A Song of Ice and Fire: Discussion thread [spoiler: Book 5]

[Compaq]

As far as I know, we don't have an "official" discussion thread about the series. A thread for those who have finished all the currently available books. That would make

A Game of Thrones
A Clash of Kings
A Storm of Swords
A Feast for Crows
A Dance with Dragons


I believe some people have finished these books, and having a little discussion on what might happen with the characters would be very fun.


The person I'm most curios about just now, is Jon Snow. Has his sworn brothers committed treason? "For the watch.", they said (some sadly), as they stabbed him down, multiple times. His death is not confirmed in any way, yet it's hard to imagine something else after four stab wounds.


I also look forward to knowing Jorah's role in all this. Will he ever know his father has forgiven him? Surely he will meet Daenerys at some point, and what happens then. Who is Daenerys destined to end up with, if she doesn't die?


Who will end up with the dragons? Many try to claim them. Prince Quentyn didn't exactly succeed. Will Victarion, the Iron Captain?


Who is up for the impossible: predicting this author's next moves LOL

Then, in 4-6 years, will see who was right, haha!

 

[JAC526]

I got through the first 3 books. Got about 1/2 through the 4th and realized that I mostly hated all the remaining characters (b/c they are all generally horrible people) and gave up.

 

[Compaq]

Well then you must have misunderstood most characters.

 

[Overread]

All I can add to this is that I finally *after many months* found the second hardback copy my bother got of the 5th book - a case where two gifts ended up being the same. Thusly I've now totally pinched it and its now on the to read pile (I read very veyr slow when the series isn't finished )

 

[JAC526]

Well then you must have misunderstood most characters.

Examples?

 

[Big Mike]

I finished reading the 5th book several months ago. It felt very slow...It's like we're waiting for something big to happen...Daenarys coming back to Westeros. It seems like we've been waiting for that, for the last 3 books or so....and it feels like the author is just filibustering to stretch the series out.

 

[Overread]

Actually he was going to make book 5 and 6 have a 10-20 year or so time gap between them (story wise) to allow some characters to mature to an older age. However the shelved that idea in the end (which is partly why this book took so long to come out as he had to re-write a lot of material).

As for the slowness - eh - I've yet to read any trilogy that doesn't get a bit slow come the middle of the book or any big multi-book saga which doesn't have slower patches. Books need as slower bit in the middle and ASOIAF has a lot of interweaving story lines to follow so its no surprise that the slower period gets enlarged. It's all setting the scene for the finale though

 

[MTVision]

I finished reading the 5th book several months ago. It felt very slow...It's like we're waiting for something big to happen...Daenarys coming back to Westeros. It seems like we've been waiting for that, for the last 3 books or so....and it feels like the author is just filibustering to stretch the series out.

I'm a book nerd and read so much that I rarely remember much of what I read so I've read this series 3 times now - I re-read it everytime a new book comes out. The last few books were very slow compared to the first couple. I know writing a novel is hard but I really wish he would write a little faster. The dudes gonna die before the books are finished!

 

[MTVision]

Well then you must have misunderstood most characters.

I agree. Yes a lot of the characters have some bad qualities but they are also all at war. Like Tyrion - some may consider him a horrible person because he has done some horrible things but he's also done some really honorable things.

 

[Big Mike]

I finished reading the 5th book several months ago. It felt very slow...It's like we're waiting for something big to happen...Daenarys coming back to Westeros. It seems like we've been waiting for that, for the last 3 books or so....and it feels like the author is just filibustering to stretch the series out.

I'm a book nerd and read so much that I rarely remember much of what I read so I've read this series 3 times now - I re-read it everytime a new book comes out. The last few books were very slow compared to the first couple. I know writing a novel is hard but I really wish he would write a little faster. The dudes gonna die before the books are finished!

Ya, I like to read books several times (the ones I like anyway). I find that reading the first time is obviously great because you don't know what's coming...reading them the 2nd time is great because you have a new perspective because you do know what's coming...reading them again allows you to pick up on other details that were probably not absorbed the first few times etc.
Plus, I usually read at night while trying to fall asleep...and a new book just keeps me up too late, while an old familiar book helps me get to sleep.

Just this week, I finished off The Hobbit...probably for the 20th time. I may read it again before the movie comes out in December.
LOTR and The Silmarillion are others that I've read many, many times.

As for the slowness - eh - I've yet to read any trilogy that doesn't get a bit slow come the middle of the book or any big multi-book saga which doesn't have slower patches. Books need as slower bit in the middle and ASOIAF has a lot of interweaving story lines to follow so its no surprise that the slower period gets enlarged. It's all setting the scene for the finale though

It just seems to me that he is dragging it out unnecessarily. It's like he's addicted to adding new characters...and it's long since pasted being interesting. If he was a newer, less successful author, a good editor would tell him to cut 30%-50% of the characters and tighten it up. Which would, IMO, be an improvement. But he's in a comfortable situation where he can write whatever he wants...and the work suffers.

 

[mishele]

Ahhh...yes, book 4-5 were very slow for me. I think it took me a whole year to read those 2 books...lol I would go 2 weeks in between reading and forget what I was reading about. So then I had to read parts over.....it was a little bit of torture!!

Jon.....he was warned.
Tyrion....I don't want to read, "Where do whores go?" ever again...LOL
Danny.....Get on w/ it already
=)
Side note.....Can't wait to see what they do on the screen for book 3!!!!

 

[JAC526]

Tyrion and Jon Snow are the only characters I can think of off the top of my head that have any redeemable qualities.

Having said that I read these books a long time ago.

I have read a LOT of epic fantasy and in my opinion there are much better series.

 

[MTVision]

I finished reading the 5th book several months ago. It felt very slow...It's like we're waiting for something big to happen...Daenarys coming back to Westeros. It seems like we've been waiting for that, for the last 3 books or so....and it feels like the author is just filibustering to stretch the series out.

I'm a book nerd and read so much that I rarely remember much of what I read so I've read this series 3 times now - I re-read it everytime a new book comes out. The last few books were very slow compared to the first couple. I know writing a novel is hard but I really wish he would write a little faster. The dudes gonna die before the books are finished!

Ya, I like to read books several times (the ones I like anyway). I find that reading the first time is obviously great because you don't know what's coming...reading them the 2nd time is great because you have a new perspective because you do know what's coming...reading them again allows you to pick up on other details that were probably not absorbed the first few times etc.
Plus, I usually read at night while trying to fall asleep...and a new book just keeps me up too late, while an old familiar book helps me get to sleep.

Just this week, I finished off The Hobbit...probably for the 20th time. I may read it again before the movie comes out in December.
LOTR and The Silmarillion are others that I've read many, many times.

As for the slowness - eh - I've yet to read any trilogy that doesn't get a bit slow come the middle of the book or any big multi-book saga which doesn't have slower patches. Books need as slower bit in the middle and ASOIAF has a lot of interweaving story lines to follow so its no surprise that the slower period gets enlarged. It's all setting the scene for the finale though

It just seems to me that he is dragging it out unnecessarily. It's like he's addicted to adding new characters...and it's long since pasted being interesting. If he was a newer, less successful author, a good editor would tell him to cut 30%-50% of the characters and tighten it up. Which would, IMO, be an improvement. But he's in a comfortable situation where he can write whatever he wants...and the work suffers.

Thats usually when I read too. I use to have the LOTR series and the Hobbit but I never read them for some reason. Those will have to be put on my to-read list.

I didn't like the way George R. R. Martin wrote the last 2 books (I think its the last 2)....They were set at the same time but the characters were split into 2 books. There were some actual passages that were copied from the first book and put into the 2nd. It drove me nuts. The anticipation for the book was high and I felt let down when I read it. I already knew what had happened but I was just seeing it from different characters point of view. IMO he doesn't need anymore characters - he needs to finish the story!

 

[MTVision]

Tyrion and Jon Snow are the only characters I can think of off the top of my head that have any redeemable qualities.

Having said that I read these books a long time ago.

I have read a LOT of epic fantasy and in my opinion there are much better series.

Those were the only 2 I could think of, off the top of my head, when you asked for examples.

Any recommendations for epic fantasy series? Right now I am reading the Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind for like the 5th time. I need something new to read.

 

[Overread]

Oh I'd be interested to hear about better series than ASOIAF !


Also a teaser - from what I've heard the title of the next book was supposed to be related to wolves, but they cut the wolf part of the title (possibly because it was maybe sounding like GRRM was going to have favourite characters ). But yes I'm hoping that the next book picks up on the speed of the story a lot more