starman9000

Only if he finishes it by saying the 6th book is done and will be out a month later.

Dr. DVD

For the record, what I read in a book depends on my state of mind. I am not looking exclusively for dragons, orcs, and wizards or for them to be the forefront. When I said comparable to Lord of the Rings I meant in the way it can go from being a character based story and then momentarily switch gears and give me some cool fantasy world stuff. I like the fantasy elements, but I don't need an entire book that deals with it exclusively, or to great extent for that matter. I own a good amount short stories by Howard and whenever I need a pulpy fix, I can read a story or two and be done with it.
FWIW, I thought Stephen King's Eyes of the Dragon was a pretty cool book when I re-read it as an adult. I was disappointed when I read it younger as I wanted stuff about dragons and such, but characters are what drive a good story and if this is more along the lines of the above book, I shall continue reading.

mgbfan

Okay ... note to self. Don't suggest to Sean that most fantasy is trash. He's more than a little sensitive about that.

Sean O'Hara

Most fantasy is trash. However, the crappiness is independent of whether there are orcs and wizards in the story -- or do you think ASOIAF would suck if the plot focused on the ice zombies and dragons instead of retelling the War of the Roses?

Tommy Ceez

Yes, you must remember that these stories are set in a world where everyone believes that the magic/creature stories from the past are fables, and that they are slow to come to grips that they are not

mgbfan

Again, you're operating under the assumption that I said something I never said. I realize it's easier to argue against imagined positions than real ones, but ....

benedict

<small>"Come back here and take what's coming to you. I'll bite your legs off!"</small>

This threatens to go downhill fast and it's probably worth someone being the bigger man and swallowing the rebuttal.

starman9000

Philzilla

It's the Wars of the Roses and ASOIAF is not a retelling of it. War of the Roses is a movie starring Danny DeVito, Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner.

GreenMonkey

Most BOOKS are trash, if you want to be that negative. I can enjoy some of my cliche fantasy just like most people enjoy Dan Brown, Dean Koontz, Tom Klancy, etc in their respective genres. No need to be so negative.

MoviePage

So anyway...I can't wait for A Dance with Dragons and, maybe even more so since it definitely exists, the HBO series!

Anubis2005X

Bah, EXISTENCE ITSELF is trash!!!1!

Dr. Mantle

I'm hoping the reason this took so long is because Martin was getting the plotlines worked out to the end of the series and then books six and seven can arrive much sooner.

starman9000

Has anybody seen anything about the 3rd Hedge Knight story being released as a graphic novel?

heebiejeebie

Hopefully this is the case. It's likely that when the decision was made to split ADoD there was some serious re-writing involved. I'll guess we'll see when Book 6 gets a release date.

bdshort

Wow! Glad to see the next book is finally coming out. I guess it's time to re-read the other books again. I've actually only read though the first thirdmor so of Feast before I lost interest. Not sure if it was the particular characters that didn't interest me, or if it was because it had been so long since in had read the first 3.

I better get started!

RonG617

I'm going to pass on this based upon the last book being not so great and the fact that I think the series will take 10 or more years for him to wrap up if he lives that long. When everything is said and done I will probably purchase the whole thing at once.

Hiro11

The first three books are great, the fourth book is an unfocused mess of new characters dropped down seemingly from outer space, dropped story lines, absurdly uneven pacing and zero narrative drive. Half the time I had no idea what the hell was going on, who these people were and why they were important. This is from someone who's reread the first three books twice. GRRM seems to have forgotten the technique of outlining a book before writing it. I don't get it, he's said since the beginning that he's going to write seven books, but it's now clear he had only really thought through less than half the story.

I'm not really looking forward to the fifth book, but everyone should read the first three if they haven't.

mgbfan

I think I'm in the minority. I thought Feast was a small step down. I wasn't bothered a bit by the change in characters, and rather enjoyed some of them.

Josh-da-man

When the book comes out, I'm expecting Martin to announce that A Song of Ice and Fire will be expanded to at least eight books, with nine or ten a more likely total. And that he also has a lot of ideas for "Wild Cards," and that he'll get right to work on book six of ASoIaF after he's finished with the new WC, which he plans to get started on as soon as football season is over.

heebiejeebie

I'll just chime in and say that I was also disappointed in Feast. It wasn't terrible or anything, but it did seem like a step down from the other books. I think splitting the books/characters may have been the problem.

MoviePage

One of Martin's most recent blog entries (3/27) is titled, simply, KONG, and has the following to say:

Lastblade

I never thought I would say this, but I am completely underwhelmed by the imminence of Dance. I just don't care anymore, after the garbage that is Feast and then waiting 6 years for the next one.

I will watch the HBO series though.

Thank you Steven Erikson for proving that you can write an epic fantasy series in a timely manner.

He can continue to milk his franchise but I bet he will go the Robert Jordan route but unlike RJ, he is too selfish to let someone else finish the story.

I would kill for a Tuf Voyaging sequel tho.

RonG617

Has anyone read the new Dunk and Egg novella in Warriors? I have been pissed at GRRM for years now, but I have really enjoyed the story and I feel myself getting sucked back in.

dugan

Won't happen. When he announced A Feast For Crows, he said that A Dance With Dragons was already half done.

http://www.georgerrmartin.com/done.html