I wonder how often he backs up.

MaxWar wrote:

I find this pretty funny 😁

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X5REM-3nWHg

I read about this too, I was surprised it wasn't Wordperfect is all.

OMG that was hilarious.

I suddenly have even more respect for that guy. That's freakin' hardcore! Maybe I too should write my novels in DOS-.... wait... who am I kidding? I need ALL the help I can get. 🤣

http://www.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/showb … .team-coco.html

😲

I am curious whether this guy will ever finish the GOT story. I read all the books and was not impressed. The TV show script writers already took drastic actions to speed up the story line and exclude a lot of side story lines (that very suddenly end in the books usually).

PeterLI wrote:

I am curious whether this guy will ever finish the GOT story. I read all the books and was not impressed. The TV show script writers already took drastic actions to speed up the story line and exclude a lot of side story lines (that very suddenly end in the books usually).

I started reading the books over 10 years ago, when nobody knew what GOT was, at this point I am wondering if he will live long enough to finish it.
I hope he doesn't pull a ''Robert Jordan'' on us...

I think the first three books are masterpiece. But then I feel that the series started to lose it's punch and focus. It is still good but I do not have as much of that jaw drop effect I got from the 3 first books.

Exactly. Plus the heraldry obsession and too many characters.

MaxWar wrote:

I think the first three books are masterpiece. But then I feel that the series started to lose it's punch and focus. It is still good but I do not have as much of that jaw drop effect I got from the 3 first books.

Me too. I'm two chapters from finishing Feast of Crows and somewhere in the middle I had a thought "It's a little boring, but I have to finish it to get to the next book". The Strom of Swords was actually a storm closer to the end of the book, fast and furious, with one particular king dying and what came of it. Feast for crows lacks that kind of action.

PeterLI wrote:

I read all the books and was not impressed.

Why would you read all the books if you were not impressed?

MaxWar wrote:

I hope he doesn't pull a ''Robert Jordan'' on us...

Or worse - a "Frank Herbert": we could end up with a couple of talentless hacks turning the franchise into a joke, by shitting out a stream of atrociously bad sequels, prequels and in-between-quels under a false pretense that they're based on some non-existent "notes" by the deceased original author.

Not that I'm really looking forward to new ASoIaF installments. Book #5 was a bloody chore to go through - he's completely lost sight of all those loose plot threads.

Science fiction writer Robert J. Sawyer (who wrote the book on which the short-lived TV series FlashForward was based) also frequently extols the virtues of Wordstar.
http://www.sfwriter.com/wordstar.htm

I read them because my wife's cousin insisted he writes better than JRR Tolkien. Which is total nonsense of course: JRR Tolkien is the best. 😀

PeterLI wrote:

I read them because my wife's cousin insisted he writes better than JRR Tolkien. Which is total nonsense of course: JRR Tolkien is the best. 😀

They are just too different. Tolkien is suitable for children, with only good guys and bad guys, he has some fairy-tale spirit, especially in the Hobbit (the movie can be called anything but Hobbit).

Martin is not only more realistic, he also depicts infinite shades of grey. There are no good and bad guys, only charachters that boil in the same kettle, become mature and wither away in a matter of chapters. Still I think that initially one of Martin's goals was to surpass Tolkien.

I say they are both great.

JRR Tolkien is not just for children.

PeterLI wrote:

JRR Tolkien is not just for children.

Yet it is suitable. You can't deny that giving "Lord of the Rings" to an 8-year old won't harm, I myself read it for the first time at that age (God it was hard to read sometimes). Imagine Martin's books in the hands of a kid.

Tolkien channels cultural archetypes, which is why his writing can resonate with just about anyone - The Hobbit *is* a children's book, but The Silmarillion and Children of Hurin are different beasts altogether (the latter is a basically a tragedy, and kids would probably find it pretty gory and depressing). Part of his greatness is how he manages to pull off these different styles equally well. He was also, you know, a respected philologist and professor of literature, which sure doesn't hurt.

Martin's writing, on the other hand... has many flaws. Repeated and over-used phrases (lists have been compiled), plot arcs that go nowhere for entire books... he's even admitted some of his shortcomings himself, such as the fact that he can't write believable child characters (since he's never had children). Also, I find that many people who praise his supposed "maturity" and "shades of grey" are just in it for the gore, lesbian scenes and "wincest".

I'm not saying GRRM is *bad*, mind you, and ASOIAF was an entertaining read for a while, but he's plainly not in the same class as Tolkien - few people are.

Honestly, I prefer Martin's short-story sci-fi work to his fantasy sagas.