A Song of Ice and Fire (Released Spoilers)

[Nebuchadnezzar]

Originally Posted by Khorum

Wouldn't it be fucking awesome if that Bioware MMORPG turned out to be A Song of Ice and Fire?!?!

Nope. aSoIaF just isn't MMO material to me. Total War game now...

[Khorum]

Originally Posted by Nebuchadnezzar

Nope. aSoIaF just isn't MMO material to me. Total War game now...

I'd be all over a MTW2 ASoIAF mod. The design would have to shift a LOT of emphasis over to the characters and their influence over the army and economic performance though. Nothing drastic, but there has to be a quick way to eyeball that it's Tyrion's army of savages versus Loras' knights etc.

The MTW2 engine already has the character and agent systems to do it right, there would just need to be a more 'fleshed out' character system.

If there was a way to change the campaign map models, just switching the textures and the look of the campaign map characters so that seeing Tywin leading his stack with a specific model versus Stannis and Tyrion's campaign model would lend that immersiveness.

I know this is possible actually... I think one of the Middle Earth modders are trying something like it for their RTW mod, but only replacing spy/assassin/diplomat models.

[Jadaki]

Looks like early 07 at best according to his website. I wish Martin would lay off these little side projects and stick to the bread and butter franchise.

[Nebuchadnezzar]

Originally Posted by Jadaki

Looks like early 07 at best according to his website. I wish Martin would lay off these little side projects and stick to the bread and butter franchise.

Very much so. This is exactly what happened with Jordan. CCG, RPG, video games, world of books, and other junk should wait until the series is done.

[Jadaki]

Originally Posted by Nebuchadnezzar

Very much so. This is exactly what happened with Jordan. CCG, RPG, video games, world of books, and other junk should wait until the series is done.

I'm talking more about his involvement with Wild Cards and other book series. Not so much the side ASoI&F stuff.

[Khorum]

To be fair, the wildcards stuff were contractual obligations from the 80's that he'd been holding off lol. I feel the same way about the pace he's going with the books... and honestly I WISH I'd never learned about his blog and had kept on imagining this old dwarven-king-looking dude writing up new books in the two years between each volume.

Soon as I read the blog and learned that he spends most his days shopping for new homes, partying at cons and writing multiple parallel projects, I got pretty impatient heh.

I DO, however, wish he'd keep working on the Dunk and Egg novel he'd been promising for a while. I can't stress how cool the novellas were

[Havelock]

Originally Posted by Teger

It's pretty confirmed that it is the horn though, the reason it wasn't blown is becuase sounding it collapses the wall, and Mance didn't want to leave the North unprotected, since his 'plan' was to use his army to garrision the wall and stop the Others, IIRC.

Betcha a quarter that's not the right horn.

Why would Sam hold onto a random beat-up old horn that was found with the cache of obsidian? Because Martin can't let him get rid of it.

[Havelock]

Originally Posted by Khorum

The Others, which hadn't been sighted in centuries, reappeared in the prologue at the beginning of the series. The Others are obviously magical, mythical creatures that even men of the Nightwatch had some difficulty believing until they confronted them. The return of the Others, and the long winter that's coming (along with the return of magic and several associated prophecies) seems to be the central sweeping arc of ASoIAF.

Yes, even the red priests of Braavos mention that their magic is returning. Yes, the return of the dragons is repeatedly hinted at as the source of resurgent magic, but the dragons came from inert fossilized eggs that were brought to life BY magic, and NOT by a trained magic user either (Dany pretty much just winged it). Before the dragons had been hatched, The Others had turned a clan of wildlings and a couple Night Watch into zombies, Drogo had been murdered by sorcery, various Starks were manifesting as changelings, and magic had turned some decorative dragon fossils into living eggs, literally an chicken-or-egg paradox in itself.

Martin has made the dragons the OBVIOUS source of magic, which is a red flag in this series, where anything obvious usually ends up on a pike and dipped in tar. The early chapter previews of ADwD even hint that the three dragons themselves aren't safe. A Song of Ice and Fire -> A Dance with Dragons These are transcripts by GRRM's readings from the next book.. the Daenerys chapter hints at one of the dragons' fate.

Here's one thing I'm wondering about the Others: did Mance begin searching for the Horn because the Others were raising a fuss, or did he start looking for the Horn because he wanted to head south? If it's the latter, his searching all the graves could have been what triggered the resurgence of the Others.

[Faille]

Just reading through Feast atm and not really enjoying it anywhere close to how much I enjoyed the first 3. Not sure what it is, wether it doesn't have any of my favourite chars, with the exception of arya, or if nothing much really happens, in comparison to the other books. It's depressing to think how long we might have to wait for the series to be concluded.


ps, a Total War version would own, especially if it was more then just westeros, ie unsullied, dothraki, etc.

[Braen]

Originally Posted by Faille

Not sure what it is, wether it doesn't have any of my favourite chars, with the exception of arya, or if nothing much really happens, in comparison to the other books.

The biggest problem with Feast... No Tyrion Lannister. Period.

[Khorum]

My biggest gripe about AFFC was the Greyjoys. I can't fucking STAND the greyjoys. That they'll may have something to do with Dany eventually kinda pisses me off.

That and only a couple 'teaser' Arya chapters.

[Hateyou]

Yeah book 4 was pretty boring. Hopefully book 5 picks it up again, I'd be bummed that such a good series took a dive, like Wheel of Time. If the Malazan series gets dull (It shows no sign of it) I am gona lose faith in all epic fantasy series.

Even with book 4 being so boring, ASoIaF is still the second best series I've ever read, behind Malazan.

[Faille]

Originally Posted by Khorum

My biggest gripe about AFFC was the Greyjoys. I can't fucking STAND the greyjoys. That they'll may have something to do with Dany eventually kinda pisses me off.

That and only a couple 'teaser' Arya chapters.

I like Asha, she owns. Especially the scene where Theon returns home.

[Havelock]

Originally Posted by Faille

Just reading through Feast atm and not really enjoying it anywhere close to how much I enjoyed the first 3. Not sure what it is, wether it doesn't have any of my favourite chars, with the exception of arya, or if nothing much really happens, in comparison to the other books. It's depressing to think how long we might have to wait for the series to be concluded.

I'm rereading the series (read it for the first time last year) and am enjoying AFfC a lot more this time through. Part of that is probably expectations - rather than lamenting the absence of Jon and Tyrion, I'm soaking up the details and focusing on the subtleties. Not much big happens, but Martin is so big on foreshadowing and dropping little bits of the past here and there, there are lots of snippets over which to puzzle.

[Jadaki]

Originally Posted by Havelock

I'm rereading the series (read it for the first time last year) and am enjoying AFfC a lot more this time through. Part of that is probably expectations - rather than lamenting the absence of Jon and Tyrion, I'm soaking up the details and focusing on the subtleties. Not much big happens, but Martin is so big on foreshadowing and dropping little bits of the past here and there, there are lots of snippets over which to puzzle.

This is true. On the first read I was disappointed how most of my favorite characters were not involved in this book outside of a few references here and there. But I thought the cliffhanger at the end with Cersei was great. With ADWD covering all my favorite characters and hopefully following up a little bit on AFFC I can't wait.