[Werthead]

Cause said:

Spoiler

The hound is not alive. Someone just wears his helmet. Also I missed all that info about the faceless man and a sand snake being at the maesters citadel

where did you pick this stuff up

I read the book and I'm a moderator at the main Westeros forum (asoiaf.westeros.org) where these matters have been debated for months.

Spoiler

The gravedigger at the septry is Sandor Clegane. He has the same injury as Sandor, all of the initiates wear cowls over their faces which hide his injury, he's the only person who can control Sandor's horse and Dog seems to have some kind of affinity for him. 'The Hound' seems to have become a philosophical concept, whoever wears the helmet can claim to be 'The Hound'. Clegane seems to have let go of 'The Hound', the persona he has forged since Gregor burned his face, and now he seeks another path.

Plus Sandor Clegane dying on the roadside where Arya left him would be really, really lame. He is also the person who will kill Gregorstein (actually forgot that plotline, which I'll add to the post above).

Alleras the Sphinx, the Dornish 'man' at the Citadel, is a palindrome of Sarella. Oberyn has a daughter called Sarella. She is the only Sand Snake not at Sunspear or the Water Gardens at the start of AFFC and Doran mentions she is in Oldtown. Thus Sarella = Alleras.

Jaqen is the Faceless Man who kills Pate in the prologue and replaces him in the epilogue. When Pate meets him he describes a man who looks exactly the same as Jaqen did the last time Arya saw him in A Clash of Kings, after he altered his facial appearance.

[Cause]

well rather than feel a fool I feel your obssesed. Good spotting. I hope your right. Makes sense I guess

[Werthead]

No, like I said I'm a mod, so I get to see every other fricking idea that crosses the board, no matter how insane. These ones cropped up almost immediately and are fully backed up by evidence in the books (unlike, say, those people who don't think Renly and Loras were gay or are convinced that Ned Stark is in fact alive and well).

[Brahm_K]

You just wait... In Book 7... When Ned's headless body shows up and saves the day.

[Werthead]

George R.R. Martin has confirmed on his blog that the seventh and final novel has a new title. The remaining books in the series will be called:

Book 5: A Dance with Dragons

Book 6: The Winds of Winter

Book 7: A Dream of Spring

http://grrm.livejournal.com/

[Brahm_K]

I like that title, more than "A Time For Wolves." Doesn't sound like he's spent too much time writing ADWD, though, which is too bad. I'm really hoping for that early-mid 2007 release..

[Werthead]

He lost about 2 months due to his book tour, where I think he underestimated how tiring it would be (especially for someone who could frankly afford to lay off the complimentary food for a while), which pushed ADWD back out from its planned Christmas 2006 release to spring 2007. However, it does sound like he's making good time on ADWD. I wouldn't be surprised if it slipped to say August 2007 at the latest. More than that and I think there'd be a major outcry from the boards.

[pat5150]

Hi guys!

Although I can't post the whole thing online until next month, I have been given permission to post a teaser. Check the blog to see the author's answers to our interview questions.

Enjoy!

Patrick
www.fantasyhotlist.blogspot.com

[Abyss]

Brahm_K said:

You just wait... In Book 7... When Ned's headless body shows up and saves the day.

Will it be called 'The Adventures of Nearly Headless Ned'?

- Abyss, sorry, couldn't help myself...

[Werthead]

(sigh)

1st two books = written in 2 years apiece
3rd book (the longest) = written in 16 months
4th book = 5 years
5th book = ??? but already 30% complete

Sorry, it just gets irritating that the one major slowdown in the seires (the 5-year-wait for AFFC) is so often quoted and the one major speedup in the series (the 16-month-wait for ASoS) is virtually forgotten, when extrapolating one is as valid as extrapolating the other when trying to work out when ADWD will be published.

[Astra]

Werthead said:

Sorry, it just gets irritating that the one major slowdown in the seires (the 5-year-wait for AFFC) is so often quoted and the one major speedup in the series (the 16-month-wait for ASoS) is virtually forgotten.

Isn't it always like that? Life is unfair. Good things are being taken for granted, forgoten and dismissed quickly, any failure is inflated until you cannot recognize the source and remembered for years.

IMHO, it is better if a writer takes his time and write the proper installment than writing is fast to satisfy hungry fans who will blame him anyway if not for a long delay, then for a bad book. From these two evils I would choose the former.

[Astra]

Have not read him yet. I am waiting for the last book
Otherwise when he finishesI would not remember how it all has started and would have read it from the beginning, but I am a very slow reader, so I don't have that much time to read books twice (48 hours? I think I would read it for 3 weeks. I can read about 30-40 minutes at the morning and 1 hour before I go to bed, that's it ).

[Werthead]

Vetinari said:

Um, Isn't Gregorstein dead already, or did you just mean that bit about Sandor being the only one who can kill him metaphorically?

Spoiler

Gregor Clegane seems to have been turned into some kind of Frankenstein-esque killing machine by Maester Qyburn. Very disturbing. He's added bits from the people Cersei keeps sending to the dungeons to his creation. In particular look at the later Cersei chapters where they're discussing the 'huge armour' Qyburn has arranged to armour Cersei's 'champion'.

Quote

He's almost as good as Terry G. I suppose Terry influenced him a lot.

It's a little known fact that Goodkind actually inspired Tolkien to write Lord of the Rings. And he 'had a word' with the Council of Nicias when they were having problems deciding on what to put in the New Testament. He's also belived to have 'had a hand' in the Epic of Gilgamesh...

[Abyss]

Puh-lease! The so-called 'Epic of Gilgamesh' was just a hack retettling of the first three 'Sword of Truth' novels.

Also, that whole Beowulf thing. And pretty much everything written about the Knights of the Round Table was just splitting up Goodkind's Richard character into little components.

- Abyss, REALLY bleeding from eyes now.

[Abyss]

The Iliad and Odyssey were basically Goodkind fanfic, now that i think about it.

- Abyss, has to change his shirt for all the bleeding.