Re: I know he's not writing all the episodes - Edit 1
Before modification by DomA at 18/04/2012 08:45:42 PM
But it's his story, and he's involved heavily in the casting decisions, the plot twists and, from what I understand, script rewrites.
Not as much as you imply (he didn't do casting, he gave his opinion/advice on their casting etc.). Look at the interviews where he talks about the writing of the series and you'll see his role is far more that of a consultant than a full participant. He's not doing the adaptation or taking the decisions. It's always "they decided to do change this, or they decided to cut that or to not use this character" or he'll speak of additions they decided to make that pleased him, or how clever they were at getting across visually some things from the books he had to write dialogue to convey etc. And he speaks of giving them warnings about "butterfly effect" problems so they knew that with some of their choices they'd have problems to solve down the line (They killed a Dothraki who will play a large part in the next book, and they muted a singer who will need his tongue in the next book etc.) - and again it's "they will have to solve that when they get there".
So when you state the series proves Martin a better scriptwriter than novelist and that you wish he'd stick to that, it's rather unfounded. It's how Benioff and Weiss are adapting his work you like.
I bought the Brandon Sanderson Way of Kings book but I'm not even going to start reading until there are at least 3-4 books, and even then I might wait if the structure is more WoT and less Mistborn (i.e., a 3-book arc with a second planned trilogy that "tacks on" but isn't necessary).
I've not even touched it. Sanderson sounds "safe" as he writes fast, but for having spoken with him at a signing about his series, the vagueness of his plans for the mid-series and beyond convinced me not to start it (I might, if by the time he finishes I'm still reading Fantasy). His first volumes are supposed to read more like stand-alones in the same universe than as a real series with a main storyline or main storylines, then he said by mid-series those would really emerge (we'd see the connections from the earlier books, that is) and it would be more like WOT/ASOIAF in structure. He wanted to avoid facing problems like Martin and Jordan and their chronology issues forcing them to meander, but his plans to avoid this sounded more like awareness of the problem when dealing with series so long rather than having a clear solution in mind (quite in the vein of "I'll see when I get there, I'm not sure how I mean to split the story once the storylines will converge"
.But honestly, even the fastest (like Erikson) still can't write fast enough for me. I only found his books enjoyable if I can read them one after the other, as I discovered trying to pick up after stopping for maybe a year at the mid-series. When I saw I'd need a re read to continue and have fun doing so, I then decided to wait until he's finished TCG.
At 20-30 I really didn't mind rereading Dune or LOTR every year, or later WOT that I was rereading with each new volume coming out. At 43 I more and more prefer to keep occasional re reads for more significant books than those I read for entertainment. Aside from changes in tastes, I guess I have a better sense now that the total number of books I'll be able to read won't be infinite.
Of course, most of the authors I now read are dead, so I know there won't be any unpleasant surprises (barring a zombie apocalypse).
Ouch... let's pray that never happens, though it would be thoroughly entertaining to see what a zombie Frank Herbert (who wasn't exactly kind or reserved when he thought someone wronged him) would do to Kevin J. Anderson.