
 
Jun 26, 2010
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This further confirms my suspicions that Martin is going to have Winds of Winter released just before season 5 is, as many fans will rush to buy it (more so than usual) in case they believe that season 5 will spoil later events in the books.

However, I think it would be optimistic for me to predict he'll release A Dream Of Spring before season 6, but this could have been his master plan all along.

As much as I would be gutted if Martin didn't finish the series, and the ending was left to the D&D (who clearly are good at adapting Martin's material, but most of their attempts at diverging from it have been horrid), I respect the fact that as a writer you cannot make yourself sit down and write if you do not feel inspired.
 

prpshrt

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Jun 18, 2012
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Oh, I was under the impression he'd pull away from the series and let them do their own thing while the books went on about their own business. I've only ever watched the show so no real problem with what he chooses to do.
 

Wereduck

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Rainbow_Dashtruction said:
Wereduck said:
To the "he has no obligation" crowd:
Yeah, and I have no obligation, legal, moral or hygenic, to refrain from spitting on the sidewalk in front of every person I pass on the street. That doesn't mean it's okay for me to do it or that other people would be out of line for calling me a dick.
GRRM has created a serialized work of art that many people care about deeply and he's made a great deal of money because of people's investment in the series. If he can't find time to write that's one thing and if he didn't realize how much of his time the series would take or how much it would burn him out on Westeros that's another thing; I truly sympathize. Nevertheless if he abandons ASoIaF in mid-stream for other projects his fans have every right to flame him for leaving them hanging. He's a grown-ass man, he knows what his fans want and he's smart enough to know that giving them something else will not be appreciated.
He has no obligation, and your not him.

It is not easy to constantly write a book series, and if you keep trying, you will eventually burn out sooner or later, which gives you writers block towards that series.

So no, your opinion is entirely worthless to him. If he wants to finish the series, he will. However no writer has ever written a good book by forcing them-self to finish it.
Credit where it's due, at least you realized that my statement wasn't about the legalities of spitting in public.
That said, I did say that I sympathize about burnout and I didn't say thathe should bear down & finish it or that my opinion should matter to him. The truth is I haven't read any of ASoIaF but I have read all of the Dune books, including the recent prequels, and I agree that he shouldn't rush them lest Westeros go the way of Arrakis before it.
My point is that the "no obligation" argument is a crock and arguably a strawman. Martin owes everything he has to his fans and they're completely justified in being upset (death threats & harassment, of course, still not okay). It's a testament to his skill as a writer and the emotional investment people have made in his work - an investment that he should feel obligated to make good on as a matter of professionalism.
As long as we're on the subject of me not being a writer though, it's "you're not him" and "themselves" (no hyphen).
 

FalloutJack

Bah weep grah nah neep ninny bom
Nov 20, 2008
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Rainbow_Dashtruction said:
But as I have already said: Obligated or not, if a writer forces himself to write, its unlikely to be a book worth reading anyhow.
Allow me to interject, if you please. Rainbow, nobody is - nor can or would, in reality - holding up a knife to the man's neck, so to speak, and saying "Get to work.". He did it to himself. It's all very well and good that he's paid close attention to the show that we get these great episodes, but in the meantime he was allowing it to close in on the books that are undone. When he made the announcement that the whole shebang should die with him, he imposed a time limit upon himself and his work, and the grim statement naturally made others wonder about his health and ability to finish said work when he is his age and not getting any younger. And instead of reassuring his fans in any way, he tells them to fuck off. It was never a case of overloading him like people expect him to be a story-building machine. If you want it in machine terms, it's like wondering how long this one printing press that handles the Daily Planet news will last and why it doesn't do much work at all.

To sum up: He did it to himself and then he was an ass about it when the so-called pressure was on.