NPR

Paddington Bear wrote: Sun Jul 05, 2020 2:56 pm It is amazing how thoroughly season 8 killed the show. I was among the huge amount of people absolutely obsessed but now if GRRM did bring out the next book... meh.

HighKingLeinster wrote: Tue Jul 07, 2020 2:11 pm that useless cripple getting the throne in the end. he was my most hated of the main characters and then he ends up winning the game of thrones rather than being thrown from cliff for being weak and sickly

Paddington Bear wrote: Tue Jul 07, 2020 2:15 pm There's too much and I've blanked a lot out. For me though:
- Turns out it was actually really easy to defeat the White Walkers. Kinda an anti-climax
- Dany getting less time and story around her death than Euron
- Arya 'the lone wolf dies but the pack survives' Stark deciding to go and have a western gap yah in the final episode

Embarrassingly poor story telling

New guy wrote: Sat Jul 04, 2020 10:48 am Brilliant
Season 1
Season 2
Season 3

Very good
Season 4

Mixed bag
Season 6

Surprisingly poor
Season 5

Very bad
Season 7

Wow...
Season 8

HighKingLeinster wrote: Tue Jul 07, 2020 2:11 pm that useless cripple getting the throne in the end. he was my most hated of the main characters and then he ends up winning the game of thrones rather than being thrown from cliff for being weak and sickly

eldanielfire wrote: Fri Jul 17, 2020 3:01 pm

HighKingLeinster wrote: Tue Jul 07, 2020 2:11 pm that useless cripple getting the throne in the end. he was my most hated of the main characters and then he ends up winning the game of thrones rather than being thrown from cliff for being weak and sickly

To me the most obvious Throne winner from the books should be Young Griff. He's actually been trained to be a good king and matches GRRMs historical influences and is in a good position to nick the throne. Bran actually makes no sense, he should be more tied to the 'The Others' story progression which I'm certain GRRM intends to be a much more complicated resolution..

AUGUST 15, 2020

I am back in my fortress of solitude again, my isolated mountain cabin. I’d returned to Santa Fe for a short visit, to spend some time with Parris, deal with some local business that had piled up during my months away, and of course fulfill my duties to CoNZealand, the virtual worldcon. But all that is behind me now, and I am back on the mountain again… which means I am back in Westeros again, once more moving ahead with WINDS OF WINTER.

It is curious how my life has evolved. I mean, once upon a time, I actually wrote my books and stories in the house where I lived, in a home office. But some decades ago, wanting more solitude, I bought the house across the street and made THAT my writer’s retreat. No longer would I write all day in my red flannel bathrobe; now I would have to dress and put on shoes and walk all the way across the street to write. But that worked for a while.

Things started getting busier, though. So busy that I needed a full-time assistant. Then the office house had someone else in it, not just me and my characters. And then I hired a second assistant, and a third, and… there was more mail, more email, more phone calls (we put in a new phone system), more people coming by. By now I am up to five assistants… and somewhere in there I also acquired a movie theatre, a bookstore, a charitable foundation, investments, a business manager… and…

Despite all the help, I was drowning till I found the mountain cabin.

My life up here is very boring, it must be said. Truth be told, I hardly can be said to have a life. I have one assistant with me at all times (minions, I call them). The assistants do two-week shifts, and have to stay in quarantine at home before starting a shift. Everyone morning I wake up and go straight to the computer, where my minion brings me coffee (I am utterly useless and incoherent without my morning coffee) and juice, and sometimes a light breakfast. Then I start to write. Sometimes I stay at it until dark. Other days I break off in late afternoon to answer emails or return urgent phone calls. My assistant brings me food and drink from time to time. When I finally break off for the day, usually around sunset, there’s dinner. Then we watch television or screen a movie. The wi-fi sucks up on the mountain, though, so the choices are limited. Some nights I read instead. I always read a bit before going to sleep; when a book really grabs hold of me, I may read half the night, but that’s rare.

I sleep. The next day, I wake up, and do the same. The next day, the next day, the next day. Before Covid, I would usually get out once a week or so to eat at a restaurant or go to the movies. That all ended in March. Since then, weeks and months go by when I never leave the cabin, or see another human being except whoever is on duty that week. I lose track of what day it is, what week it is, what month it is. The time seems to by very fast. It is now August, and I don’t know what happened to July.

But it is good for the writing.

ScarfaceClaw wrote: Wed Aug 19, 2020 7:12 pm He sounds like a total dick.

Yeeb wrote: Tue Jul 07, 2020 2:04 pm What was your final series biggest dissapointment ?
For me there were 2 utter wtf moments

1. Those heat seeking WMD dragon slaying crossbow bolts - if they were that good than the burning of kings landing just wouldn’t have happened , just give the baddie guy on the ship some ammo. Very lazy writing.

2. The main battle at the end - wasting your light cavalry dolthrathi in a head on charge opening move, and stationing your trebuchets in front of your army so they get smashed after one volley.

Just utter shite, especially compared to LoR battles

And 1 guest wrote: Fri Jul 17, 2020 3:41 pm Thrones was a story that had to have an end. I rewatched Breaking Bad recently and felt it could have ended two episodes earlier.

Sometimes I do get the feeling that most of you reading my posts here care more about what is happening in Westeros than what is happening in the United States.

So let me assure you that, when not sweating out election returns or brooding over other real world problems, I have continued to work on THE WINDS OF WINTER.

No, sorry, still not done, but I do inch closer. It is a big big book. I try not to dwell on that too much. I write a chapter at a time, a page at a time, a sentence at a time, a word at a time. It is the only way. And sometimes I rewrite.

Of late I have been spending a lot of time with the Lannisters. Cersei and Tyrion in particular. I’ve also paid a visit to Dorne, and dropped in to Oldtown a time or three. In addition to turning out new chapters, I’ve been revising some old ones (some very old)… including, yes, some stuff I read at cons ages ago, or even posted online as samples. I tweak stuff constantly, and sometimes go beyond tweaking, moving things around, combining chapters, breaking chapters in two, reordering stuff.

None of this is even remotely new. It is how the first five books were written.

I was really on a roll back in June and July. Progress has continued since then, but more slowly… I suffered a gut punch in early August that really had me down for a time, and another, for different reasons, in early September. But I slogged on, and of late I am picking up steam again.

...

So that’s where all that stands. Or at least, that’s as much as I am allowed to tell you right now.

Hang in there, friends.

yermum wrote: Sat Nov 21, 2020 11:08 am Like many others I was obsessed with the tv show and the books. Season 8 though ... I am really unsure if I will bother with the books now.

I wrote hundreds and hundreds of pages of THE WINDS OF WINTER in 2020. The best year I’ve had on WOW since I began it. Why? I don’t know. Maybe the isolation. Or maybe I just got on a roll. Sometimes I do get on a roll.

I need to keep rolling, though. I still have hundreds of more pages to write to bring the novel to a satisfactory conclusion.

That’s what 2021 is for, I hope.

I will make no predictions on when I will finish. Every time I do, assholes on the internet take that as a “promise,” and then wait eagerly to crucify me when I miss the deadline. All I will say is that I am hopeful.

HighKingLeinster wrote: Fri Jul 17, 2020 3:36 pm

eldanielfire wrote: Fri Jul 17, 2020 3:01 pm

HighKingLeinster wrote: Tue Jul 07, 2020 2:11 pm that useless cripple getting the throne in the end. he was my most hated of the main characters and then he ends up winning the game of thrones rather than being thrown from cliff for being weak and sickly

To me the most obvious Throne winner from the books should be Young Griff. He's actually been trained to be a good king and matches GRRMs historical influences and is in a good position to nick the throne. Bran actually makes no sense, he should be more tied to the 'The Others' story progression which I'm certain GRRM intends to be a much more complicated resolution..

Bran should have just fucked off and become a tree somewhere

and then chopped down and used as firewood

Enzedder wrote: Tue Mar 30, 2021 6:29 am

HighKingLeinster wrote: Fri Jul 17, 2020 3:36 pm

eldanielfire wrote: Fri Jul 17, 2020 3:01 pm

To me the most obvious Throne winner from the books should be Young Griff. He's actually been trained to be a good king and matches GRRMs historical influences and is in a good position to nick the throne. Bran actually makes no sense, he should be more tied to the 'The Others' story progression which I'm certain GRRM intends to be a much more complicated resolution..

Bran should have just fucked off and become a tree somewhere

and then chopped down and used as firewood

You are all wrong - Bran won because he knew what was going to happen and used that to his advantage. Brilliant strategy. That also makes him the best leader you could imagine.

I thought the sacrifice of the Dothraki was also brilliant - too unreliable to leave them as a force post battle.

The Battle with the Ice King could not end any other way if you think it through. That blue bastard just kept increasing the size of his forces.

BnM wrote: Mon Mar 29, 2021 9:29 pm Mwahahahahaha

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/ ... of-thrones

George RR Martin signs five-year, eight-figure deal for more HBO projects

Game of Thrones author also has a Netflix film on the way, but there is still no word of his finishing the fantasy series that made his name