Calling people out about future predictions.

[Kaelik]

1) BAMF fbmf, you were totally wrong and Dance of Dragons did come out on whatever day. Remember that?

2) I just wanted to bring that up, but this thread will mostly be for me to point to Ron Paul's polling numbers in a few months and laugh at GX.

[fbmf]

1) BAMF fbmf, you were totally wrong and Dance of Dragons did come out on whatever day. Remember that?

2) I just wanted to bring that up, but this thread will mostly be for me to point to Ron Paul's polling numbers in a few months and laugh at GX.

I didn't until you brought it up, but I cheerfully concede defeat. I am however, hedging my bet about the next two(?) books and waiting until they all come out, then just re-reading the whole mother fucker.

Game On,
fbmf

[Amethyst_Butterfly]

I second that (about re-reading the whole thing). I think (hope) the next couple will come out faster than the previous books, at least if HBO keeps the series. He'd have to at least get them done in time for whatever season they would be for the show, right? .... right??? Gah!

[ckafrica]

1) BAMF fbmf, you were totally wrong and Dance of Dragons did come out on whatever day. Remember that?

2) I just wanted to bring that up, but this thread will mostly be for me to point to Ron Paul's polling numbers in a few months and laugh at GX.

I didn't until you brought it up, but I cheerfully concede defeat. I am however, hedging my bet about the next two(?) books and waiting until they all come out, then just re-reading the whole mother fucker.

Game On,
fbmf

The last 2 books have only proved to me that my policy of not engaging series until they are finished are for the best. Both Crows and Dragons are fucking obnoxious dick teasing cliff hangers that are nothing more than bad TV shenanigans. It works when at most you should have a summer to wait but 5-6 fucking years is bullshit. Of course we actually know can sermise that he had dragons ready somewhat before its release this year and he/the publisher was just being super cynical and waiting for after the TV series to drop. Which should give us some hope that Winter might not be TOO far off on the horizon.

I don't even feel crows and dragons were that good. For 1800 fucking pages really it felt like little was actually accomplished. Its kind of like the Wheel of Time book that is all just a footnote of what the secondary characters did as a result of the proceeding one. Only 2 times longer.

[Amethyst_Butterfly]

1) BAMF fbmf, you were totally wrong and Dance of Dragons did come out on whatever day. Remember that?

2) I just wanted to bring that up, but this thread will mostly be for me to point to Ron Paul's polling numbers in a few months and laugh at GX.

I didn't until you brought it up, but I cheerfully concede defeat. I am however, hedging my bet about the next two(?) books and waiting until they all come out, then just re-reading the whole mother fucker.

Game On,
fbmf

The last 2 books have only proved to me that my policy of not engaging series until they are finished are for the best. Both Crows and Dragons are fucking obnoxious dick teasing cliff hangers that are nothing more than bad TV shenanigans. It works when at most you should have a summer to wait but 5-6 fucking years is bullshit. Of course we actually know can sermise that he had dragons ready somewhat before its release this year and he/the publisher was just being super cynical and waiting for after the TV series to drop. Which should give us some hope that Winter might not be TOO far off on the horizon.

I don't even feel crows and dragons were that good. For 1800 fucking pages really it felt like little was actually accomplished. Its kind of like the Wheel of Time book that is all just a footnote of what the secondary characters did as a result of the proceeding one. Only 2 times longer.

I thought they were good, I just dislike how Dragons ended. Very much.

[Surgo]

ckafrica's post basically sums up why I stopped reading.

[sabs]

I stopped reading around book 4/5 mostly because I wanted to watch every single female character burn on a stake, preferably after being tortured for a few months. There is absolutely nothing redeamable about ANY of the female characters in that series.

[PoliteNewb]

Sabs: whahuh?

[edited to remove spoilers]

Seriously, what are you smoking?

If you mean Cersei and Dany (the two most prominent)...I'm with you on Cersei, not so much Dany. I think she's done reasonably well, and is eminently redeemable from stuff done wrong.

[sabs]

OH my bad.
I got Song of Ice and Fire and Wheel of Time confused

my bad.


I actually stopped reading Song of Ice and Fire after the first book. I just didn't give a fuck about the story enough to continue reading.

edit: Because dyslexia is your friend.

[Koumei]

Isn't Song of Ice and Fire that Penny Arcade thing? With the dual-wand-wielding (and then the wand-claws)? Or am I thinking of something else.

No really. I'm very much behind the times when it comes to fantasy novels.

[PoliteNewb]

Sabs: no problem...sorry if I jumped down your throat a little.

Wheel of Time...honestly, I thought 4-5 was where it was starting to get good. You totally just missed (in book 6) the Aes Sedai (arrogant chick society) totally getting their comeuppance.

Still...while a lot of the female characters were arrogant and insufferable, I don't recall any of them doing anything that I'd want them to be tortured for. I'm more annoyed by their terminal stupidity at times (which goes for a lot of male characters, too).

Isn't Song of Ice and Fire that Penny Arcade thing? With the dual-wand-wielding (and then the wand-claws)? Or am I thinking of something else.

No, that's "Song of the Sorcelator".

(yes, I am a huge nerd)

[Zinegata]

Isn't Song of Ice and Fire that Penny Arcade thing? With the dual-wand-wielding (and then the wand-claws)? Or am I thinking of something else.

No really. I'm very much behind the times when it comes to fantasy novels.

It's Game of Throne, Koumei.

[Amethyst_Butterfly]

I like Dany, but Arya is definitely my favorite female character.

[angelfromanotherpin]

You're in luck, Arya's one of the very few characters guaranteed to live.

[name_here]

Yeah, half the plotlines in Dance felt like they were in a holding pattern. The Wall plotline included absolutely no appearances by the Others. Dany did fuck-all for half the book. Arya was barely in the book, but her plot still advanced more than theirs.

I actually was fine with Dany's ending, it just took too long to arrive.

[Starmaker]

I don't trust Martin because he's a pretentious douchebag. I also think he cheats.

Remember David Mamet's ALL CAPS memo where he goes, people shouldn't guess what happens next, people should wonder what happens next? Well it's the opposite in books. Reading a book takes time, and waiting for a sequel takes even more time. People should have enough info to make educated guesses on what happens next. For all the book's faults, the scene in Name of the Wind where, after a wizard explains the rules of practical magic, the main character does the fantasy equivalent of swallowing a can of radioactive waste and screaming "haha I'm now a superhero" was great. It is a sign of awesome writing if readers can predict the result of spellcasting (or politicking, for that matter).

Martin, on the other hand, has ranted against fanfiction several times. While I don't give a fuck about, or even outright hate what falls in the narrow definition of fanfiction (except where any laws against the creation of it might hurt the more general class of derivative works), the reasons Martin gave were:

1. "Bawwwwwww my characters are my precious precious children, no one knows them better than I, if you force them to do something against their will (and only I, their daddy, know what their will is) you are raping them, bawwwwwwwwwwww",

and

2. "If someone writes fanfiction somewhere, which you the author haven't read (because why would you, ewww, that's gross), and then you use a plot point that's, in the fanfiction author's deranged mind, is remotely similar to what you wrote, THOSE FUCKING COPYRIGHT-LAW-BREAKING-CRIMINALS WILL SUE YOUR, THE LEGITIMATE AUTHOR'S, ASS OFF."

Which is why I don't trust him. He fucks with the plot, rewriting and rewriting, to prove to anyone and everyone that 1) his precious characters are his and his only, and anyone trying to guess where the plot leads will fail, and 2) to avoid legal problems of which he is scared shitless.

(Also: where would that hypocritical fuck be without derivative works? So, it's only okay if it's licensed. Meaning literary "rape" is not okay, but prostituting your "children" out for money is, right Martin?)

Therefore, from the readers' standpoint, Martin's plotweaving is just madlibs with a copyright seal. I expect Vebyast will write a GRRM plot-generating python script in like five minutes if he puts his mind to it.

[PoliteNewb]

Which is why I don't trust him. He fucks with the plot, rewriting and rewriting, to prove to anyone and everyone that 1) his precious characters are his and his only, and anyone trying to guess where the plot leads will fail, and 2) to avoid legal problems of which he is scared shitless.

Okay, I read his anti-fanfic screed, and I thought it was pretentious and idiotic (and the comparison to rape was insulting...I mean, considering how much rape Martin actually writes about, it's kind of ironic).

That said...are you claiming he's actually done the above? Changed the plotline because of paranoia? Or you think he has?

Because if it turns out "hahaha Jon isn't Rhaegar's kid, fuck all you guys!" just to screw with predictors, I will be uber-pissed.