Hold me. I feel a little faint.
This is like the Duke Nukem Forever of fantasy novels and much like playing that game at PAX last year, some part of me will not believe this news until I have the novel in my hands. It is true, however, that George R. R. Martin has announced that there is a real, really, real live publication date for A Dance With Dragons.
For those of you who are unaware of the saga involved in this, A Dance With Dragons is the fifth book of the A Song of Ice and Fire series. The first book was released in 1996. This book was going to originally be the fourth novel but it turned out to be too long to be one novel, so it was split into to pieces. Book four (A Feast for Crows) came out in 2005. There have been several release dates set and missed for this book. In fact, the fan reaction to this whole situation was so intense, that is caused Neil Gaiman to make a post about fan entitlement and the general sense that when these things take more time than ‘expected’ fans have a ‘right’ to be angry. Give it a read. (You have to scroll down to the e-mail from a fan to see where it begins.)
Still. There is a date. This one is from the author himself, even though he says the book ‘isn’t finished yet’. Here’s hoping this one sticks.
![share save 256 24 [Preview] A Dance With Dragons](http://www.popbunker.net/wp-content/plugins/add-to-any/share_save_256_24.png "[Preview] A Dance With Dragons"){kind=small}
I’m so tempted to be excited, but I remember when I read Book 4 that I could not for the life of me remember who half the characters were and what was going on. I even forgot some terminations and GRRM’s penchant for doing so. I loved the first three books, was lost due to delays with the 4th, and cannot bring myself to care at all about the 5th, which was supposedly written with the 4th and then split into two books – the latter half still taking 6 years to complete.
I waited years for Rothfuss’ second entry and am waiting to be patient with him for the time being – but maybe that is because I liked THE NAME OF THE WIND better than I liked books 3 & 4 from GRRM and at least as well as 1 & 2. With all respects to Gaiman, one of my favorites and an author whose opinion I respect, I think there is some responsibility to the fans that made GRRM (and Gaiman) writing rock stars by buying their offerings. Otherwise they might stop caring. Like me. And then they are Tommy Lee instead of Thom Yorke.
I loved book4. I loved it very much. I’m worried about this one since it is supposed to have all of the characters in it I don’t really care about. So, I get what you’re saying. On the other hand, you know…. writing a book isn’t like working a factory. There are some authors who can send out a book every few months with no diminishing of quality. Others can’t. I’d rather the author take time and put out a good book than rush it and end up a mess. I’d also rather there be an end instead of fans becoming belligerent. There were forums I read that really were abusive, which is just wrong.
You have to keep in mind the other side of the spectrum: George Lucas. He gave us more and look at how that turned out.
I’m happy to get what I can get when I can get it. I see it much the same as I see music. Am I sad that Trent Reznor has said he’ll never do another NIN project? Yeah. Am I angry with him for it? No. He has the right to do what he wants with his creativity and I can choose to buy it – or not.
It wasn’t so much the fact he took so long to write it but that for these last 5 or 6 years he’s been promising it to us almost every other month.
If he would have just said “Hey look, let book 4 hold you over for a while cause I’m going to take my time with the 5th book and do it right. I don’t know when it’ll be finish but I promise to tell you all when it is” everyone would have wished him luck and patiently waited. Instead month after month, year after year he kept exciting his fanbase with false release dates, “almost done”s, and “x words left!” All the while telling us what he was doing INSTEAD of writing the book; traipsing around the world, writing and proofreading little short story compilations, etc…
Not to say that he shouldn’t have been doing these things but it was salt in the wounds for already jilted fans
All in all I think he handled the situation rather unprofessionally and thats what I believe angered so many.
I can see that.
Personally, when I’m frustrated by a project, I will often do other things because continuing to hit my head against that wall just makes me more angry and makes me want to do that thing less and less and less…. *shrugs* I understand being upset and disappointed by the lack of a book but getting angry at the only person who can tell you how the story goes, to the point of threats, seems counterproductive and irrational to me.