Pure Speculation RE; A Song of Ice and Fire.

[Lacedaemonian]

What do you think is going to happen next in this series? How do you see the characters developing? Who is going to get iced next?

As a starting point, who do you think Jon Snow's parents are? I do not think that Jon Snow is the son of Ned Stark. I firmly believe that Rhaegar Targaryen and Lyanna Stark are Jon's tue parents.

Is Snape Harry's father? Sorry ignore this sentence, I could not help myself.

[Falagar]

Pah and pah. Yes yes, I've seen all the evidence and all the hints and everything for the L+R=J, but I still don't think Martin would do it...

As to the rest, I'm not sure at all. There seems to be a thousand ways the series can continue, and trying to guess which Martin will choose borders dangerously close to the impossible.

[Lacedaemonian]

A bit of fun and humour. Speculate on who will get iced next?

[Falagar]

Cersei is definitely going down, but how soon is hard to make out. Since she's a new viewpoint she's probably going to survive at least until the end of Feast...

[Lacedaemonian]

Think about Ned. I loved Ned. I loved Robb but we never got a chapter from his perspective. There is actually a family called Stark in my village. They are scum of the earth. It put me off reading these books for a year or two.

If Cersei dies who will be the focal baddie? And who will kill her?

[Falagar]

Kevan perhaps? He doesn't exactly seem like he's very fond of Cersei, or Jaime for that matter. And if he gets control over Castely Rock and the Lannisters (as Cersei won't leave her high throne in King's Landing and he has a good opportunity to gain support among Tywin's people). Or some of the Tyrells. Who knows what that Queen of Thorns is up to...

[Lacedaemonian]

I like Kevan, it appears that he will undergo a transformation in the FFC. He most certainly was not just a yes man.

[Tyrion]

one of stannis enemies because he has melisandre

[LadyFel]

Originally Posted by Lacedaemonian

I like Kevan, it appears that he will undergo a transformation in the FFC. He most certainly was not just a yes man.

I don't know about Kevan, but I think Martin did a VERY good about-face with Jaime...he was such a son of a bitch in the first two books, I truly despised him...then through his viewpoint the reader sort of sees that he had his reasons for everything he did...

A couple of my friends are actually kicking themselves, they say they'd prefer it if they hadn't gotten to 'know him' a bit...But I like the unexpected in a book...f there's one thing that bothers me about fantasy it's goody-two-shoes heroes who I know are going to defeat evil and live happliy ever after...

[erickad71]

That's what I love about his books! There are several scenes where my jaw just dropped into my lap.

[Lacedaemonian]

Jaime is a favourite of mine, good or bad. The Stark righteousness rubbed off on him. George RR Martin does not really have black or white characters, but his true genius lies in the way that his characters are not the stereo typical grey. I thought that other contemporary fantasy writers had handled this quite well, but Martin delivers his multi dimensional characters with every colour of the spectrum.

[Cuebiyar]

Hello all, new here....nice to meet ya.

As far as speculation goes....I think the key to Feast for Crows is to understand that Martin originally was going to skip 5 years from the end of SoS when he decided he wanted to get into some of what occurred in the 5 year gap. This should allow us to determine who must be static if the story really was to resume 5 years later.

Jon and Stannis have to be around the wall....other than holding it, there were no major plans. Any large shift would not be explained away quickly in a 5 year summarization.

Bran on the other hand was still questing where we left off.....I think we will get plenty about Coldhands and Bran's quest as a skinchanger.

Dany will, for the most part stay in the slave city she conquered. Given how she ended it, it definitely was a set up for a "5 years later" resumption.

All primary Kings Landing characters should still hang around. Cersei will agonizingly squander her power over the 5 years, but it would have been too much to start reading a 5 years later book and she was dethroned without a full telling.

Due to the 5 year thing, I fear Sansa is stuck with Littlefinger for a while as a major change in her situation would have been difficult to explain after a 5 year gap. We could get more full description of Brienne quest to rescue her though.

We won't hear much of the Hound except to hear he's not dead.

Tyrion, I read somewhere, was heading across the narrow sea which lead me to believe he might hook up with Dany or Arya somewhere. His natural allies would be in Dorne however.

What does this tell us?

The situations at the Wall, the Eyrie, Kings Landing and Dany will be static/filler type stuff (with the possible exception of Brienne involvement with Sansa).

FFC will primarilly revolve around Tyrion getting involved in cunning aliances and avoiding assassins, Arya becoming a Bravossi assassin, Bran's quest through the haunted forest with Coldhands, the Greyjoys being at each others throats and Brienne's quest to find Sansa and perhaps protect Rickon as well. Also, there must be a severe bloodletting or two. I think Dorne declares for Mycella and we are off to the races again.

[I, Brian]

Hi Cuebiyar, and welcome to the chronicles network.

[Lacedaemonian]

Hi Cuebiyar, welcome to the boards mate. Just reading your post reminded me of how many excellent threads that this story still has going. Waterstones told me that the Feast for Crows will be out on 30th of September. Probably not true but I am willing to believe them.

[LadyFel]

SPOILER ALERT

Originally Posted by Cuebiyar

Tyrion, I read somewhere, was heading across the narrow sea which lead me to believe he might hook up with Dany or Arya somewhere. His natural allies would be in Dorne however.

In May last year, Martin was guest of honour at Sferakon in Zagreb, and read us a couple of new chapters, one of which was the first Tyrion chhapter after he leaves King's Landing following his talk with Jaime...

Anyway, he ends up in Magister Ilyrio's home, they have a talk, and the chapter ends with Tyrion beginning to consider joining with Dany...

Now, Martin has said he changes things constantly, so tis may not be true any more, but I sort of see it as logical - the biggest slap in the face to Cersei and the Lannisters would be for her brother to join with Dany...Although I can quite easily see him going towards the Wall at some point, he and Jon struck up a sort of tentative friendship in the first book, on the basis of both being outcast from their families for one reason or another, but basically just for being born...

Originally Posted by Lacedaemonian

Waterstones told me that the Feast for Crows will be out on 30th of September. Probably not true but I am willing to believe them.

I check GRRM's official site for updates every month or so, but I was pretty busy so I missed it for a while...sorry to burst your bubble, but have it from the horse's mouth :

MORE PAGES. STILL NOT DONE. ALAS, ALAS.
I have been getting lots of email lately asking for an update on the progress of A FEAST FOR CROWS. Here it is. I aim to please.

I have been getting even more email asking if the latest publication date announced by one bookstore or another is correct. It isn't. I don't even care what date it is. I am still writing the book. Until it is done and delivered, all these announced pubdates are arrived at by throwing darts at a calendar.

As I have been saying for a year, the moment the book is done I will announce it here. The instant. The second. So if you visit this website, and this notice is still in place, it means I'm still writing. That remains as true in June as it was in January. Yes, I have been slow in updating this announcement, but believe me, I will not be slow to tell the world that my FEAST is headed for the table.

For whatever reason, this fourth book has given me much more trouble than any of the earlier volumes. As of today, I have finished forty-eight chapters, and have another eighteen partially written. Half a dozen of them are within a few whiskers of completion. The good news is that I have recently completed the final Jaime chapter for this volume. I'm very close on Arya and Sansa too, and fairly close on Tyrion. The not-so-good news is that all the other viewpoints remain incomplete, and one crucial one is barely half-done. The prologue is giving me fits as well, but as of last night I think I may have solved it.

The last printout I did for my editors (who are even more interested in my progress than my readers) came in at 1067 manuscript pages. That count includes includes only the finished chapters, not the partials. The final draft of A GAME OF THRONES was 1088 manuscript pages. A FEAST FOR CROWS will definitely be longer. Most likely it will be longer than A CLASH OF KINGS. As to whether it will eventually be as long as A STORM OF SWORDS... I hope not, but I have given up on making predictions.

The tale grew in the telling, J.R.R. Tolkien once said. Mine too. At a certain point, the best that you can do is follow your story where it leads you.

The vast majority of the email that I receive continues to be very supportive. I do not have the time to respond to all those letters, or to answer questions about why the seasons are the way they are, how the maesters make their chains, which of the Targaryen kings married their sisters, or where Myr is located in relation to Tyrosh (there will be a map of the Free Cities in FEAST that should take of that last one at least). If I did, my progress would be even slower than it is at present. I do read my emails, however, and I appreciate all the enthusiasm and kind words.

Of late, some of the words I have been getting have been less kind. I don't answer those either, though at times I am tempted. I will say, just to set some rumors straight, that I am not dead, I am not dying, I am not in ill health, I have not forgotten about my readers, and I am not lounging in my hot tub drinking chilled wine with hot babes in bikinis (though I'd like to be). I have been working on this bloody book almost every bloody day (okay, except for Sundays during football season and the two days of the NFL draft) for more years than I care to contemplate, writing, rewriting, revising, and writing again, trying to make FEAST a feast in truth.

As for those of you (only a handful, thankfully) who seem outraged that I continue to collect toy knights, read books by other people, travel, teach, speak, and make appearances (as evidenced by my website)... sorry, but I have a life beyond A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE. You should get one too. I am sorry if the long delays on A FEAST FOR CROWS have made you lose interest in the series, but believe me, your frustrations cannot possibly hold a candle to my own. For one thing, the way the book biz works, I don't get paid until the novel is (a) delivered, and (b) published.

It is worth remembering that Jack Vance published the third volume of his wonderful Demon Prince series (THE PALACE OF LOVE) in 1967 and the fourth volume (THE FACE) in 1979. And need I mention how long J.R.R. Tolkien worked on THE LORD OF THE RINGS or THE SILMARILLION? Does anyone now wish that he had knocked them out faster?

In the end, the only thing anyone remembers about a book is how good it was. I won't tell you that A FEAST FOR CROWS is going to be great. That's not my call to make. But I will say that I am doing my damndest.

Hang in there. I'll try to make you glad you did.

—George R.R. Martin, June 16, 2004