A Song of Ice and Fire - Page 12

A Dance With Dragons will be published on July 12. The manuscript is huge — the publisher estimates the hardcover edition will run more than 900 pages, putting it about the same length as the longest book in the series, A Storm of Swords. Schedule your summer vacation accordingly.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: What took so long?

GEORGE R. R. MARTIN: I’m not sure I have a good answer. If I did, I would have taken less time. It’s enormous. It’s as long as A Storm of Swords. It’s very complicated. I have a lot of characters and points of view. And I’ve been doing a ton of rewriting, trying to get it where I wanted it to be. Some of these chapters I’ve rewritten more times than I can count before I’m satisfied with them.
Can you tease something from the book?

I don’t want to spoil any surprises. I can say all the characters people have been waiting for are there: Daenerys, Jon Snow, and Tyrion. There’s also new characters, and viewpoints from characters who did not have viewpoints before.

For more of Martin’s interview — where he compares Dragons to the previous four books, and weighs in on the HBO adaptation — pick up this week’s print edition of Entertainment Weekly.

On December 02 2006 09:53 LordofAscension wrote:
Awesome books. I don't know - the depth of the characters that he actually keeps alive are really awesome - but really there are only like 2 or 3 characters you should get attached too. The writing style isn't "great" compared to Eddings or Lawhead but the books are a pretty good Fantasy read. They are long and sometimes disjointed but they will keep you entertained.

~LoA