A Song of Ice and Fire is a series of epic fantasy novels by the American novelist and screenwriter George R.R. Martin. The first volume of the series, A Game of Thrones, was begun in 1991 and first published in 1996. The series has grown from a planned trilogy to seven volumes, the fifth and most recent of which, A Dance With Dragons, took Martin five years to write before its publication in 2011. The sixth novel, The Winds of Winter, is still being written. This thread is to discuss the best-selling book series. The thread to discuss the television show can be found here. I feel like I've said this every year since 2014, but I really hope we see TWoW by this time in 2017.
I think it will be out this year by Christmas time at the latest. I really want to reread the series, hopefully I can get that done this summer.
I've read 1-4 twice and the 5th once. I always have the desire to re-read the series when I'm watching the show, but it's pretty far down my list between re-reading The Dark Tower series and the other 30 or so books I own that I haven't read yet.
As much as I like these books, I don't see myself re-reading them. It's such a huge time investment when there's still 50+ books in my own collection that I haven't read, to say nothing of everything else that's out there.
Still working of the fifth book. About a third of the way through. Might actually pick it back up for the first time in nearly a year now that GOT is on again.
I really think he's not going to finish. We'll get the next book for sure, but the last is really unlikely. I don't know why his publishers aren't more concerned or don't press him more to meet deadlines.
I mean they can't exactly force him to write. What are they going to do? Fire him from his contract? Stop paying him unless he reaches deadlines? He has them over the coals right now, and he's just waiting to start raking them. If he dies, someone else will finish the series with his notes, probably the guy from Scandinavia who knows the entire made up world perfectly. There's nothing the publisher or his readers can really do to stop him from dying before finishing, or to speed up his writing process.
finished ADWD today. Really lackluster in a lot of ways, which is of course disappointing. I've read all five books in about a year, so I'm sure waiting six years really pissed a lot of people off but my main issues are simply book related (and looking at the Goodreads reviews are quite common). Favorite character: Tyrion, then Jaime Most disappointing: Daenerys (as usual, but she really fucking does nothing in ADWD)
books from fav to least because we all love lists and rankings: Swords - Thrones - Kings/Crows - Dragons probably. probably. Swords is definitely #1. A Clash of Kings I don't remember much about since it comes between the beginning and the fantastic Swords. I also really liked Crows even though it's only half the cast and limited for action.
Davos and Asha Greyjoy are also pretty high up for me. Brienne too. It's weird, usually the LESS I know about a character the more I like them since it leaves a lot to the imagination to fill in the blanks. Once you know a backstory, you can't really change it and some backstories / actions aren't always good.
Arya, Tyrion and Davos are my favorites. I also really enjoy Theon's chapters especially in Dance. Jon and Dany are the most boring to me. Edit: Jamie And Brienne too! This series has too many great characters
Tyrion, Arya, and Jaime have been my most consistent favorites. There are a handful of others I like, but those three are the ones I've loved from the moment they got POV chapters.
is The Dark Tower worth reading? I started the first one (gunslinger i think?) in middle or high school and it didn't click, but maybe now it will?
Absolutely. Absolutely sprawling epic once it gets going, and really inter-connected with so many other great King (an other authors) works.
Awesome. I have one book left in The Expanse series, I'll check out those after. Though my wife will be pissed that I am putting of The Golden Compass books once again...
I recently started His Dark Materials (TGC is book 1). Great stuff. I would maybe read that trilogy before the 7 of The Dark Tower. Obviously shorter / less time and quick, great reads.
Today I was thinking about what Arya's going through and learning to wear the different masks and what that ultimately means for the story. Will she wear someone face to be able to kill someone from Kings Landing? Someone in the North? Or is this just her last stop for her character and where she'll remain...
Would not be surprised to see Arya end up on a mission to kill Dany. I do think we'll get a Jon/Arya reunion though, before it's over.
I see Arya leaving the Faceless pretty soon actually. We know that Justin Massey is heading to Bravos, and he's the one that's suppose to escort Jeyne (the fake Arya) to Jon, I bet this all ties together somehow.