Whatever the truth maybe, you cannot deny that the past nine years have resulted in a vast majority of readers believing that Rober Jordan was a man very dedicated to his fans, who did not even let his death affect the end of his series, whereas GRRM "lazes around" and all that shit.
'Vast majority' is certainly untrue. And it is certainly a far more widespread, if equally factually untrue, view that Robert Jordan expanded his series out for financial gain and took the mickey out of readers who constantly turned up every two years to buy an expensive new hardcover, only to find that in 800 pages the story had progressed slightly less far than a snail with asthma (reaching its nadir with CROSSROADS OF TWILIGHT).
Arguing about public perception is a fool's errand because it gets you nowhere. Regardless of 'what people think' (as evidenced by looking at uninformed Amazon comment pages), we here know that RJ simply lost control of the story and its pacing and it took a long time to drag it back on course, but eventually he succeeded (as shown by KoD and his planning for AMoL, as now executed by Sanderson) and we also know that GRRM has worked constantly on ADWD since 2005 and had enormous structural and timeline problems with the book and making it all make sense.
But he's done a poor PR job of keeping his readers expectant and happy.
That said, agreed on this. GRRM is not the best at PR and has definitely, during the ADWD years, become inconsistent in his communications. He kept up occasional updates during the writing of AFFC (two or three big updates about the book per year) that seemed to keep the readers much happier. During the writing of ADWD he's gone very long periods without talking about the book at all, giving the impression, however false, that the book has not been a high priority. This isn't helped by some fans moaning about him talking about the book and demanding that he shuts up about it until it's finished, and others demanding the precise opposite.
Frankly, I think GRRM made a mistake in enabling comments on his LJ, as ever since then his communication over ADWD has become somewhat coloured by the responses on there.
Also, I think if by the end of next year, Martin is still not close to delivering the book, the series is indeed going to derail. If inspiration on how to move the series forward doesn't strike him in five years, then I doubt anything he comes up with after that will be able to match the genius of the first three books.
Possibly. Although, as has been said many times before, many other books have taken longer than five years to write (including A GAME OF THRONES - sort of - and THE EYE OF THE WORLD for that matter) and turned out well, whilst other books have taken six months to write and turned out utter crap (see Raymond E. Feist's recent work). There is no magic formula or easy correlation here, which I think is adding to the frustration.
I was 21 when A Feast for Crows came out
- 10/12/2009 04:04:55 AM
1130 Views
And The Eye of the World was published before I was born. Quit complaining. 
*NM*
- 10/12/2009 04:18:20 AM
395 Views
*NM*
- 10/12/2009 04:18:20 AM
395 Views
If he decides today that he doesn't want to write another book in his life, then he has every right
- 10/12/2009 05:35:43 AM
978 Views
We've all heard Neil "You think he's God" Gaiman's stupid thoughts. Many of us disagree. *NM*
- 10/12/2009 03:55:17 PM
329 Views
Also, most of the fans complain more because we hear more about stupid knight figurines
- 11/12/2009 07:52:57 PM
840 Views
I agree completely.
- 11/12/2009 10:53:48 PM
785 Views
What was he making his money from before 2007?
- 15/12/2009 06:51:28 PM
832 Views
I wish Martin was still 21. Maybe he'd live to finish the series.
- 16/12/2009 04:44:27 AM
738 Views
Re: I wish Martin was still 21. Maybe he'd live to finish the series.
- 16/12/2009 04:45:09 AM
760 Views
Indeed, and you have a right to do so. But not everyone has seen them, and I still agree with him. *NM*
- 12/12/2009 06:58:14 PM
315 Views
*NM*
And I will be 100000000004 years old when ADWD makes it to the printing press. *NM*
- 10/12/2009 11:05:44 AM
295 Views
I was 21 when ASoS came out.
- 11/12/2009 08:24:52 PM
795 Views
Of course, two books followed that one in the Wheel of Time.
- 13/12/2009 04:53:17 AM
764 Views
That's not what I meant.
- 13/12/2009 05:37:07 AM
732 Views
It just seems a particularly bizarre comparison as several books have been published since then.
- 13/12/2009 06:55:16 AM
713 Views
- 13/12/2009 06:55:16 AM
713 Views
But only one of them was any good. This leads into a core argument over writing speeds.
- 13/12/2009 06:55:59 PM
665 Views
It also hinges on the fact that his upcoming book will be fantastic.
- 13/12/2009 07:50:57 PM
783 Views
No, it doesn't. That will either justify or further condemn the wait.
- 13/12/2009 08:52:35 PM
765 Views
Poor choice of comparison...
- 13/12/2009 08:20:14 AM
825 Views
That's a very coloured view.
- 13/12/2009 06:47:16 PM
847 Views
I was 13 when Gene Wolfe's Soldier of the Mist came out
- 14/12/2009 02:32:45 AM
816 Views
You'd kill for some Latro action figures though, would't you? 
*NM*
- 14/12/2009 05:30:46 PM
283 Views
*NM*
- 14/12/2009 05:30:46 PM
283 Views
*NM*
If Martin was 21, maybe he'd have enough time to finish the series. *NM*
- 16/12/2009 04:46:32 AM
308 Views