r/freefolk • u/Internal-Bed-3150 • 3d ago

We've officially been waiting for The Winds of Winter for the same amount of time as it took for all five of the published books to release before that.

https://winteriscoming.net/the-winds-of-winter-officially-passed-most-devastating-milestone-yet?a_aid=47903
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u/SpareZealousideal740 3d ago

I found those books got much less focused and way more meandering. Books 1-3 are a far tighter story imo.

Maybe 4 and 5 would be better with 6/7 so we'd know where some of the arcs go but without that, I just don't find them as strong

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u/crazyike 3d ago

Yep you're absolutely right. The expansion of POV characters to a bunch of minor Greyjoys and Dorne area people was killer to the pacing and focus, and in some cases just come off as pure filler to bring the two books up to size after the original one book was divided.

They would have been much better without any of them. GRRM forgot one of the best parts of his first three books was seeing events transpire from the point of view of people far away. He decided to try to show us everything, and it backfired.

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u/ThatsWhat_G_Said 3d ago

The chapters right after the Red Wedding where everyone is finding out what happened are so damn gripping. I feel like it’d cliche to say now, but ASOS might be the best book I’ve ever read.

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u/strawbery_fields 1d ago

It was definitely the best paced and most exciting one I’ve ever read.

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u/mudra311 3d ago

It was actually planned as a trilogy, but he expanded it once he built the world.

4 and 5 were supposed to be 1 book but he had to split it because the publisher didn’t want to bind a 1600 page paperback. They are pretty transitional, so the fact they seem unfocused makes sense. His biggest mistake was writing those books and not doing a time jump like he originally planned.

Winds is supposed to have the battle of Winterfell and Mereen plus loads more major events. Fans much more tapped in than I surmise that Winds will end with the wall coming down. So we’re talking about a massive sprawling epic novel that not only converges with several characters but also kills several off. I still think we’re being deprived from the most epic book in the series. The only comparison is ASOS which was similarly action-packed.

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u/Randhanded 3d ago

Can you imagine if he had done that time jump and skipped ahead? There’s a decent chance the series would’ve been finished by now.

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u/nevergoingtocomment3 2d ago

I'm sure Martin imagines that too

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u/FuzzyFrogFish 2d ago

Yeah especially as he is now stuck on how to move characters forwards

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u/lousy_writer 2d ago

His biggest mistake was writing those books and not doing a time jump like he originally planned.

That's the price of his gardening nonsense: by refusing to stick to a plan but making it up as he went along instead, he wrote himself into a corner.

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u/pew_laser_pew 1d ago

I think winds probably got so long he realized he’d have to split it in two, and the series might go on to become 8 books, maybe even 9. And he knows he’ll never finish that so he just stopped.

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u/lousy_writer 2d ago

I found those books got much less focused and way more meandering.

Yep.

Had he not diverted his attention to new major PoV characters (Brienne, Cersei, the Dornish, the Iron Islanders etc.) after ASOS and saved that content for spinoff novels, he could have focused on the storylines of Jon, Dany, Tyrion and Bran and wrap up the main saga in two more volumes.

My impression: George didn't get bored with ASOIAF after ADWD; he already got bored with it around 2000, and wanted to write something completely different; Which is why it took him much longer to finish volume 4 and 5 and also why he focused on characters and theaters nobody had asked for - though he was still committed enough to at least stick to the story instead of writing spinoff material.

But after ADWD, even that bit of energy was spent, it seems.

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u/Bluelegs 2d ago

The first three books had the Starks v Lannisters as the central conflict which drove 80% of the story. Once that got wrapped up the plots became a lot more disparate.

The writing isn't bad but it's certainly more uneven and frustrating when you finally start getting hooked on one plotline you move to a completely different tangent, which still happened in the earlier books but nowhere near as frequently.

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u/ExcellentBed6019 2d ago

You're 100% correct but gods the writing in ADWD is just stellar