A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE

This is a new book out for those of you who don't know. I pre-ordered it from Amazon and got it the day after it came out. I finished the book and I absolutely loved it. I definitely recommend it to anyone looking for a good book to read. It has some humor, magic, and a lot of great characterization.

In the book Against the Gods, there are often times when the wisdom of the masses is surprisingly accurate. One example is that the average guess of a great number of people about how many jelly beans are in a jar turns out to be extremely accurate. I would like to repeat the experiment. The goal is to try to guess the release date of the ADWD. After enough guesses I will calculate the average date.

My guess:

March 5th 2008

New thread, since the old one got a bit on the long side.

I been thinking about the others and the fact they haven't gone round the wall. I don't know why and can only speculate that this must be due to salt water or something? Anyway its a common opinion that the Wall will fall. If this happens the i can see the Nightswatch, Stannis and the North getting pushed back to Moat Cailin as its defendable. If they make their stand anywhere else their probably going to get cut off. Moat Cailin provides a fortress that can be supplied from the south and if the others can't cross the sea it is a natural bottle neck.

Also with The Nightswatch become proficent in archery it makes for a good position to loose arrows from. I think there was a quote that three archers with enough arrows could hold the Neck indefinetly from Moat Cailin. ( If anyone could confirm, I've lent my books out)

There's also Danny's prophecy
"That night she dreamt that she was Rhaegar, riding to the Trident. But she was mounted on a dragon, not a horse. When she saw the Usurper's rebel host across the river they were armored all in ice, but she bathed them in dragonfire and they melted away like dew and turned the Trident into a torrent. Some small part of her knew that she was dreaming, but another part exulted. This is how it was meant to be. The other was a nightmare, and I have only now awakened."

I can see Danny coming to the rescue and melting a bottled up Others Army. May be its the Greenfork for her as it was the Red fork for Rhaegar.

Greywater Watch is just round the corner so hopefully Jon and Howland Reed will meet up and clear up a few unanswered questions. Rickon may possibly be with him. Jon can vouch for him and the North will be ruled by Staks again. Sansa will be in the Vale or the North near by at least. It could be a stark family reunion.

I think the series will conclude with a last stand at Moat Cailin i don't think the others will get any further south. Where does everyone else think the series will conclude.

How Much Will These Cost? We aim to provide the swords at a price competitive with other such reproductions. How much each sword costs will depend on the final cost of materials for producing the sword, and the larger swords (Ice or Longclaw) will be more than the smaller swords (Needle). We aim for all of [...]

I've recently finished reading The White Rose in the Black Company series and discovered that there are still another few books. I really enjoyed the three that I've got but are the others worth getting?

Thoughts?

Hi guys!

First of all, let me begin by offering many thanks to both Simon and Sam at Transworld for allowing me to get an early read of Reaper's Gale. I'm really grateful for this opportunity!

As I said before, for my money this book is one of the best in the series, second only to Memories of Ice and Deadhouse Gates. At times it feels as though it contains more surprises than the rest of the volumes combined. Heed my advice: Expect the unexpected!

The book review is rather long, especially since I included a plot summary, something I seldom do. All spoiler-free, of course! So if you want to get an idea of the various arcs that comprise Reaper's Gale, check it out.

Definitely one of the best fantasy books of 2007, if not the very best! Check out the book review on the blog.

Cheers,

Patrick

We are both proud and pleased to announce that we have obtained the exclusive license to produce arm and armor reproductions from George R.R. Martin’s bestselling book series “A Song of Ice and Fire.” This is a new business for us and this line of swords will be our first, however we are dedicated to delivering [...]

I had a thread here, but it seems to have fallen off.

I was planning a ADWD release party for sometime this spring. I think we should have the party anyway. Who needs an excuse?

Is anyone interested? I did have a nice list of possibles previously. May 19th will be the date of the party


Definates
Lany
Angie
FitzChivelry's Lover
Drac
Bana


Possibles
TC
Ser John
MLA
Elrostar

I have put up a full review of Reynolds' latest novel on my blog. However, the short version is: it's good. A return to form after a couple of interesting-but-flawed books, The Prefect is a highly compulsive thriller with more action than perhaps is expected from a Reynolds novel, although not at the expense of his usual dark, noirish ideas and at times unsettling atmosphere. The book is set a century before Chasm City and Revelation Space, but curiously has a lot of very interesting ties to the other novels. A good comparison is the way Steven Erikson's Midnight Tides relates to the other Malazan novels, and can be read either before or after with the reader gaining a different experience depending on which approach they take. It is not a perfect book - I think we'll have to take it as read that Reynolds isn't going to hit the heights of Chasm City again - but is a fine slice of modern space opera.

In ACOK, Tyrion tells Joffrey, "I'm sorry for your loss." Joffrey says, "What loss?" Tyrion responds sarcastically, "Your father. A big man...."
In AFFC, Kevan tells Jaime, "I'm sorry for your loss." Jaime thinks he's talking about his hand. Kevan says, "I was talking about your father."
(These quotes aren't exact)

I know I have not been around for a good while but wanted to say I will be in San Fran mid April for a conference if anyone is in the area and wanting to catch up! Cheers - RaRa

Long time lurker, haven't posted here since the board was on ezboard.

I see a lot of love for Bakker, and I just can't get into him. I bought the first book on reccomendations from this board and a couple other boards I read and just can't get "hooked" into it. I find myself losing interest a couple hundred pages into the book. I get confused by the history and unlike the Malazan series I just don't care much about it. Should I keep pressing through? I of course love Martin and Erikson, and was hoping Bakker would be as good as them, but to me the series is just flat out boring.

~Meneldil

Thought I'd spin off a separate thread before the one about The Blade Itself fills up with spoilers for book 2 in the series.

I read an ARC a while back and thoroughly enjoyed the book, I found it to be a very easy read and it held my interest well enough that I lost track of time and read on into the early morning. The characters, while not necessarily admirable, are still appealing and make compelling reading.

I do have a couple of spoiler-ish minor criticisms: