Long Live King George

If you’re a fan of TV, you probably keep an eye on the doings happening over at HBO. One particular item of note is their new series A Game of Thrones, which will debut in 2011. Some of you that caught the season premiere of True Blood might have seen the teaser trailer for the series, and if you haven’t, here it is.

Now, since that trailer doesn’t tell you a lot about it, here’s a brief synopsis: A Game of Thrones, written by George R. R. Martin (“the American Tolkien”) takes place in a world that is kind of like medieval Europe, but where seasons go on for years at a time. There are not a lot of magic or supernatural creatures – but there used to be. The story revolves around several points of view narratives, most of which belong to the Starks, who rule the land of Winterfell (the patriarch of which is an Eddard “Ned” Stark, to be portrayed in the series by Sean Bean). After a cryptic invitation from the king of the seven kingdoms, Stark and most of his family relocate to the sinister capital city of their world, King's Landing. Once arriving, Stark finds himself in the middle of a mystery that has repercussions for the entire kingdom. A Game of Thrones has some battles in it, but more importantly, it closely examines politics of a medieval society; those of monarchy, religion, family and military. It is gritty, it is ruthless, and it is a lot of fun to read.

The HBO series will probably be great (as everything they touch turns to gold), and, as I understand it, the idea is to encompass an entire book of Martin’s series in a season. So here’s the problem; there’s only four books published out of seven, and we’re in year five of waiting on the next one. Originally, Martin was publishing them at about the rate of one a year, but book four took a staggering four/five years to come out, and as mentioned, it’s been five years so far for a Dance with Dragons.

Now, yes, this is kind of whining, but let me try to give you an explanation of why book five is highly anticipated – Over the course of the books, many different characters are introduced. When book four was in the works it was so damned long that Martin had to split it into two volumes. Book five is the second half of that volume, and follows many of the characters that are most appealing. In fact, of all the characters left alive (oops, spoiler alert – characters die!), most of the main protagonists from the first book are the ones followed in the fifth. This had the combined effect of making the fourth book somewhat less interesting than the other three, and making anticipation for the fifth book all the more deep and rich.

Having trouble following that? I did say ‘book’ a lot. Let’s try it another way;

Let’s say Ghostbusters 2 was inexplicably delayed way longer than you thought, and it was announced that the second movie was to be split into two further movies. Then, when you and your friends went to watch the second movie, it turned out that only Winston (Who would be in Detroit, looking into franchise options for Ghostbusters HQ), Louis Tully (bumbling around, and trying to make amends for his disastrous client party from the first picture) and Janine (with scene after scene of her descending into madness, alone in the firehouse, ala Polanski’s Repulsion) were in it. No Peter, no Egon, no Ray. The notion would be that Ghostbusters 3 would follow the main three from the first movie, but… it might take forever.

Kind of bullshit, isn’t it?

To make matters worse, Ol’ George is… well… old. Fantasy writers have been known to die from old age. Robert Jordan perished before he could complete his epic saga, and fans of Martin’s have begun to express the same concern. In the most recent publicized interview with Martin on the subject, he claimed to be disturbed by his fans being worried about this (which, I’ll admit, is kind of macabre, but when Martin posts on his blog more often about his love of watching NFL football, and eating excessively than he does about his current book, health-conscious North America cannot help but worry).

No one can force Mr. Martin to finish his book, of course, but I’m pretty sure that being hounded by your fans about it is the price of fame. I, as an amateur writer – who has almost never been able to finish anything timely – can sympathize with his difficulties. But, on the other hand, George, if you are finding the weight of an angry internet following too much to handle, how in the hell are you going to sit down with HBO executives several years from now, the fourth season of your show airing to much accolades, only to tell them ‘err… yeah… it’s almost ready! Another four months, and I might be finished!’? They are going to make a few surly nerds, sitting in their underwear, probably in their basements, bitching and whining seem like a heavenly chorus of angels. In the previously mentioned article, George also mentioned that he no longer gives himself deadlines, but he has in essence given himself a long-term deadline for his next three books. At his current rate of publication, he has little to no hope in hell towards getting the final book ready before HBO is ready to begin production on the series surrounding it.

So, yes, add me to the list of misanthropes that demand satisfaction. Preferably before the end of this calendar year, but, given that this series is my literary heroin of choice these days, I will take it whenever I can get it.