Warning: this will hopefully be a very dense thread.
I finished my re- re-read of the first four books in the series last night. It only took me six months this time! In an effort both to help me keep the series fresh in my mind for the next 3 months and 16 days and to have a fun discussion on what we're all expecting in book 5, I bring you this thread. We've had small discussions about ADWD in various and sundry other threads. Now we have a single location as the release finally approaches (yay!). I have a few things I'd like to discuss in this thread, but feel free to use it for any ADWD-related news, questions, or discussions. I'm hoping that having one central thread along with the fact that the book is finally actually really tangibly coming Real Soon Now™ will encourage all the OOer ASoIaF fans to participate. Perhaps we'll even have a nice group reading come July... With all that said, this is going to be a massively spoilerific thread for the first four books. If you haven't yet finished AFFC, get thee out. (And really, what's the deal? You've had more than five years. Come now.)So here we go.
ADWD News: Roy Dotrice will be doing the audiobook of ADWD. We've known for a long time that GRRM wanted to return to Dotrice, but as of last night it's finally official.
Things my re-read of AFFC made clear: The fourth book is actually quite good. I think I (and frankly, many of you other fans) were taken aback on first read by the fact that many of our favorite characters from the first three books were not included in AFFC and we closed down. Took our ball and went home. I liked AFFC on my first read, but thought it was clearly the weakest book in the series, a solid step below the first three. After my second read, I've warmed to the book significantly. I wouldn't say it's my favorite, but it's on par as a worthy entry in the series as a whole. When I entered the book with a truly open mind, I found both the Iron Islands and Dorne sections to be quite fulfilling. I think it was necessary to give us readers a fuller introduction to those two cultures in order for the rest of the series to play out as Martin has planned, and I think AFFC makes a better book focusing on these areas and a subset of Westeros than it would have if these areas had been added in on top of Dany, Tyrion, Davos, and the rest that were cut from the book. There'd have been 300 pages between each chapter in Dorne or the Iron Islands. And the two Oldtown chapters that bookend AFFC seem to have so much deeper of a meaning than what's obvious on the surface, they set the stage for another cool area to cover in the remaining books. In any event, I liked it much better the second time around.
Things I'm looking forward to in ADWD: Some of these will definitely be answered or at the least have progress made in ADWD. Some may not, as they relate to the areas covered in AFFC. It's worth noting that while ADWD is for the most part a 'companion' book to AFFC, taking place at the same time and covering different characters, this isn't completely the case. GRRM has confirmed that a significant minority of ADWD will take place after the end of AFFC, so it's plausable that questions posed by AFFC could be answered in ADWD. Whew.
-Dany. What is the Meereenese Knot? Will Dany begin her move to return to Westeros? Will she meet up with Arya? Or Tyrion? Or Prince Doran via Quentyn Martell? Or Archmaester Marwyn? Or Victarion Greyjoy?
-Who is Coldhands? What will Bran's continuing development as a warg bring? Has he been controlling the crazy-brave packs of wolves that have been harrying enemies of House Stark throughout AFFC?
-What is the Alchemist up to?
-Does the Young Wolf have an heir incubating? Is Jeyne actually Jeyne? Or has Sybell Spicer actually been working to subvert the Lannisters?
-Who are Jon Snow's parents (Yeah, it's an oldie, but it's a goodie)? My money's on the Rhaegar/Lyanna theory.
-Another oldie... Who is Azor Ahai / the Prince That Was Promised? Like most folks, I'm convinced that it's pretty clearly not Stannis despite Melisandre's certainty. But I'm not as convinced as some that it has to be Dany.
-WTF is really going on in Oldtown? I'm convinced that the Sphinx-is-Sarella theory is true, and that 'Pate' is Jaqen H'Gar. What are the maesters-not-named-Marwyn really up to? What's the deal with the obsidian candles? What (or who, given that he's likely a Faceless Man) is Jaqen after? What's Sarella's real motivation there?
Whew. Now some of you please make worthwhile the 90 minutes I spent writing up this post.
Discuss!
