My concern isn’t the writing pace (Martin v. Jordan)…it’s the telling of a story that gets away from the writer, years between books, decades between finishing said story/series, mortality (mine and the writer’s), etc.

WHAT. ABOUT. BING.

Jeff…

That’s the kind of info I was looking for, so thanks. I like to read long sagas but only if something unique is going on rather than just standard intrigue. If you have both though, then it’s awesome.

Martin plays this exactly right – not rushing the process, giving out pieces of the puzzle gradually, while the rich tapestry of book slowly expands.

This is the only fantasy series I have ever read where you actually believe the world has a real history. There is a riot of different languages and customs, an accumulation of religions and belief systems and schools of magic. And it actually all slots together seamlessly.

It is not possible to appreciate what Martin has done until maybe after the third book at the earliest.

1) Martin dies.

2) The series is FINISHED (confirmed by publisher AND Martin…if he’s still alive).

I’m NOT going to fall in the the Robert Jordan trap…again.

– A far away planet colonized by humans from Earth in some future time, which for whatever reason suffered a technological collapse and reverted to a medieval sort of society? 

– A distant planet whose peoples at some point actually colonized Earth, but then suffered technological collapse on their home world?

If you are going to pin this down to hard sci-fi why not simply say it is different universe of the infinite universe fame in which magic is real?

Many of the Amazon reviews I’m read call the book in question historical fiction with some thin fantasy elements thrown in to qualify it. Having not read the book I decided to ask the clever posters here if it had more than the occasional large wolf and dragon or is the fantasy as strong an element as say science is in our world.

That’s why I posted.

Meanwhile. I psychically read George’s mind and found out that the last book will be about a mysterious power from the east that challenges all to rename the planet Easteros. It’s going to be epic!

Sorry about the spoilers.

I found the book incredibly rich and exciting all the way through. 

Tolkien should have set Lord of the Rings in the UK and saved himself the effort.

Dune should be set in the Middle East and then we could all ride camels instead of sandworms.

Lets, see what magical elements are in Martin’s novels? Zombies. Fire magic. Dragons. Prophetic visions. Shadows that kill people. Gigantic wolves with a special bond to their owner. People who can enter the mind of animals or other people.

Yeah. You haven’t read the books.

Dislike the idea about Westeros = Earth. It’s like Thundarr the Barbarian stuff.

What I’m writing about is to ask if any other readers have enjoyed, as I have, speculating about the “pre-history” of Westeros, that is, its history so far back that the characters in the novels know nothing of it.  I feel no need to pin any of this down, I just like to imagine the possibilities:

– A very-far-distant-in-time post-apocalyptic (and geologically rearranged) Earth? 

– A far away planet colonized by humans from Earth in some future time, which for whatever reason suffered a technological collapse and reverted to a medieval sort of society? 

– A distant planet whose peoples at some point actually colonized Earth, but then suffered technological collapse on their home world? 

All of these scenarios could result in societies that were other-worldly but still resembled our medieval European milieu.  And any magic in Westeros could surely be explained as remnants of lost advanced technologies, couldn’t it? 

It’s certainly not necessary to believe there’s a connection between Westeros and our world, but it’s kind of neat to imagine what connections might exist.  Or am I the only one who gets carried away over this?