Results tagged “a dance with dragons”

Beginning in the late 1970’s, Marvel Comics began producing a comic book “what if” scenarios centered around their superheroes.

I loved them. Each issue would twist what was known to be true about the Marvel universe and create an alternate reality—just for one issue usually—that helped explore the characters and the situations that make them who they are. Some of my favorite issues are What if… the Hulk had the brain of Bruce Banner?, What if… Phoenix had not died?, What if… Spider-Man’s clone lived? and What if… the alien costume had possessed Spider-Man?

Note: Some of those What If…? issues became canon and made it even more fun!

I decided to ask a similar question but set in our own sci-fi/fantasy universe:

What if… Scott Lynch, George R. R. Martin and Patrick Rothfuss all published their respective next novels on the same day?

The odds of this happening are so small it makes it almost an impossibility. In short, it will never happen. Although Hollywood movie studios grab up opening dates for movies more than a year out—and rarely will place a movie on a date that has already been grabbed by a major movie—I do not think book publishers decide to not publish a book because another major author already “owns” the release date. While three massive-selling books publishing on the same day could happen in the book world, it wouldn’t.

But what if it did?

I travel around the internet(s) quite a bit. I read various blogs. The consensus is the books by Scott Lynch, George R. R. Martin and Patrick Rothfuss are all late. They are late for varying reasons that I won’t go into here. The important thing to point out is around the blogosphere these late books receive a great deal of discussion from earnest—and sometimes angst-ridden—readers who spend a great deal of time and energy writing about those writers, their forthcoming books and their feelings about having to wait, wait, wait.

It is testament to how loved each of those writers are.

George, Pat and Scott all know this.

The question is what would happen if those three books were released on the same day?

Adapting a book into a movie or television series is always a frightening prospect—but can be exhilarating as well in the right hands!

First, I will always be one of those people who believes the book will always be better than the movie. Since each of us have been blessed with a movie theater behind our eyes, we are given the opportunity to envision characters exactly as we believe them to be upon reading a book. That is part of the fun of reading. But the sad reality is we all “see” characters differently and, in giving a casting director power over those thoughts, can influence or sometimes outright destroy what we ourselves saw on the silver screen in our heads.

Second, despite the first point, I am utterly excited about what is happening with the pilot episode of A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin!

HBO, the cable network that has brought us such hits as The Sopranos, Deadwood, Rome and now the vampire-fantasy hit True Blood, has not only purchased the rights to produce seasons of episodes based on A Song of Ice & Fire series by George R. R. Martin, but they have already begun production and casting for the pilot.

As a fan of A Game of Thrones this has been scary and exciting at the same time!

George has been slowly releasing the casting information as it has been confirmed. Rather than go into each actor cast and post my thoughts on each—mostly because I know what I see in my head probably contradicts what you see in your head—I decided to gather together some of the better news stories about what is occurring and post those links here for your perusal:

• Not A Blog
• A Dribble of Ink
• The Wertzone
• The Hollywood Reporter
• Westeros Casting
• IMDB

I have no doubt, as news progresses, that George will keep us all in the loop. And since his fan base is legion, I also have no doubt we will start seeing some pictures from Northern Ireland where the pilot will soon be shot.

Is this exciting for you? What do you think about all of this? Are you scared about the prospect of an HBO series? Would you rather George not have any distractions and finish A Dance With Dragons?

Winter is Coming—to HBO!

George R. R. Martin is one of the formidable forces in the fantasy genre.

He also is one of the nicest and sweetest men you will ever meet and he genuinely cares for all around him.

The first time I met him was at the San Jose Worldcon in 2002. I had been invited by Terry Brooks to attend the convention and while flying there discovered I was sitting next to the best friend of George’s wife Parris. Upon landing and claiming our baggage, the friend asked me at the curb if I needed a ride to the hotel and convention. I told her I didn’t want to impose. Then a rented town car pulled up and out stepped George. Almost clucking like a motherly hen, he quickly ushered me into the car where we all talked about the flight and the convention and how nice a weekend it was going to be.

At that time, I had not read A Game of Thrones. I really had no idea who George was. Much later I realized how paramount he was to the industry.

I still marvel over his generosity that day at Worldcon.

While at this weekend’s current Worldcon in Montréal, Quebec, Gazette writer Matthew Surridge met up with George and did a short 10 minute interview/podcast with him.

Key points:

• George has over 1000 finished manuscript pages for his next book, A Dance With Dragons.
• His previous four books in the series have come in between 1100 manuscript pages and 1500 manuscripts pages.
• He thinks the book will be around 1200, although he will not put an expected finish date on the project
• HBO is moving forward with the Ice & Fire pilot. It is going to be shot in October in Ireland.
• Originally, the story of A Dance With Dragons was meant to be the second book of a trilogy, but the first book grew in the telling.
• Sean Bean has been cast as Ned Stark.
• George talks about why Dance is late, due to the complexity of the series and the amount of rewriting he does.
• Listen to the podcast for the rest!

Perhaps we will see more from Worldcon as the convention continues throughout the weekend!

Let’s hope!

Ever since I grew weary of reading erroneous facts behind bandied about online concerning George R. R. Martin’s A Dance With Dragons, and ever since I wrote my article In Defense of George R. R. Martin, discussion has increased many fold between those who slander George and those who defend him. It has been great fun for me to read both sides and reaffirm my own feelings on the subject, as well as learn a few things I hadn’t known before I wrote the article.

I wish some of the naysayers could learn as easily and toss aside their misconceptions.

Well, it looks like all of those discussions have reached George himself.

Yesterday George posted two entries on his website concerning some of these discussions, accompanied by a status update of A Dance With Dragons:

• Update: A Dance With Dragons
• From George: To My Detractors

In short, I applaud George for saying something on the subject as well as updating his fans about A Dance With Dragons—even if it will probably stir the pot even more. It was also nice to have him speak on some of the very things I wrote about in my article…

And maybe we’ll get A Dance With Dragons this fall!

Keep those fingers, toes and dragon tails crossed!

I’m not exactly sure what I mean by that, but I think that’s because my brain is functioning on a slightly lower register than it normally does. 

I think that’s what happens after 18 hours of Comic-Conny goodness.

Surprisingly, my spirit has yet to be dampened.  Not only did we have four very successful in-booth events with the talented Felix Gilman, David J. Williams, Jackie Kessler and Caitlin Kittredge, and Ellen Kushner, but the word is out: Random House publishes science fiction!

By my count (and I can only speak for myself personally, as my ventriloquist lessons have not been going as well as I’d of hoped), I’ve been asked 77 times when the next George R.R. Martin book, A Dance With Dragons, is going to be coming out.  So far, my favorite response to that is: “Hey, we’re in the fantasy business.  If we tell you Fall 2009, then we’re doing our jobs!”  It gets a chuckle, then a few hard looks, and then that slumping resignation realizing that, at the end of the day, this guy in a booth isn’t going to take off his mask, reveal himself to be George, and deliver a finished copy into their hands.  For this, I apologize.

I also think I might have lost some weight, as with all the excitement, I didn’t really eat anything between 8 in the morning and 6:30 at night, when I happily munched on a handful of Nilla Wafers.  And, let me tell you: as exciting as the events with our authors were, eating those cookies became a special time for me.

So, I’m willing to call this thing a success.  However, unlike a certain person who will remain nameless, I will not count this Comic Con a victory until I have truly completed the mission given to me.

Tomorrow:  You’ve been warned.

Peter V. Brett has also weighed in on the George R. R. Martin dilemma. Peter is a new writer whose first book, The Warded Man, is about to be released in the US on March 10, 2009. He comes at the situation swirling around George and A Dance With Dragons with a unique perspective, as Peter’s second book, The Desert Spear is a bit behind schedule. It is a good article and a good look into what it’s like to be a writer.

To read Peter’s thoughts, visit his blog at Peephole In My Skull and read his article Leave George Alone!

The blog article I wrote last week titled In Defense of George R. R. Martin has caused quite a bit of discussion on this website and elsewhere on the internet(s). I wrote the article not necessarily to defend George as he is quite capable of doing that himself but to dispel beliefs of error that pervade many of his readers out there, beliefs that drive them to ill-conceived anger concerning the perceived “lateness” of A Dance With Dragons.

Here are some other articles recently written about George and A Dance With Dragons:

• Adam Whitehead over at the UK website The Wertzone has written two articles that act as companion pieces to my own. He looks at the writing of A Dance With Dragons with different eyes than my own and, with a lot more research and knowledge of the books, comes to the same conclusion.
  A Defence of Dragons, Part I | A Defence of Dragons, Part II
• Aidan Moher over at A Dribble of Ink has also added a companion pieces to my initial article, spending time talking about each of my conclusions and adding his own informed spin on things.
  Why You Should Cut George R.R. Martin Some Slack

I am sure there will be other articles written on this soon, some agreeing with my conclusions, others not. That is the miracle of discourse. If at all curious, read those other articles; they bring a lot to the discussion.

This long article is about author George R. R. Martin and, more importantly, the misgivings and negativity some of his more vocal fans have concerning the lateness of his forthcoming book, A Dance With Dragons.

George really needs no introduction. Since the release of A Game of Thrones in 1996, he has been a growing fixture in the fantasy genre, his fan base growing with every release of his series, A Song of Ice & Fire. In November 2005, Time magazine branded George the ‘American Tolkien.’ While I believe that remains to be seen—after all the series is not yet finished and I must read the entirety of it to truly give such a grand title associated with J.R.R. Tolkien—the one thing I am certain of is A Song of Ice & Fire is an extremely powerful story that invokes passion in all who read it.

That passion is a double-edged sword, able to cut an enemy as quickly as its bearer. While the four books and two short stories that comprise A Song of Ice & Fire are universally garnered as being some of the best storytelling ever, animosity swirls around George. The fourth book, A Feast For Crows, took five years to be published and it contained only half of the characters fans have come to love. Upon publishing A Feast For Crows, George posted that he was near to completing the other half of the story, A Dance With Dragons, with the novel coming to bookstores quickly.

That was three years ago and A Dance With Dragons is still not complete.

This has aroused a great deal of anger for many of George’s fans. Five years is a long time to wait for a sequel to arguably one of the best fantasy series of all time, especially when most writers are able to produce sequels between one and three years. But as I’ve come to discover, anger is one of the least logical emotions we possess; it can lead people to conclusions that are not wholly accurate—if not down right wrong. Much of the animosity I see written about George and his lateness is colored by that kind of anger and, while I believe there are two instances where fans of A Song of Ice & Fire are more than allowed their ire, most of it lacks any authenticity whatsoever.

This article hopes to dispel some of those erroneous angry feelings and assumptions out there—or at least give a different side to things that most readers probably have not thought of.

Tall order, I know.