Game of Thrones

[ClausentoTate]

The only shows that I would consider better:

The Wire
Breaking Bad
Arrested Development

And Arrested Development doesn't count because it's a comedy.

And people seem to agree with me: IMDb: Highest Rated TV Series With At Least 5,000 Votes

Your list is good, that list is horrible.

Six Feet Under is still the best ending to a series ever. It's undebatable.

 

[Buster Bluth]

I've never seen Six Feet Under, I take it it's good?

 

[greyhammer90]

I've never seen Six Feet Under, I take it it's good?

Good in the same way watching a train wreck is satisfying.

 

[mgriff]

So ACamp is reading the books now? Niiiice. GRRM did an interview the other day for something or other, and he said he's speeding up his writing. Winds of Winter in 2014 hopefully but he has always always always, kept a full schedule. He refuses to just focus on one work. The success of the show is kind of forcing him to commit more effort to ASOIAF but he still will not churn the remaining two books out. If he keeps to 2014, which is by no means in stone, we'd be lucky to get the final book in 2017. He also plans on finishing the series in seven, but in the same interview I referenced at the beginning of the post, he said if it takes eight it takes eight. He'll write as many books as he has to until he's finished.

 

[Irish YJ]

Your list is good, that list is horrible.

Six Feet Under is still the best ending to a series ever. It's undebatable.

Six Feet Under = very very good.
Nobody mentioned Sopranos and Dexter?

 

[greyhammer90]

So ACamp is reading the books now? Niiiice. GRRM did an interview the other day for something or other, and he said he's speeding up his writing. Winds of Winter in 2014 hopefully but he has always always always, kept a full schedule. He refuses to just focus on one work. The success of the show is kind of forcing him to commit more effort to ASOIAF but he still will not churn the remaining two books out. If he keeps to 2014, which is by no means in stone, we'd be lucky to get the final book in 2017. He also plans on finishing the series in seven, but in the same interview I referenced at the beginning of the post, he said if it takes eight it takes eight. He'll write as many books as he has to until he's finished.

That's why I refuse to read until it's done. He's old and fat. Wouldn't it be a shame if...


I'm just saying is all.

 

[Buster Bluth]

So wouldn't it take like 12 seasons on HBO to get to all of the books? I'm skeptical that a production can go on that long.

 

[Buster Bluth]

Six Feet Under = very very good.
Nobody mentioned Sopranos and Dexter?

I've never seen any of those. I have the Sopranos on my summer list though.

 

[Buster Bluth]

Good in the same way watching a train wreck is satisfying.

So it's unstoppably arousing then?

 

[Irish YJ]

So it's unstoppably arousing then?

 

[Whiskeyjack]

So ACamp is reading the books now? Niiiice. GRRM did an interview the other day for something or other, and he said he's speeding up his writing. Winds of Winter in 2014 hopefully but he has always always always, kept a full schedule. He refuses to just focus on one work. The success of the show is kind of forcing him to commit more effort to ASOIAF but he still will not churn the remaining two books out. If he keeps to 2014, which is by no means in stone, we'd be lucky to get the final book in 2017. He also plans on finishing the series in seven, but in the same interview I referenced at the beginning of the post, he said if it takes eight it takes eight. He'll write as many books as he has to until he's finished.

Mildly infuriating. The story arc is far enough along now that the climax is somewhat obvious. Only self-indulgence could force an 8th book.

That's why I refuse to read until it's done. He's old and fat. Wouldn't it be a shame if...

I'm just saying is all.

Don't you put that evil on us, Doc.

 

[greyhammer90]

I'm assuming you quoted the wrong post.

It could happen in all seriousness. I'm not going to get emotionally invested in a 7 part epic to have it go unfinished.

 

[IrishinTN]

Mildly infuriating. The story arc is far enough along now that the climax is somewhat obvious. Only self-indulgence could force an 8th book.

If you read anything on this man, including his blog, you will find self-indulgence and arrogance are two of his favorite hobbies.

 

[IrishinTN]

So ACamp is reading the books now? Niiiice. GRRM did an interview the other day for something or other, and he said he's speeding up his writing. Winds of Winter in 2014 hopefully but he has always always always, kept a full schedule. He refuses to just focus on one work. The success of the show is kind of forcing him to commit more effort to ASOIAF but he still will not churn the remaining two books out. If he keeps to 2014, which is by no means in stone, we'd be lucky to get the final book in 2017. He also plans on finishing the series in seven, but in the same interview I referenced at the beginning of the post, he said if it takes eight it takes eight. He'll write as many books as he has to until he's finished.

That would be very lucky indeed. He has taken at least 5 years for every book since ASOS. I know because I have sat patiently (or not) waiting for the dern things.

 

[IrishSpartan]

i heard we wont see book 7 until 2022 thats why people are freaking out that he might die before he finished

 

[mgriff]

I'm pretty sure he's shared the ending with D&D (HBO Writers) so they know where he's going to end up. It will be different because someone else is writing but I enjoy his description about how he writes. He compares it to a road trip; he knows he's going to drive from Jersey to Cali, and he knows some major stopping points along the way, but it's the diners and little places along the way that flesh out the trip and making it something memorable. He's way overweight and old, him dying is not out of the realm of possibility. If he does die, it will get finished, but I just love his descriptive writing style and his talent for intrigue and lore.

 

[Emcee77]

Mildly infuriating. The story arc is far enough along now that the climax is somewhat obvious. Only self-indulgence could force an 8th book.

Ugh, I agree. GRRM, bro, make an outline or something. I mean, Whiskey, when you or I write a brief, we usually don't have the option of writing a 15 page brief or a 150 page brief. We know it has to be 15 pages no matter how much we want to say, so we figure out what we want to say in advance, how we want to say it, how long it will take to make the point, and if there are arguments we can't fit in, we eliminate the weaker ones in favor of the stronger ones. My fear is that is that GRRM might be writing a 15 page brief in 150 pages.

To try another analogy, GRRM has called himself a "gardener" to Tolkien's "architect." I imagine his writing process as poking around in a garden, planting a seed here, another there, seeing what grows, pruning the first plant now and then, leaving it in favor of another plant for a while, then coming back to it. And now he's planted too many seeds and the garden's gotten overgrown. Sure, he might be going somewhere with all this stuff, but we might also get to the end of the 8th book and feel like half the storylines were totally unnecessary to the resolution of the story and could have been eliminated (not that that would make them any less awesome, I guess).

The first three books were amazing. The 4th and 5th books were great too, but in reading those (along with GRRM's comments in the New Yorker article about the series) it became clear that the series has just grown out of Martin's control. Tolkien, too, said "the tale grew in the telling," but Martin's tale has really taken off on him and seems to be overwhelming him. I hope that he got over the hump of that 5th book and can start to home in on the events that are necessary to resolve the story, but he has spread himself really thin and I'm a little worried that resolving the series will be impossible for him.

Sorry for the rant. I read this article this morning:

Parallel Universe

and it got me thinking. I believe I groaned aloud when I read GRRM quoted as saying that the 6th book "will be a long time coming."

 

[mgriff]

Ugh, I agree. GRRM, bro, make an outline or something. I mean, Whiskey, when you or I write a brief, we usually don't have the option of writing a 15 page brief or a 150 page brief. We know it has to be 15 pages no matter how much we want to say, so we figure out what we want to say in advance, how we want to say it, how long it will take to make the point, and if there are arguments we can't fit in, we eliminate the weaker ones in favor of the stronger ones. My fear is that is that GRRM might be writing a 15 page brief in 150 pages.

To try another analogy, GRRM has called himself a "gardener" to Tolkien's "architect." I imagine his writing process as poking around in a garden, planting a seed here, another there, seeing what grows, pruning the first plant now and then, leaving it in favor of another plant for a while, then coming back to it. And now he's planted too many seeds and the garden's gotten overgrown. Sure, he might be going somewhere with all this stuff, but we might also get to the end of the 8th book and feel like half the storylines were totally unnecessary to the resolution of the story and could have been eliminated (not that that would make them any less awesome, I guess).

The first three books were amazing. The 4th and 5th books were great too, but in reading those (along with GRRM's comments in the New Yorker article about the series) it became clear that the series has just grown out of Martin's control. Tolkien, too, said "the tale grew in the telling," but Martin's tale has really taken off on him and seems to be overwhelming him. I hope that he got over the hump of that 5th book and can start to home in on the events that are necessary to resolve the story, but he has spread himself really thin and I'm a little worried that resolving the series will be impossible for him.

Sorry for the rant. I read this article this morning:

Parallel Universe

and it got me thinking. I believe I groaned aloud when I read GRRM quoted as saying that the 6th book "will be a long time coming."

Yes it grew out of his control. The real issue came when he diverged through books three and four. He began to tie them all back in together during book five, and he's stated it will completed in book six. He also has said he needs to kill off a bunch of POV characters so he can progress, so expect major characters to continue to die. I think he's got it in him, but like I stated above, he knows where he's going, he just takes his time. He's the guy that drives backroads on trips so he can experience the local culture instead of driving highways.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/j7lp3RhzfgI" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

[IrishSpartan]

hes only about 300 pages into the next book

 

[Whiskeyjack]

Yes it grew out of his control. The real issue came when he diverged through books three and four. He began to tie them all back in together during book five, and he's stated it will completed in book six. He also has said he needs to kill off a bunch of POV characters so he can progress, so expect major characters to continue to die. I think he's got it in him, but like I stated above, he knows where he's going, he just takes his time. He's the guy that drives backroads on trips so he can experience the local culture instead of driving highways.

I don't entirely agree with this, mainly because other series of this type have devolved in a similar way (e.g. Robert Jordan's "Wheel of Time"). The author starts with a specific narrative arc in mind, and gets to writing; in GRRM's case, he initially planned on a 3-book series. And, for the most part, the first three books are the best by far. The pacing is good and plot development is tight.

But then series becomes very popular. The author starts making a lot of money, and he realizes he's writing his master work. Whether out of self-indulgence, or a desire to milk the series for more money, it starts to wander; pacing suffers, and plot development starts to unravel. For GRRM, the beginnings of this are evident in aSoS (though it's still the best book), and became painfully evident in aFfC and aDwD.

Details and secondary characters matter. That's one thing that makes GRRM's work so amazing; a secondary character like Oberyn Martell would just be a plot device in most books, but Martin makes him so interesting that you'd want to read a book about him alone. But good writing still demands rigorous editing to maintain pace and flow; and GRRM obviously hasn't been willing to "prune his garden" for quite some time now.

I mean, did we really need something like 5 whole chapters in aFfC dedicated to Brienne riding about Westeros looking for Sansa? It gave us a good look at the poor post-war state of much of the continent, but that was just stupid self-indulgence. Get an editor, man.

 

[phork]

I've never seen any of those. I have the Sopranos on my summer list though.

You cannot go wrong with either of those series. My all time favorites:

Lost
Breaking Bad
Game of Thrones
Walking Dead
Dexter
Sopranos

My 'View List'

The Wire
The Following

 

[gkIrish]

You cannot go wrong with either of those series. My all time favorites:

Lost
Breaking Bad
Game of Thrones
Walking Dead
Dexter
Sopranos

My 'View List'

The Wire
The Following

The Following has been pretty excellent IMO. Every episode has been exciting.

 

[IrishLion]

I'm almost done with the second book, and I keep finding myself wishing that GRRM were young and almost done with series, that way he could go back a write prequels. I would love to read the "history" of Valyria and Westeros, anything from the Targaryens arriving at Kings Landing to an account of the war that lead Robert Baratheon to the throne, or even just a short book on Balon Greyjoy's rebellion would interest me.

I think a book exploring the history of Valyria and the Targaryens would be my favorite; the mystique around the greatness of the land and the Doom is intriguing.

 

[mgriff]

I'm almost done with the second book, and I keep finding myself wishing that GRRM were young and almost done with series, that way he could go back a write prequels. I would love to read the "history" of Valyria and Westeros, anything from the Targaryens arriving at Kings Landing to an account of the war that lead Robert Baratheon to the throne, or even just a short book on Balon Greyjoy's rebellion would interest me.

I think a book exploring the history of Valyria and the Targaryens would be my favorite; the mystique around the greatness of the land and the Doom is intriguing.

They aren't really prequels, but you can read the Dunk and Egg series and it opens up a lot of lore and ties many things together, most notably about Bloodraven and the Blackfyre rebellion. Most are in collections, so you have to get a whole book for the relevant short stories, but they really are good.

 

[IrishLax]

Someone needs to kidnap GRRM and lock him in a dark cellar until he finishes the books.

 

[IrishSpartan]

They aren't really prequels, but you can read the Dunk and Egg series and it opens up a lot of lore and ties many things together, most notably about Bloodraven and the Blackfyre rebellion. Most are in collections, so you have to get a whole book for the relevant short stories, but they really are good.

well your in luck it seems. This was just released today:

“I have been writing for a number of years, a series of novellas set in the same world, in the world of Westeros about 100 years earlier, about two characters called Dunk and Egg… I’ve published three of those novellas – The Hedge Knight, The Sworn Sword, and The Mystery Knight – and I have in mind about nine or ten more novellas about the adventures of Dunk and Egg. So, we have been playing with the idea of doing those, you know, as prequels. They would be prequels in a sense they’re 100 years earlier, but in the same world. They’re somewhat lighter in tone than the main series, a little more adventurous but my fans love them and I love the two characters too, and it all ties into Westeros. So maybe, maybe that will be what we do, we’ll see.”

 

[AdmiralBackhand]

Someone needs to kidnap GRRM and lock him in a dark cellar until he finishes the books.

I have read that he is bored with writing and that he may not finish the books at all. Instead, he has told the plot to HBO supposedly and they will finish the story in television format. If this is true, fvck the show.

 

[ND NYC]

I have read that he is bored with writing and that he may not finish the books at all. Instead, he has told the plot to HBO supposedly and they will finish the story in television format. If this is true, fvck the show.

you serious, clark?

if so may he end up like Reek (rhymes with Meek)

 

[IrishSpartan]

I have read that he is bored with writing and that he may not finish the books at all. Instead, he has told the plot to HBO supposedly and they will finish the story in television format. If this is true, fvck the show.

that cant be true, he's notorious for his slow writing process. He's sitting on a gold mine and hes working on multiple books and novellas at the same time.

 

[Pops Freshenmeyer]

Plus, he could poop out a zero-effort conclusion to the series in a few weeks and sell 20 million copies.