The Update for George R. R. Martin and A Feast for Crows

My #1 Anticipated Book is George Martin's A Feast For Crows, book 4 in his incredible fantasy series A Song of Ice and Fire. The first three books are some of the best fantasy novels ever written and the series as a whole is shaping up to be the absolute best (assuming quality holds up and Martin can finish it). The release date has been announced by Amazon (they made it up) and pushed back. The bottom line is that Martin is not finished with the book and until then, any release date is pure conjecture and probably wrong. I'd rather wait for Martin to be happy with the book and for it to be as good as it can be, but i'm impatient.

Periodically on his website, George Martin posts an update on his progress (as well as sample chapters, which is nice). There is a new update on his website, dated November 3, 2004. All of the following text is written by George Martin and is found on his website which is linked above. There is a banner in black which says "Mourning for America".

I write this the day after the presidential election.

A FEAST FOR CROWS is still not finished. Yes, I have written some more pages since the June update. No, the book is not yet done. My August and September schedule was full of conventions, travel, and speaking appearances, which cut deeply into my writing time during those months. Yes, I could have made more progress on the book if I had stayed at home chained to the desk, but I make these commitments years in advance and I take them very seriously.

Also, some of the writing that I have done since June has actually been rewriting. My goal, as I have said repeatedly in these updates, has always been to produce a book that is a good as it can be, so when I suddenly realize that one of my story threads can be made much more powerful and dramatic with some restructuring, I restructure... even if that means going back, tearing up finished chapters, and reworking them from start to finish.

That's done, anyway. A FEAST FOR CROWS will be much better for it, and now I am back at work on new chapters once again... although not today, and maybe not tomorrow, or next week. I am pretty good with words, usually, but no words can express how miserable, angry, and depressed I am feeling this morning over the results of yesterday's election. The exit polling makes it clear: this was a victory for bigotry and fear, a mandate bought with lies. I know from past experience that it is going to take me some time to shake off this depression.

Losing myself in the world of Westeros would probably be the best medicine for what ails me just now, I know full well. There is solace in work, and books -- my own books, and those of others -- have always been a refuge for me during dark times in my life. Today, however, the {fictional} travails of my {fictional} Seven Kingdoms seem pretty unimportant compared to the very real woes that the United States is facing, a future of war and isolation abroad, and division and repression at home.

Winter is coming to Westeros, but it has already come to America.


—George R.R. Martin, November 3, 2004

Source: George R. R. Martin at http://www.georgerrmartin.com/