George R. R. Martin is 66 years old in a few months, not as nimble of finger as he once was, and a notoriously slow writer. Hes also gone on record as saying that, despite a superlative career spanning five decades, hes fully aware that A Song Of Ice And Fire will be considered his legacy to the world, and he has no intention of rushing it. Now, the books that comprise the epic bookshelf-destroying saga A Song Of Ice And Fire are not the slimmest novels ever published, and theyre only getting longer and thicker as the series progresses which is one of several reasons that the series isnt progressing very fast. A Game Of Thrones, the first in the series, was written over five years, on and off other projects, and eventually published in 1996. A Clash Of Kings and A Storm Of Swords followed in 1998 and 2000, respectively. This is where things get complicated. Theres about five years between A Feast For Crows (2005) and A Dance Of Dragons (2011) but they were originally part of the same manuscript, having to be split into two sections for publication. So thats one giant book in eleven years. Two further gargantuan novels are projected before A Song Of Ice And Fire reaches completion, and his editor has recently hinted that it might actually take an eighth before its finally done and dusted. Now, were not going to be the kind of people that publically fret that Martin wont live to finish the saga. We pay our money for each book as it comes, and thats just fine with us the man doesnt owe us a thing. But the television phenomenon that Martin engendered when he sold the rights to HBO isnt going to be slowed down by one writers perfectionism, no matter who that writer might be, and Martins only a co-executive producer on the show. He doesnt have as much clout as you might think. Hes already had to tell the showrunners David Benioff and D.B Weiss how the main threads of the story will come together, come the end. At the speed that Martin writes, this show will probably be on season seven when the next novel in the sequence is published, and theres one more to come after that maybe two. So the ending that some of us have been salivating over for eighteen years is absolutely, definitively, going to be spoiled (irony of ironies) by a television show that doesnt do the material justice. As we think weve demonstrated in this article. What do you think, those of you who've read the books and seen the show? Is Game Of Thrones doing wrong by the genius author behind the story of A Song Of Ice And Fire? Let us know in the comments?
Professional writer, punk werewolf and nesting place for starfish. Obsessed with squid, spirals and story. I publish short weird fiction online at desincarne.com, and tweet nonsense under the name Jack The Bodiless. You can follow me all you like, just don't touch my stuff.
