[QuickTidal]

http://io9.com/58202...nstead-of-seven

Perhaps.

Not surprised though.

[Arthur Dayne]

And yet, will anyone still care when he's putting out his next book in 4 years and taking another year between updates on his website... I for one will be happy to read the books as they come because I already like the series, but I won't get excited again when he throws a little bacon our way just to get us salivating and then puts out another inferior product to string us along like Robert Jordan. I want to punch that guy in his grave.

[Abyss]

QuickTidal, on 12 July 2011 - 05:42 PM, said:

http://io9.com/58202...nstead-of-seven

Perhaps.

Not surprised though.

I am Jack's complete and utter lack of shock.

[Cyphon]

So 15 years to wait then.

[Slick Mongoose]

He did say in that interview that he still thinks it'll be 7 books.

[Ceda Cicero]

Slick Mongoose, on 13 July 2011 - 01:31 PM, said:

He did say in that interview that he still thinks it'll be 7 books.

FWiW, after finishing DANCE, I am supremely skeptical about 7 books. I don't want to speak for him, but from a thread I saw elsewhere, I think Wert is a bit doubtful as well.

[Slick Mongoose]

8 seems more likely to me too! But I don't think we should be talking as if it's certain.

[Abyss]

Just wait... next he considers SE and Sanderson and decides that ten book series' are all the rage nowadays...

[McLovin]

FUCKSHIT

[worry]

What you're all forgetting is that immortality is just around the corner, scientifically speaking. We are all in the clear!

[Binder of Demons]

Abyss, on 13 July 2011 - 05:34 PM, said:

Just wait... next he considers SE and Sanderson and decides that ten book series' are all the rage nowadays...

Don't let him hear about THE DRESDEN FILES then!!!

[Kanese S's]

Seven would be a cooler number, but honestly, I don't care that much. I'll just get the books as they come out and read other stuff in between.

[McLovin]

Binder of Demons, on 14 July 2011 - 10:28 AM, said:

Don't let him hear about THE DRESDEN FILES then!!!

Except that Dresden Files books are only like 300 pgs, while ASOIAF books are 700-800 pgs. So GRRM is already at the equivalent of like Dresden #15, at this point, page-wise.

[Werthead]

I think I'm leaning 51% of the series expanding to 8 books and 49% it staying at 7. I can see how it can be done in 7 and how things in ADWD will help that, but yeah, it's going to be fricking tight.

[amphibian]

Werthead, on 15 July 2011 - 01:44 PM, said:

I think I'm leaning 51% of the series expanding to 8 books and 49% it staying at 7. I can see how it can be done in 7 and how things in ADWD will help that, but yeah, it's going to be fricking tight.

Now that I've read ADWD, I can say this: you're deluding yourself if you think Martin accomplishes what he wants in less than eight books. Not unless the dragons grow to continent size and start eating accordingly.

[End of Disc One]

I think it's pretty clear that ADwD is not the book that GRRM would have liked to publish, that it just got cut off early once it got too long. A good chunk of that will have to be put into TWoW and then there's just a big snowball effect. I don't think GRRM ever imagined early on that he would use so many viewpoints, and unless he reigns them all in tight then I don't see how he's going to stick to his plan of 7 books. And his attitude in all of the interviews suggests that he still plans to go about things the same way and would have no problem expanding the series.

[McLovin]

[Ceda Cicero]

amphibian, on 15 July 2011 - 02:18 PM, said:

Werthead, on 15 July 2011 - 01:44 PM, said:

I think I'm leaning 51% of the series expanding to 8 books and 49% it staying at 7. I can see how it can be done in 7 and how things in ADWD will help that, but yeah, it's going to be fricking tight.

Now that I've read ADWD, I can say this: you're deluding yourself if you think Martin accomplishes what he wants in less than eight books. Not unless the dragons grow to continent size and start eating accordingly.

Tactfully worded DwD spoilers here, don't click if you haven't finished. I left out the worst parts but still, don't mess with it.

Spoiler

If in the next book GRRM can maneuver Dany as efficiently and with the same (to borrow a quote from Wert's review) "economy of chapters" that he used to move Griff/Young Griff/the Golden Company in DwD, that is the only way I can see him finishing in seven (and even that's a stretch.) Mind you, I don't think he can, will, or should do this. He was able to pull it off with that set of characters and that plot because they were all largely brand spanking new. Dany (and a bulk of other players tied to her advancement now) are not new characters, and if he maneuvers her "off-screen" in TWoW as much as he did Griff/Young Griff in DwD, it just wouldn't be right.

That said, I need a reread before I can resolve my position on this, but my sense after finishing my first read is that at least 1-2 of Dany's chapters in DANCE could have been merged or cut altogether to make room for at least a little more advancement with the Meerenese knot. There were whole chapters where she was fantasizing about Daario and just loitering around her terrace.

Then again, GRRM is famous for saying that he always knows the end result, but is never 100% sure how he's going to get there. This whole time I've been thinking that the Meerenese knot was a problem of resolution, and so when I didn't see a clear resolution to it by the end of DANCE, I thought perhaps GRRM had failed to effectively deal with it. But it could very well be that the resolution was fixed all along and GRRM just had no idea how to get there. So what we're left with at the end of DANCE is all the key Slaver's Bay players in place to enact the resolution to the knot at the beginning of WINDS. I don't see how it can happen in anything less than half a volume, but maybe he has something up his sleeve.

[Werthead]

amphibian, on 15 July 2011 - 02:18 PM, said:

Now that I've read ADWD, I can say this: you're deluding yourself if you think Martin accomplishes what he wants in less than eight books. Not unless the dragons grow to continent size and start eating accordingly.

As pointed out, GRRM did move some characters significantly further on in a small timeframe in ADWD, but fell into problems with too many Dany chapters that did little to push things dynamically forward. If he can overcome that, I can see him getting done in 7.

Spoiler

I think Aegon/Connington's gambit will fail, but could do enough damage and may leave behind a bridgehead (at Storm's End?) that can rapidly speed Dany's invasion of Westeros without us having to cover an initial landing and expansion in detail.

Spoiler

What will be key is how fast Dany can get out of her situation. If she convinces the Dothraki to follow her in 1 chapter, shows up at Meereen and kicks some arse in a second and is on her way to Westeros in a third, that could work. Though that seems unlikely. If she takes too long to do these things, I don't see how the series can avoid going to eight.

[Mentalist]

having just finished the book, I don't see a resolution anywhere close in sight.

8 books would not shock me