George R. R. Martin, my theory

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It seems that the latest book in a Tale of Ice and Fire is long overdue. Here is my theory: It is being delayed to coincide with the release/finish of the HBO serial. I just imagine there will be so much more money to be made once the bright lights are shining. I know they have signed actors and such for the series...so maybe it will be on-air in a year or two? So the book...two years? Arghh...

 

I dont know, if the series is due in a year or two Martin could release a new book to coincide with that if he kept the pace with other authors. I just think Martin suffers from a gigantic writers block and has done so for years. The latest book in the series was of vastly inferior quality to the first ones and it was alsovery very late and was really a part of "Dance of Dragons" which is the as of yet unreleased. If you read his "not a blog" you can see that he is writing and re-writing constantly, he doesn't seem to know where he is going and the amount of procrastrination going on is impressive. He wrote something very very good and I am afraid he now finds himself unable to reach that level again no matter how hard he tries.

The HBO series look interesting though, looking forward to it.

 

It is also quite risky to release a book prior to the showing of the series...what if the book is a total stinker? Offending the core audience right before their word-of-mouth is most needed would be disasterous. There really is nothing to gain by releasing the book beforehand...except of course to satisfy my dramatic needs. Damn you George!

 

Kudos to HBO for trying to make the series. I hope they don't screw it up. Past experience with such things makes me fear they will, however. George will be loved by his core even if his latest stuff isn't up to snuff. He risks pissing more people off by not releasing it as soon as he can -- people will lose interest.

 

I'm not sure about that. I think the reverse may be true. But I'm not a fan of Martin's, so if they release something on TV, or DVD, it's highly unlikely I would bother buying the book. However, if the book came out first, and you guys thought it was really good, I may be tempted to buy it before the release of anything HBO would make out it, espeically if it is a few years away from being released. I don't know how HBO can make a serial out of something that's still a work in progress, unless Martin is turning his attention to a screenplay instead of finishing it as a novel. That may be bad for his fans. Look at what happened to Michael Crichton's, Jurrasic Park. The first book was really good (for what is was), but the last books were worse than the movies, and that's saying something, considering how bad the movies were.

 

Put me in the category that waiting so long hurts more then helps. I have a full time job, a family, and a pretty active life. I do not have time to go back and re-read multiple 700 plus page books to try to remember what the hell is going on and who everyone is.

I almost balked on buying the latest Wheel of Time book for the exact same reason. But, I'm such a Sanderson fan, that I couldn't resist. Hopefully, I don't come across chapters with characters and events that I don't remember.

 

I loved the Song of Ice and Fire series but I can't remember anything about the first books at all now (other than that Arya was a cool character) so I can't even remember if I'm looking forward to the long-missing next book or not.

 

The 1st book hooked me. I love the story line. It's a real shame he is taking his sweet time with the final book(s). He will lose part of his fan base now, but deservedly so.

 

Anything worth doing well is worth taking your time over. I'd rather wait a few years if it means a quality product, rather than have a poopload of crappy writing that totally derails the series.

 

I don't mind waiting LKD, but it seems from what I've read, alot of his fans do. I just hope he releases something soon, I really would like to jump back into his world, great stuff. He's like a high school tease...

 

It has been more or less a decade now, it is going beyond mere waiting.

 

That long?! Gads, I'm glad I'm not a fan of his....

 

A decade.. in a way.
Third book released in 2000, with A Feast for Crows in 2005. But that's a kind of a partial release, only half of the characters.

My bet is more on a writer's block. I was always suspicious (and disappointed) of lack of "interesting" characters in Feast. There were all the more normal ones, in a more mundane life. Pretty much all the magic/big plot movers were absent, which can suggest he's not really clear with where exactly he's going with it.
I love character and plot speculations as much as anyone, but this is really dragging now. Of course, i'd choose long wait for a worthy successor over a disappointment anyday, but this long a wait is not very confidence inspiring.