The Winds Of Winter

[Freecare Spiritwise]

A few days ago GRRM released a sample chapter from the new book!

http://www.georgerrmartin.com/if-sample.html

[Alluveal]

Oh yeah! I saw this. Very cool. Now, just another 7 years for him to finish it.

[Freecare Spiritwise]

Noooooo don't say that. Oh, and It's a great sample chapter. Though I know you won't read it. At least not until the year 2019

[Xican]

It's probably as far as he's gotten on the book...

[Alluveal]

To be fair, I hear he has 100 pages of material that would have gone into Dance with Dragons, but the editors/publishers pushed it to Winds of Winter. So, he has 100 pages! (out of 1500).

[Freecare Spiritwise]

The missus hasn't even read Dance yet. She's still pissed at GRRM hehe. Me, I'll read every little bit I can get my hands on as soon as it's available. Having read a few of the chapters in advance didn't hurt the overall experience last time. Heh, neither did the spoiler.

[Alluveal]

I know people who quit after Storm with Swords (red wedding stuff).

Hi, the character fucked up. Really bad.

He wasn't a main character.

Deal!

[Xican]

Speaking as someone who only got into the series when Dance was nearing completion, I can't gripe too much. I will say though, that 7 years for a book, when he had few other projects on his plate is really discomforting as a fan. I'm not going to say churning out books is easy, especially when they're as far reaching or lengthy as Dance -- but c'mon. It's not like he lacks the creativity or penmanship to get it done, Thrones, Clash and SoS all came out within 2 years of each other. Then it was 5 for Feast. Then 7 for Dance. It strikes a bit odd with me. He's on pace to have Winds out in 2021 at this rate, which is disturbing since he don't look too healthy...

[Freecare Spiritwise]

...and that's how he lost my wife as a fan. I think at one point she even had Dance pre-ordered on Amazon during that snafu they had a couple years before it actually came out. So it wasn't just GRRM taking forever with the book. The publisher didn't know what was going on either. It's all the same to me though. If the book comes out then I'll read it. I'd prefer it be sooner than later but I'd rather have later than never

And now we have the TV version which is looking badass so far. The sample chapter from Winds is first rate. We will at least hopefully get our maintenance dose of the series...

[Alluveal]

Well he ran into serious issues in Dance W/Dragons and Feast for Crows. AFFC was so big that it became two books, they they had to split the POVs, then he had to make the DWD match with AFFC. Then he had the "Myrenese knot" (he called it that). He wrote himself into a very very nasty corner (admittedly) and had to find a way out--which he did. Where Dany leaves off at the end of DWD is where he needs her to be, so hopefully, the rest will come easier.

I'll wait as long as it takes.

[Harlowe]

I still haven't finished the second book and really want to, because people rave about the entire series...it's just been seriously hard to get into.

[Alluveal]

Yeah, 2nd book is slower, but keep with it. 3rd has some omg WTF holy COW NO NO! YES YES! Moments.

And there is the whole Jaime thing too.

I found Dany's POV in book 2 (and parts of book 3) to be so yawn-worthy. Though, I think it's in book 3 that she fuckin' whips some serious ass. (pun intended).

Feast for Crows was weird... (book 4) because it is basically half the POVs (the other ones being in Dance with Dragons). I bet someone has a link somewhere that tells you what to read in what order. I'm almost tempted to do that....

Read chapter 1, 2 from AFFC
Read Chapter 1, 2 from ADWD
(etc. and so on)

Though they do come together about 3/4 of the way through ADWD....

(since the books take place simultaneously)

Yeah, I'm kinda just babbling now.

[Freecare Spiritwise]

Bah, I say read it in the order the books were released. And yeah, it gets tedious there for a while, but the series does pick up. I promise. *raises right hand*

[Harlowe]

I probably mused about this before, but I wonder if going with the audio version for ones that bog you down might help move you along. I listen to a lot of shit (books or podcasts) in my car to and from work.

[Alluveal]

Oh yeah. I think Clash of Kings was just re-released on audiobook because I bought it for my dad and wasn't able to a year ago.

[Kliban Nimbledigits]

Oh yeah. I think Clash of Kings was just re-released on audiobook because I bought it for my dad and wasn't able to a year ago.

I checked out all the audiobooks CDs, including "A Dance with Dragons", from the library and made.....back-ups.

I fire them up from time to time when work make me want to kill.

Got the Harry Potters 'backed-up". The narrator, Jim Dale, is just great. He voiced 50+ people for one book and each one was unique.

[Harlowe]

Oh man, I LOVE Jim Dale. He's a fabulous story-teller! The Harry Potter books on audio are about as perfect as an audiobook treatment can get.