[Werthead]

WARNING: Contains spoilers for A Feast for Crows and A Dance with Dragons. I've tried to put relevent remarks in spoiler tags but some things may slip through, such as the identity of the POV characters in the book.

George R.R. Martin's official site has been updated with a sample chapter from A Dance with Dragons (it's under the section marked SAMPLE). It's the first Tyrion Lannister chapter and confirms that this book is going to be exploring the Free Cities a bit more than the previous ones.

GRRM has also updated his Not-a-Blog section with news on the actual writing of the book. I was rather dismayed last month when he announced he was going to rip out the five Jon Snow chapters he had left over from the split to totally revamp them (more delay!). But apparently he finished them in a matter of days and now they are all the stronger. Then he went off to write some new Tyrion chapters (not the sample one, as that's been read out at conventions as long ago as 2003) and then do some stuff with the unnamed new POV set in

Spoiler

the Free City of Volantis, furthering the Free Cities theme of the new book.

For those not up to date, the latest info is that the book will contain the following POVs:

Arya Stark
Bran Stark
Jon Snow
Daenerys Targaryen
Tyrion Lannister
Davos Seaworth
Asha Greyjoy
Theon Greyjoy
An as-yet unnamed new POV character
Possible recurring AFFC characters*

Yes, Arya and Asha will be in both AFFC and ADWD.

Theon wasn't exactly named, but GRRM did say that an "old POV will be returning", and since the old, abandoned POVs are Ned Stark (dead), Cat Stark (undead and never having a POV again according to GRRM) and Arys Oakheart (dead), that kind of leaves Theon as the only candidate.

The new POV's identity has not been revealed. However, there was a pretty big clue when GRRM said that the pre-split AFFC would have five chapters involving Dornish characters and only four appeared in the book, meaning that one has been moved into ADWD. Thus the likeliest candidate for the new POV is:

Spoiler

Quentyn Martell, whom it was revealed in AFFC is on his way to Meereen to find Daenerys and pledge Dorne's loyalty to her.

*GRRM has also said that if space allows, he may drop some AFFC characters in at the end of ADWD to keep the timelines of the two books in check. ADWD will likely take place over a longer time-period than AFFC. GRRM also acknowledged that four years or more might be too long to keep people in the dark about the fate of Cersei, Brienne etc. If he hasn't got room though, we'll just have to wait for Book 6 to find out their fates.

ADWD will cover largely a simultaneous amount of time with AFFC (but extending beyond it). So don't go jumping to any conclusions about Davos Seaworth's fate (as his chapters in ADWD could take place prior to reports of his demise in AFFC). This also means that Arya won't appear until halfway through the book or later (as her AFFC chapters would be taking place during the early part of the book).

No word on publication yet, but between these reports and what he's said previously, the book may already be 50% complete.

Finally, ADWD will have a new map, one showing the Free Cities.

[McLovin]

Good news - thanks Werthead! I cannot wait for ADWD!

[Werthead]

Vetinari said:

Will the maps be at the beginning of the book this time?
Because some people find it hard to flip all the way to the back to look it up...

Erm, my copies of the four previous books (UK editions) all have the maps at the front.

[Brahm_K]

Man, that chapter is incredible. But wasn't he 50% done to begin with when AFFC began? Doesn't seem like a lot of progress..

[McLovin]

He's not progressing much as far as I can tell. Worse, he's apparently right in the middle of renovating his house which is going to take a lot of time and energy away from his writing. We do not permit you to have a life GRRM!!!! WRITE!!!!!

[Werthead]

No, because the AFFC-ADWD split in the stuff he'd written was uneven. Most of the stuff (75% or thereabouts) went into AFFC. Roughly 25% was left for ADWD. Apparently he didn't work on ADWD during his huge signing tour at all (apparently he worked on the new Dunk & Egg story instead, which is now three-quarters done).

To put in other words: since February he's written a quarter of the book. That's pretty damn good going in my view.

Also, the house is being renovated by hired help, not by him. One of the good things about being a millionaire is that you can get people to come in and do this for you. GRRM has simply moved into his other house (he has two, opposite one another on the same street) and continued to write uninterrupted.

[Cause]

I cant wait for more info on the free cities. One of the ideas I find more intresting in his books. That said I was really disapointed that bravos turned out to be nothing more than his world version of venice. Also dissapointed with the direction he chose to go with the faceless men.

Still cant wait to see what the iron bank does to get its due

[Anomander Rake]

If he's written 25% more since Feb, then that is good progress, if he keeps it up, then hopefully he could have it finished in 6 months times, then add a few months editing and publication.

[The_Khan]

I'm really looking forward to reading the next book in the series when it comes out

[RodeoRanch]

Sweet!

Tight!

Hot!


There, I've used up all my cool words for today.

[Tiste Simeon]

*agrees with Rodeo's sentiments*

I know AFFC recieved a lot of bad reports, but I really enjoyed it, though I was not impressed when I reached the end and realised that the hundreds of pages left over were all just faction listings etc. I thought I had loads of book left to read...

[Sir Thursday]

GRRM said:

As of this writing, A DANCE WITH DRAGONS consists of some twenty-two finished chapters totalling 542 manuscript pages, plus another 100 to 150 pages of partial chapters, early drafts, scenes, and fragments. Some of that material will need to be revised, and of course much more remains to be written. My hope is to bring the book in at around 1200 to 1300 pages.

Nice and long...and around 50% complete as well. I'm looking forward to it, as much as the momentum of the series was diminished by AFFC.

Vox

[MoP]

I could be wrong but I was under the impression that at the time of the split last year Martin had in the vacinity of 500-600 finished or near finished manuscript pages for ADWD...using an estimate I think Martin himself has bandied about of a final count of 1200-1300 manuscript pages that means Martin has written at most another 150 additional pages (I don't doubt he has had to edit some of the previous work as well)...that doesn't seem like such great progress to me. At the very least, at this rate we won't be seeing the book until well into next year.

[Werthead]

GRRM had about 500 pages rescued from the pre-split AFFC. However, he thought he'd be able to work on the novel whilst he was doing the book tour. This didn't prove feasible so he worked on the third Dunk and Egg story instead. He finished the tour in February and re-started work on ADWD shortly afterwards. Whilst he's only written 50-60 MS pages since then, he's also substantially re-written large chunks of those 500 pages (including all six Jon chapters he had completed up to then, and several Tyrion and Daenerys chapters as well).

My guess date for publication would be summer 2007. We'll get a better idea after his next main update if he includes a page count of where he's up to.