Yeah, that beast has been taking forever. I found it funny that when Brandon Sanderson was writing (I guess that's the wrong tense - he's still writing) the conclusion to the Wheel of Time series, in his blog he talked about how it was going to take time, but not George R.R. Martin time.

I am going to have to go back and re-read all of these books before DwD comes out. The plot is WAY to detailed and nuanced to not brush up. Same way I've been doing with the Wheel of Time - I started over with the audio books and listened to them while on the road for work. It was really a great way to see new things - your ear can't skip ahead to the next line of dialogue the way your eyes sometimes want to. Unfortunately for the books (but fortunately for me), my windshield time got cut dramatically, so now I'm doing a weird bastardization - listening when in the car, and reading when at home. I've had Gathering Storm purchased since it came out, but I'm only halfway through Winter's Heart right now. This whole "job" thing and "dad" thing really gets in the way of my reading!

Yeah apparentley DwD will be out in October, that is the rumour, but still it was supposed to be last april and then october and then this april and so on.

Also, get on TGS, Sanderson does a wonderful job and it is one of the best books in the series believe it or not. He only misses the mark on one character, I wont say who though becuase you can decide for yourself.

Read Sandersons Mistborn trilogy and Elantris as well if you can, great reads.

As soon as I heard he was picking up where RJ left off, I went out and got as much of his stuff as I could. Started with Elantris and was disappointed it wasn't multiple books - I was hooked. It's the rare SF/Fantasy writer that can grab me as quickly as Sanderson did. I screamed through the Mistborn books - hell, I bought the last hardcover copy of Hero of Ages instead of waiting 3 weeks for the paperback to come out. I didn't care - I wanted to finish.

I already heard who he misses the mark on:

Spoiler: show

Supposedly, he can't quite get Mat's tone just right, but I've heard others say that they didn't notice.

If that's all that's wrong, then I'm happy as a clam.

I also read Warbreaker, too. GREAT book. He released multiple iterations of it on his website (drafts, revised drafts, and even the final copy) - I only read the finished version in PDF. I plan on buying it just to show that I support his method of delivery - I love that he makes the process so accessible (although some people complain about the transparency, but to them, I say don't read the website!).

He's also released annotations about the Mistborn and Elantris books that are pretty interesting. Honestly, he's got the best website of any author I've ever cared enough about to look up.

I am excited to move on to TGS, but it's been sooooo long that I want to get completely caught up.

Spoiler: show

I even had to remind myself that Rand was sans one hand!

Yeah apparently there are more stories in the Elantris cannon, that he is just trying to find time to finish up. I was really impressed with the fact that he was able to contain a fantasy story like that in one book, it can be done. Mistborns movie rights have been picked up as well, Snaderson said that he will have full creative control too which is nice, nothing added or removed without his permission.

As for TGS

Spoiler: show

yeah, it is Mat that he misses the mark on, I noticed it but it wasn't like a huge deal as he pretty well nails everything else. There is a huge revelation in the book to that sort of involves Mat a little inderectly that sort of made up for the missed tone and motives of his character.

Hmmm.... what else is going on in Belfast in June 2010?

Ok I'm on the fourth (and last I'm told?) of these books and while I agree there is a great series in there somewhere, hopefully they seriously get some editing of the storyline down 'cos there are just far too many factions and characters, most of which don't go anywhere within th story of do anything really other than to show of Martins ability to do madey uppy fantasy names. I know they'll cut this way down for the tv show and for once I really hope so.

There are a lot of characters, I can see how people would think too many, but I think it pays off in the books because it allows for radically different interpretations of events in the plot. It makes for even better character development of the major players because you get to see the differences between reality and how they perceive things. One of the more brilliant parts of the books IMHO, but I totally get how many people would find it overwhelmingly and somewhat pointless.

To be honest, 80% of the characters mentioned (all with the distracting madey uppy fantasy names) don't contribute to the storyline at all but only serve to fill out a geopolitical map of the world the story takes places in. He's obviously a huge Tolkien fan (even
stepping up as George R.R. martin) but he's kinda aiming for that Silmarillion type of overwhelm of characters, when really the whole story only boils down to about ten people? The seed is there for some really really amazing tv, Tyrion especially, and Jon Snow. Just hope they get it right.

MY wife saw the teaser last before True Blood, and was like "Is that what you were talking about? That looks awesome."

They also added a section to their site, with a shot of sean bean as ned.

http://www.hbo.com/#/game-of-thrones

Too bad filming has been pushed back a month, I was kinda hoping to check out while I'm Belfast for the PJ show.

I'm interested in reading this, but it sounds like a hard expositional slog for a lot of it. Is it really as tedious as Tolkein?

God NO.

A'ite.

I'm going to pick up the first book. It better not suck.

You won't be disappointed.

A'ite.

So I bought Game Of Thrones. I'll start it once I finish up with Never Let Me Go.

Errr..... that looks a bit "low budget". Like something outta Zena.

Thoughts?

I just need to figure out when this begins airing on HBO and how to convince my wife that we need to upgrade...

Really? I think it looks AWESOME. That has been the general consensus so far as well.