A Song of Ice & Fire

ziggy20

Hey all,

Any fans of this series out there by George RR Martin. The first 3 books definitely rank up there as the best fantasy series around. Book 4 not so much. Fingers crossed for Book 5 (if it ever gets completed!)

Dades

Legendary books.

First heard of them here on Boards. Love 'em.

I read a funny comment by George RR Martin on his (not a) blog about how, because he was old and overweight, his fans were worried he was going to "do a Robert Jordon" on them.

His retrospective "Dreamsongs" is one of the best I've ever read.
The SF stories in it are at least as good as his fantasy.

Denerick

Always meant to read Martin, I loved Wheel of Time and David Gemmels books when I was a teenager. How big an enterprise is it to take on though? Because when I start a series of books that I like I will tend to read them all in one go, to the detriment of other books I might have liked to have read...

LoLth

I loved the song of ice and fire series when it started. book 4 was a serious step downhill though (both in story and writing quality).

On top of this, I used ot follow Martin's Blog up until his rant abou tfans asking when the next one will be done. We buy th books. we are told that book X will be released on day Y. Day Y+100 goes past and still no sign, no update except some "news" about a new marketing opportunity (swords, miniatures etc). Hi attitude sucks imho and for an author that has struggled as much as he has (the impression he gives through his retrospective and his blog) my opinion has shifted from "gifted writer" to "smug git". I'm actually not sure if I'll bother with the next installment.

As an aside: the wild cards books he's always promoting. I read the first 12. 1-5 were good and enjoyable. after that they just became badly written snuff movies on paper with stories drawn out over three volumes that could have been dealt with in one. First five are good though and I do recommend those ones for anyone looking for interesting superhero literature.

thankfully, Steve Eriksson's Malazan series is out there to keep me looking forward. a vastly superior series imho (though also starting to suffer some drift).

ziggy20

Denerick wrote: »

Always meant to read Martin, I loved Wheel of Time and David Gemmels books when I was a teenager. How big an enterprise is it to take on though? Because when I start a series of books that I like I will tend to read them all in one go, to the detriment of other books I might have liked to have read...

i would definitely recommend books 1 - 3 anyway. book 4 is not as good as the first 3 and who knows when book 5 will actually come out. hopefully when it does it'll be a return to the standard of the first 3!

Scruff

was going to post in a new thread but seeing as the books are being discussed here....

HBO are planning to turn "A Song of Fire & Ice" into a dramatic TV series!!

HBO has acquired the rights to turn George R.R. Martin's bestselling fantasy series "A Song of Fire & Ice" into a dramatic series to be written and exec produced by David Benioff and D.B. Weiss.[URL="javascript:zodInfuser.FillDescriptions('"Fire"');"]"Fire"[/URL] is the first TV project for Benioff ("Troy") and Weiss ("Halo") and will shoot in Europe or New Zealand. Benioff and Weiss will write every episode of each season together save one, which the author (a former TV writer) will script.

Should be interesting. If it goes ahead they should have the 1st 4 series shot before he gets around to finishing the 5th book

Martin has nearly finished the fifth installment, but won't complete the seven-book cycle until 2011.

methinks 2011 is being a bit optimistic...

I agree that 4 wasnt as good as the other 3 but i think thats because even he was starting to lose track of all the plot lines and characters and how to bring them all back together. It didnt turn into the mess that WoT turned into (which i gave up on after book 7) but was in danger of it. Still a good read but not as great as the rest. I'd probably have to re-read all the books from scratch if book 5 ever comes out

Tar.Aldarion

Great series, only bettered by the Malazan series. That is more fantasy based.

Vim Fuego

Love this series, can't wait for 'Dance...' but imagine the wait for the one after!! :eek: I would be surprised if it's ever finished, GRRM is a right grump as well so he might quit out of spite!

Peter Dinklage is to play Tyrion in the HBO series: http://grrm.livejournal.com/86651.html

raah!

What I would like to see from Martin is more of the adventures from the ecological egineer Haviland Tuff. Just read two of his short stories about him in dream songs book two, some of my favourite martin stuff ever. I Highly reccommend that to anyone who likes him too.

I think I'll also look into this Malazan series, since you all reccommend it so highly, I had been of the opinion that martin's work was the best fantasy out there these days. Hopefully it's not

Chumpski

Cheers for the recommendation. I am almost finished the first book and it is outstanding. It should make a great HBO TV series although how they will manage to fit the plot of a book (going by number 1) it all into 13 episodes is beyond me! Good luck to them.:pac:

Dagon

The Song of Ice and Fire series is absolutely fantastic! I bought book 5 about a year after it came out, and still haven't finished. It didn't grab me like the others, but I have to make time for it and finish it.

As for having to reread book, why not just use the summaries available online instead? That's what I did after I bought book 5 (I'm a bit slow getting through books, and it would have taken me an age to read the first 4 all over again).

Some of the broad summaries on wiki are useful:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Game_of_Thrones

And Tower of the Hand is a great reference with more detailed summaries:
http://www.towerofthehand.com/books/101/

Saves dusting off and flicking through the old books

Paddy Samurai

Dades wrote: »

Legendary books.

First heard of them here on Boards. Love 'em.

I read a funny comment by George RR Martin on his (not a) blog about how, because he was old and overweight,.

Yea love this fantasy series ,one of my favourites.Seen him on u tube recently at a booksigning ,he's looking old,very old.
Hope he lives long enough to finish book 7.
Or else like gemmel he has notes and friend/family member to finish off book if he dies.

DapperGent

Dades wrote: »

His retrospective "Dreamsongs" is one of the best I've ever read.
The SF stories in it are at least as good as his fantasy.

A few of those stories were spectacular and basically none of them were bad. I think I read Sandkings about 10 times.

ixoy

As much as I think it's a great series, he's starting to stretch my patience a little with the lengths between books. It would seem to be writer's block and that's often not conducive to a good story as it'd indicate he's not entirely clear where he wants to take it. Now yes he shouldn't rush but the longer the delay, the more I fear that it's ultimately a bad sign.

Conversely, Steven Erikson has been pretty consistent at putting out one Malazan book a year as he has (so he says) from the outset known the direction of the story. The consistency gives me more faith and on some levels makes the series more enjoyable (although the two are very different in style).

pljudge321

ixoy wrote: »

Conversely, Steven Erikson has been pretty consistent at putting out one Malazan book a year as he has (so he says) from the outset known the direction of the story. The consistency gives me more faith and on some levels makes the series more enjoyable (although the two are very different in style).

With the malazan series being so incredibly complex and as deeply layered as they are, I'd be extremely surprised if Erikson didn't have the fine details of the ending penned down before he even started Gardens of the Moon.

Tar.Aldarion

It wouldn't be hard for people that roleplay as I imagine he does, I bet they used to tell each other stories etc about this universe and so on.

ixoy

Tar.Aldarion wrote: »

It wouldn't be hard for people that roleplay as I imagine he does, I bet they used to tell each other stories etc about this universe and so on.

Well that's how Raymond Feist's Riftwar series started. They gamed for a few years and began to create a history of a world. The stories he's published are all set in his RPG's past history.

Not so sure about Erikson though - admittedly there's a definite feel of immortals/power-gaming in them but the sheer complexity of some of the stuff, is more detailed than an average RPG would be.

None of which changes the fact that it's always a good idea to have an end in sight when you begin (as all epic writers should) as without a game plan, you'll end up stalling (Martin) or getting too bogged down in extraneous detail (Wheel of Time) and have the plot suffer accordingly.

LoLth

Ericksson and Esselmont were roleplayers together on their outings as student archeologists. they co-ran a game and co-created the world and history in the malazan series.

pretty sure I read that in the acknowledgements of one of the books.

Jumpy

pljudge321 wrote: »

With the malazan series being so incredibly complex and as deeply layered as they are, I'd be extremely surprised if Erikson didn't have the fine details of the ending penned down before he even started Gardens of the Moon.

I find them so deep at some stages and at others like he just made it up on the spot. I think he is expanding on it as he goes along. Like some things come into it, then never appear again.
I would like to read a prequel to Gardens of the Moon actually.

Tar.Aldarion

LoLth wrote: »

Ericksson and Esselmont were roleplayers together on their outings as student archeologists. they co-ran a game and co-created the world and history in the malazan series.

pretty sure I read that in the acknowledgements of one of the books.

I might have read that and stored it subconciously for now!

ixoy

LoLth wrote: »

Ericksson and Esselmont were roleplayers together on their outings as student archeologists. they co-ran a game and co-created the world and history in the malazan series.

pretty sure I read that in the acknowledgements of one of the books.

Fair enough. In that case it's probably like one of those AD&D worlds which get fleshed out over the years, and expanded upon so we suddenly get a new continent to sail across to or fill in the details that were only sketchy before.

I'd be interested to know just how much he had fleshed out the world before he began, particularly with regards to its ancient history and races such as the Eleint and Forkul Assail.

Fr Clint Power

Jumpy wrote: »

I would like to read a prequel to Gardens of the Moon actually.

You could be interested in 'Night of Knives' by Ian Cameron Esslemont so. The novel tells the story of now the Emperor was murdered.

Trankton

Fr Clint Power wrote: »

You could be interested in 'Night of Knives' by Ian Cameron Esslemont so. The novel tells the story of now the Emperor was murdered.

Night of Knives isn't great but his second 'Return of the Crimson Guard' is bloody good, if you like the malazan series definately get this.

I've read all the malazan books twice so far and plan on reading them again, there's so much in them and always something new you'll come across. Apparently Erickson has them all written and it's just the publishing company pacing the releases out. At least we know we'll get one every August or so, well until the last one comes out next year...dammit.

Given up on The Song of Fire and Ice books as the delays are ridiculous now, delayed well over a year at this stage and still not coming out till next year.

Final Jordan Wheel of Time out in August as well....finally some closure....we hope.

Tar.Aldarion

Fr Clint Power wrote: »

You could be interested in 'Night of Knives' by Ian Cameron Esslemont so. The novel tells the story of now the Emperor was murdered.

Get Return of the Crimson Guard as said above, yum yum.