Apparently the blogosphere is alive with discussion of fan reactions to George R. R. Martin’s rather long writing periods between installments of the A Song of Fire and Ice series. Some folks agree and are either dropping GRRM from their libraries or simply bitching about it; others are defending GRRM and bitching about everyone else.
My opinion on this matter probably won’t make anyone happy. In fact, it might just tick off some folks who read this blog or know me. Now, I haven’t read GRRM, obviously, but I’ve read plenty of other series, some of which have had relatively long wait times. The Harry Potter series took forever to finally be finished, but fortunately for that series, I didn’t start reading all the books until the sixth one was about to be released; my wait was short. But there are other series that weren’t so fortunate to have snatched me up late in the game. What happens to the authors of these series?
I drop them. Now hold on, hear me out. I don’t drop them because they are bad authors/writers, nor because I’m pissed off that I have to wait. I drop them because I just don’t care anymore. I’ve lost interest. I’ve moved on to other things. The thing is, waiting two or three or five years for the next book in a series is too much for me. I’ve stopped reading the Eragon books for this very reason; by the time Brisingr came out, I had lost interest. I like being able to stay connected to a series as it is being written, but those two plus year lulls contribute to my forgetfulness, and unfortunately there are few, if any, series I’m willing to read over and over to gain back the details I’ll need to fully understand what is happening in the new installment. And I read too much as it is (for school, mostly) to dedicate an entire section of my brain to every minute detail of one series.
This, however, does not mean I think we should boycott authors or throw a fit when one takes too long. GRRM likely has damn good reasons for taking a hell of a long time to produce a book. I don’t know. But if you’re so upset with the author that it makes you red in the face, then maybe you should find someone else to read. GRRM doesn’t need the stress from you haggling him ever ten seconds to hurry up with the next book and it’s probably not healthy for someone to get ticked off every minute just because a book hasn’t come out that you want. Give him some slack or drop him and find someone. Don’t email him about it either. That’s just rude.
And that is all. Any thoughts?
