I'd have thought that what works in the books (characters abandoned in a limbo for hundreds of pages at a time) would be hard to translate in weekly episodes without losing the spectator along the way.

But maybe I have a skewed impression of the books' pacing because I read the lot of them front to back in an intensive fourteen days or so, thus I can't really imagine the same content of a single book paced over many weeks. I'll refresh my memory as soon as the next installment finally arrives.

Cool, yeah I'll check it out later thanks for the info.

Maybe not, but it helps to show the writer engagement and dedication to his job and his readers.

Great serie, I absolutly however do not recommand people to pick it up due to the way  Martin has been handling its readers...

Book 5 has been late for 5 years ( twice now the author has  not been able to deliver the book when he said he would) and seeing how the serie has at least 3-4 more books it's a sure case of another serie not finished in 15 years with possibly the author dying  before completing it ( especially as he can't manage to finish book 5 but still finds the time to write other stuff in the meanwhile)..

Boycott Martin !!!!!!!!

I however very strongly recommand Malazan !!!!!!!!

PS : Just to be clear, when the first book was published it was supposed to be a trilogy, now supposedly it's a 7 book serie and the 5th book has been 5 year in waiting, do not pick this if you plan to read the conclusion of the serie in this lifetime........

It's a great series nonetheless, and I think worth anyone starting to read it. With the caveat that George Martin is getting on in years, and he's rather obese (possibly bordering on morbidly obese). So the risk of him dying before the series is finished is not insignificant. I just hope that if the worst does happen his wife/partner knows how things are meant to finish and she engages a talented writer to finish the series, a la the late Robert Jordan.

Yes the hiatus between book 3 and 4 and between book 4 and 5 is interminably long. I'm hoping that book 4 and 5 were the hump books and that 6 and 7 (hopefully ending at 7) will roll out much quicker. He's also been quoted as saying that he feels the pressure of the possibility of the TV series catching up with his books, and there's no way he wants that to happen. Still it means he could take 5 years to do book 6. But if that happens he'll have to knock out book 7 in 1 year. So I think his personal maximum deadline for the next book will be 3 years, which will give him a maximum deadline of 3 years for book 7. I can live with that for the quality of the series. Also I heard that he's probably going to submit the manuscript for book 5 to the editors in February. It would have been January but he got sick (which does heighten the mortality concern just a tad).

I'd love to share a common interest with you, since we don't quite seem to be on the same console/PC wavelength (though there is a wee bit of cross over with the PC).

I guess there is Sponge Bob and Star Trek too. But those are mostly historical interests for me (and only in passing for Sponge Bob), though I will see any and all Star Trek movies that come out.

Yeah he got quite a serious urinary infection back some days - considering his age, this is not a good sign. We were so close to have Sanderson finish this one too. Maybe we still are.

Holy Shit!! I heard it was E coli. If it was E coli and it went to his urinary tract that can cause kidney failure which is potentially fatal, particularly in older people. If that's the case I don't think his fans really realise that he dodged a bullet here.

Yeah. A lot of people are carriers of E. coli on their urinary tract, so getting an infection due to it almost certainly means your immune system isn't what it used to be.

I just hope the doctors mentioned it to him, maybe it could be a wake up call. This and the following awesome quote:

"Amateurs sit and wait for inspiration, the rest of us just get up and go to work"

- Stephen King

I don't think it'd be that bad, especially for HBO who aren't so concerned with each episode being watchable as a standalone. Pretty much all my fears were sated when I read the pilot ends with the line "The things I do for love!"