Nice. Can't wait 'till that piece hits the interwebs.

http://www.makinggameofthrones.com/

Heres some screenies I took.

Ned, Robert, Pycelle, and Varys' bald head in the background.
http://img195.imageshack.us/img195/5...enedrobert.jpg

Cersei
http://img31.imageshack.us/img31/8849/cerseix.jpg

Knight, looks like it might be from the house of Arryn
http://img191.imageshack.us/img191/4157/knightgw.jpg

The Wall, possibly Jon Snow
http://img801.imageshack.us/img801/6994/wallfh.jpg

Hound vs Mountain That Rides 1
http://img411.imageshack.us/img411/7...dvsgregor1.jpg

Hound vs Mountain That Rides 2
http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/231...dvsgregor2.jpg

Tyrion Captive
http://img19.imageshack.us/img19/7086/tyrion.jpg

I'm about as excited for this as I think I've ever been for a series, HBO or otherwise.

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Those stills look insane! Yeah. Yeah, I'm pumped. Thanks for posting those.

This is going to be good.....


A question for those of you who have gone the audiobook path...... What is your opinion on John Lee's narrative as opposed to Roy Dotrice's? I'm actually having a hard time getting into Crows because of it. Dotrice did such a fantastic job with all the characters, big or small (I like how all the characters come alive with Dotrice, and his Lord Fray impersonations were hilarious!). Lee sounds like he's trying WAY too hard to infuse drama into the reading, and not letting it just flow. Add to the fact that his voice sounds like George Takei, and that equals me having a hard time focusing on the story. I'm only a few CD's in, but I miss Dotrice's reading and inflections (which is kind of funny seeing how I didn't like his voice when I first started Thrones). Anyone else feel that way, or am I being too harsh?

No, a lot of people felt that way, myself included. You won't find it in a store (hint hint), but the Ted Stoddard audiobook is a little better, IMO. Mostly because he sounds older.

Thanks for the heads up.....

And here you go, lol -

http://www.petitiononline.com/4Dotrice/petition.html

Jaqer. H'ghar. Damn.

Arya's storyline is so intense. Loving it!

I'm getting close to the end of Storm of Swords. It really kicked into high gear about halfway through. Lots of twists and turns.

Finished it yet?


And I'm seriously considering buying the book Feast, and giving up on the CDs. This John Lee bastard is ruining the story for me in his inability to change his voice. Most every character sounds the same through him, and names and places sound different than what I've become used to hearing. It's almost like the publishing house randomly picked him to read and didn't let him listen to any of Dotrice's earlier works to get a feel of the characters or places. Proverbial turd int he punchbowl. Dammit.

Ok, I'm done ranting about this. I'm gonna have to get the book, or follow up on Tricky Nicky's reommendation. Maybe both.

Never done a book on tape. I just don't drive enough anymore taking a train to work every day.

It's convienient with my job, since all I do is drive, practically. :)

Did you finish Storm of Swords?

I'm about 150 pages from the end.

Cool. Give me a shout when you're done with it. I want to compare reactions to someone who just finished it.

I'm about 60 pages from the end of Clash. Epic. Some shit is totally ****ing with my head right now though. I'm really excited to finish this thing so I can understand what the hell is going on! :)

Still haven't decided if I'll go right into Storm or take a break and read something else first. Perhaps it'll depend on how Clash ends....

Finshed Clash. I'll buy Storm tomorrow.

Finished Storm yesterday. Just started Crows. The beginning is a bit off - from the other books - he's introduced several new POV characters who were barely mentioned in the previous books. Frankly, it's a bit annoying.

It's probably the main reason why Feast is the weakest book in the series despite the actual prose being great. You can really tell how GRRM has lost a bit of control of the series by expanding to too many POVs.

Just bought Storm! As soon as I'm done with The Fifth Child, I'll dive right in. I'm really, really pumped.

Just finished Clash and might go pick up 3&4 tonight.

Exactly. The characters he delved into worked just fine for me as secondary characters, not focal points (although I admit I grew more fond of Brienne's storyline, but on the flipside of that I couldn't care less about the Greyjoys). At times the book just felt all over the place in trying to cover too much ground. Add to that the fact that all the anticipation for Crows after finishing Swords was left somewhat unfullfilled = Feast being somewhat of a disappointment. Still a great book, but just not up to the standards of the first three, to be sure.

Its unfortunate that the next book (if it ever gets finished) will likely suffer from the same problem, being the other "half" of Feast. Tempers my excitement a bit.

This hasn't hit our Amazon yet, but according to Amazon UK, A Dance With Dragons WILL GO ON SALE IN A YEAR AND FIVE DAYS.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Dance-Dragon...5347885&sr=1-1

Well, shit.

I should probably be thrilled... but, new as I am to this game, I still can't shake the "I'll believe it when I see it" feeling.

Thanks for posting though, frazod.

It says 2011 on my screen.

Yep. Either I'm going crazy or I just totally misread it the first time. I really could have sworn it said 2010. Anyway.... Sept. 2011 makes MUCH more sense.

Still not gonna hold my breath, though. :)

:doh!:I'm a ****ing reerun. Apparently I just saw September 29 and didn't pay attention to the date.

NOTHING TO SEE HERE PLEASE MOVE ALONG

LMAO

And you're to be trusted with an AR-15? :D

Hey, I'm no worse than half the rednecks on this board who probably have 10 a piece. :p

He hasn't even submitted it to the publisher yet. Any dates are mere speculation.

When he announces its done, it will take another 6 months for editing and printing. (1400+ manuscript pages unless they've been editing as he goes, but I sincerely doubt it)

So, it's still a ways off. I was hoping it would be done in time for the premiere, but that isn't happening.

I am proud to announce that I will begin reading A Storm Of Swords tomorrow morning.

That is all.

I devoured the third one. Once it got rolling I found myself saying, "one more chapter..." again and again. Then I would say "Well lets just see how the next chapter starts" and end up reading all of it. I would finally look at the clock and it's 4:30am and I would be wired. First time a book ever did that to me.

Finished it within a week (which is great for how slow I read), but I was going to school at the time, so I had no other obligations.

Since I'm now all caught up, would you guys recommend the Wheel of Time series in the interim until Dragons comes out, or would getting into both series at the same time be a mistake (are they too much alike)?

I love Wheel of Time, but people will generally tell you to steer clear of it. It's very, very long (still two more to go) and much like Martin's books ends up introducing roughly 3 trillion points-of-view. But I've read them all at least 3 times excluding the one that came out about a year ago, the first of the ending trilogy by Brandon Sanderson (the author that began the series passed away, as you probably already know).

There are a couple other fantasy series I'd recommend as well. I'm a big fan of Glen Cook's Black Company (10 books) and I really, really loved Joe Abercrombie's First Law trilogy. Both of those are darker fantasy. Cook's is sort of a conglomeration of the epic and dark fantasy traditions, told primarily in first person, about a mercenary band and the enemies they face. Abercrombie's is essentially epic fantasy, again very dark, more traditionally epic in the telling, although very, very dark and mature.

Well, the only thing I have going for me is that I will probably exclusively take it in via CD, so I should be able to breeze through them by the time Dragons finally comes out. If you don't mind indulging my laziness, why would people advise to steer clear of it? In general, or just running tangent with ASoIaF?

It's very, very long. A dozen long books with two more to go. Most people seem to tire of it around the 6th or 7th book.

(I didn't).

They are not alike in the slightest IMO. WOT is way more magic-centric and way less political. Additionaly, Martin's series borders on, dare I say it, literature. I can actually suggest, and have to good response, Game of Thrones to my non-Sci-Fi/Fantasy reading friends. Can't say the same about the Wheel of Time saga. That doesn't mean that it doesn't have anything to offer, just don't expect the same level of craft. The first 5 books are great, I mean some really good stuff. After that the series slows wayyyyy down with entirely too much non plot driven fluff to the point of annoyance. Honestly, after struggling to get through the 8th and 9th book, I bought the 10th when it was released but could never bring myself to read it.

So essentially it's up to you. If you can handle what some may consider a little bit nerdier fantasy, and you can handle giving up on what starts out as a fantastic series, then go for it. Well, I guess you could be masochistic enough to actually get through it, but I couldn't. I'm hardly the first to make that criticism, it's fairly common. The series could finish with a bang, I don't know, but the last three, with the finale upcoming, have been written by Brandon Sanderson after the death of Jordan. That concerns me as well.

I haven't read wot, but sanderson did an excellent job with the mistborn trilogy. I also liked his first novel Elantris. I don't know how he compares to jordan, but he's a very good fantasy writer.
Posted via Mobile Device

My issue is not with Sanderson, just the discontinuity.

Anybody read Steven Erikson? I'm about to start Gardens of the Moon.

I did.

Looks like there's finally a release date for Towers of Midnight, for those of us who didn't get bored with WoT after 5 books. November 2nd.

Read the Prologue before I got to work this morning. I think I'm going to like this book... :)

Serious question: Am I going to give a **** about Davos at some point in Storm Of Swords? His final POV in Clash and his first POV in Storm have really bored me, and slammed the breaks on the story.

To be honest, I though he was dead, and I was okay with that.

He is the only POV for Stannis/Melisandre for the majority of the book, so probably not.

This was probably my main beef as the number of POV characters has expanded: the number of them I actually care about or want to read has dwindled. The strength of the books have suffered to me by trying to juggle too many. There are just quite a few that I didn't really enjoy any longer, and I ended up hurrying through them.

I dislike the Stannis plotline. I dislike the Greyjoy plotline. I dislike Sansa and that plot. I dislike the Queenmaker plot.

I don't know... the more I think about it... the series is in need of rescuing.

Cool. I really like Melisandre (well, she scares me, but she's really interesting). So if the story is going to give us more of her through Davos, I can live with that. I just need to be patient is all. I love Arya's story and I want to see Tyrion go on a ****ing rampage! :)

Right now, I feel like his story is just getting in the way of the others. I'm sure I'll come around. The book is already so gooooooooooood. I want to have read it already so I know what happens.

The prologue was free for The Gathering Storm, but it looks like Tor is charging for this one, and I ain't payin. I can wait 5 weeks for the whole book.

Agree with about half of this. The Greyjoys and Queenmaker stories could have been covered just fine as secondary stories. The direction GRRM took Stannis is much more interesting to me now than where he started off at, and the Sansa story has grown on me. She was the anchor of the story the first two and a half books, and the inadvertent "bad guy" with the decisions she made. There is real potential with where she is and who she's with now. Many directions she could go.....

We are in full agreement with the series. Hopefully, when (not if :) ) the next books come out, it has more of a Stark/Lannister/Danerys/John Snow focus, with Stannis, Breinne, and the rest filling in the in-between time, and not becoming focal. IMO.

I like Davos. So many of the POV characters are either vile weasels, completely self-serving or dumb, but he's arrow-straight, honorable AND clever, and doesn't show any signs of changing. I like that.

Although to me the central and most interesting character is Tyrion. WHICH REALLY MAKES CROWS ANNOYING.

Tyrion is almost everyone's favorite, Tyrion and Jon Snow.

Yeah, Davos took on the Ned Stark mantle with his honesty and being a good guy. He gives the straight poop, no matter WHO he's dealing with.

Tyrion is great, but Jamie has turned into a real wild card. I honestly have no idea where he is going to end up, or what he will be doing. Jon Snow and Danerys are right behind those two.

And am I the only one that thinks Baelish is probably the most dangerous and conniving character thus far? I get the feeling he has large, large appetites for power, moerso than Cersei's, which is saying something....

I have a problem with the casting of Robert Baratheon. The character is supposed to be tall and handsome who has let himself go after he became the King. I still envision him as that warrior except with a big ol gut. I don't like the short and chubby Mark Addy. Bean as Ned is pretty good, though.

I think the thing I don't like about the Stannis story is the PoV (bear with me, because it's been a while). It's told from a friend of Stannis, if I remember correctly. And he dislikes Melisandre and the effect she's having on him. I already dislike Melisandre and the way that Stannis is becoming. I don't need it to come through the PoV of someone else who dislikes her. I think it would have been more interesting to have made it through Stannis's point of view, similar to Jaime. As is, it just makes Stannis and Melisandre too easy of heels to me, which goes against the way the series generally works.

Of course, he could be setting it up for them to become much more in the long run (as we were starting to see at the end of the last one on the Wall), but for now they are just two characters that I dislike who I'm having to read stories about told from the point of view of someone who dislikes them as well.

Sansa is starting to grow on me slowly. I think she's probably going to redeem herself in the long run, but she's had some annoying chapters in order to get there.

A little behind the scenes sneak peek at making Westeros and Castle Black come to life.....

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I finished Feast of Crows the other day. Reading Martin's little blurb at the end about having the sequel out in the following year, and seeing that the blurb was dated over five years ago, really makes me want track him down and slap him upside the head repeatedly until he gets his procrastinating ass in gear and finishes Dance with Dragons. The bastard. :grr:

This was far and away the weak link of the series. I found myself caring less and less about the POV characters, and completing the book became a real chore toward the end. Tyrion is clearly the central and most interesting character, and an entire book without him sucks.

The conclusion I've come to personally as to why it's taken so long to get it going again is that GRRM has been fooling around with HBO and others trying to get a show made out of his books. And, I think it was mentioned somewhere earlier that he may have had, or is having, health problems of some sort.

And NewPhin kinda covered Feast in his take with all the distracting PoV stories, and I agree with you. Jamie is a GREAT character, easily the strongest of Feast, with Arya (for me) coming in a second. I found I really liked Brienne's, Sansa's, and Cersei's line as well, and Davos to a point, but the rest was just pure filler. And you're right - Tyrion carries this story, along with Jon Snow.

And hell, they have the cover art ready for Dances With Dragons, I guess the least he could do is give them a book to go along with it.

When does this start again? It will be on Sunday nights I would assume?
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It starts in Spring of 2011, I think. The web site says they're still filming; episode 8 or 9.

I'm still reading Storm. It's amazing, of course. Arya's story keeps getting better and better. Just read the part with The Hound in the cave. Just... awesome.

The one where they start out blindfolded? Holy crap, I just read that this morning.

That's exactly the one. And it was amazing. Seriously, the Arya chapters never disappoint. This one may have been my favorite so far.

I was thinking about all the little mysteries that are wedged here and there within the series. For example, the identity of Jon Snow's mother. Or Lord Hoster's finally words. Or some of the things John Arryn implied. I'm wondering if any/all of these things will be answered, or further explored.... or if they are just little things that can never ben known, sprinkled in for added flavor.

Of course, I'm only 500 + pages into Storm. I have a lot of story left. Maybe some/all of these things will be addressed by book's end. Just kinda thinking out loud here...

I think the identity of Jon Snow's mother is going to be important. There's been a lot of debate over who she is.

I sort of have that feeling/hope as well. I'm not sure if I have any real guesses at this point. Once I've finished all the books, I'll probably want to dive into this more. Maybe get everyone's theories.

http://www.blogoficeandfire.blogspot...ogue-bran.html

This guy, on his first time through the series gives his thoughts after each chapter. If you are bored and you want to laugh a little and remember what happened in the previous books, give it a read.

EDIT: So... I'm about 710 pages into aSoS... and...




WHAT THE **** DID I JUST READ??!!!! ... Are you KIDDING me?!! NO.

NO!! I refuse. **** this book. **** ALL THE BOOKS!!

I can't believe that shit.... man.... A Storm Of Swords can go to hell!



Seriously... this shit's crazy.

Yeah, that kind of took it out of me too for a bit and I stopped reading for a day or so.

Seroiusly, man. I feel drained. I didn't ever realize I was that invested in the story... but, wow. I feel crushed.

I knew it was coming and I was still devastated.

It was quick to redemption for me. Jon is getting better and better...and, well, just keep reading.

Completely agree with you sir. Every word.

I guess it's just great writing. But it doesn't make me like it. :)

I think it's what makes GRRM so damned good and unique. I've never seen a fantasy writer who was so willing to kill off characters.

I know!

I thought after I'd be ready for anything. And frankly, I did not expect the manner, nor how early in the series it came, however.

It is definitely one of the most interesting chapters in fantasy. Many people dropped the books then and there. Keep reading.

I will. If for no other reason than vengence. :evil:

Something's GOT to give eventually.... right? .... right?

Yeah, you don't want to give up just yet...........

They did identify her, in sort of a roundabout way.