Well, we knew that the long-awaited book in George R. R. Martin’s long-awaited fantasy series A Song of Ice and Fire was ready, but now the author has assured us that the book is *really* ready for its planned launch on the 12 of July this year. Martin writes in a lengthy blog post this week:
“That’s the way it goes with books. You finish, and breathe a sigh of relief … and then you get back to work. There’s always more to be done. Your editor reads it and gives you notes. You make revisions, corrections. A copyeditor goes over the text, finds errors, points out contradictions and inconsistencies, raises queries. You fix some, stet others. Friends and fans gulp down the book, and find mistakes your editors, copyeditors, and proofreaders all missed. You fix those too, as time allows. Then there’s the appendix to prepare. And then the appendix needs to be edited, proofread, corrected… and on and on it goes…
But now even that is behind me. Copyediting, appendix, proofs, corrections, all that stuff. The book tour has been planned (a few details yet to be worked out), the marketing plans are in place… and I can finally say that Kong is not just merely dead, but really most sincerely dead.”
In the blog, Martin also gives a detailed history of the book’s development over the past half-decade since the last in the series, A Feast for Crows, was released in October 2005 (with a few mild spoilers about which characters will be featured in A Dance with Dragons).
To say that the book is highly anticipated is an understatement. With the exception of the conclusion to The Wheel of Time series that is currently being worked on by Brandon Sanderson after original author Robert Jordan’s death, there is likely no book right now that fantasy fans around the world want to read more than A Dance with Dragons ;)
If you enjoyed this article, please consider sharing it!
