How cool would it be if The Winds of Winter was released shortly after I made my way through these volumes?

pretty cool

Thanks, brother.

Pete, happening on your post in this thread surprised me. I had assumed you had been reading these books for a lot longer than five years. You have many links in your chain.

I'm doing a reread right now, too, and am currently on A Clash of Kings. I'm also fostering a hope that when I get to the end of Dance or some time before, that there will be an announcement of Winds forthcoming.

Let's all do a Clash group read.

fine i'll go back to clash

Nah, I’ll just skip to Dance/Dragons.

I am pretty sure you can finish your re-reading in infinity years, so you're safe.

I think Dany burning King’s Landing is the third “wow” revealed to the showrunners

One of the actors has said the final two books are finished but Martin is strapped into a contract where they can’t be finished until the show is over.

Wishful thinking. But maybe

It’s obviously bollox but just maybe

Huge if true: A #GameofThrones actor claims George R.R. Martin has already written Books 6 and 7 + made a deal with the show's producers not to publish until the series was complete.

https://bit.ly/2E7IUer

GRRM getting salty in finale day:


http://georgerrmartin.com/notablog/2019 ... -nonsense/

I'm glad he's being upfront about it. Having that rumor out there was not a good thing.

Has any of what's happened in this season been represented in the books?

0.00%

So, since the show outpaced the books, I wonder if he will follow anything that’s happened in the show.

He says the show will not affect the trajectory of the books. So, we'll have to see. I imagine Dany will break bad in the books as well. Though, it will be handled like it should have been in the show and will feel tragic and inevitable instead of a completely out of character about-face for the sake of wrapping it up as quickly as possible so the writers can go make Star Wars.

I think a lot of what happens to the other characters will be similar but meaningfully different. I think the people that die will still die, for example. But I think the details will be different.

But it's an interesting question. As a writer, I personally don't think Martin will ever finish the books. The story has been told. He has no reason to finish it. But IF he does, I expect there will be big differences in the road that leads to roughly the same place.

The showrunners have been coy about the things Martin has told them about vs what they invented on their own. It's pretty much accepted that the burning of Shireen and "hold the door" are both from Martin's mouth. It sure sounds like, based on some of the interviews in post-show, behind-the-scenes features, that things like Arya's role in defeating the White Walkers are 100% choices made by the showrunners.

Exactly.

Wease, maybe you've heard, or not, but D&D have said that when they spoke with Martin about the overall trajectory, he told them three things that made them say "Holy Shit!" We're pretty sure that two of them are the events ST mentioned. They have not said what the third one is but they did indicate that it would come "at the end." Was that Dany roasting Kings' Landing? Some fans think it is. But it could also still be unseen at this point.

Given that The Night King as we know him on the show is not at all in the books, it's pretty easy to imagine that the Battle of Winterfell and Arya's role in it, are purely show inventions, as ST said.