George R. R. Martin has written more than 1,100 pages in A Dance with Dragons, the long-awaited next book in his A Song of Ice and Fire Series.

He had previously hit 1,000 pages in late July, according to his editor, when it was expected the book would be ready for editing by October of November this year. Martin wrote on his blog this week:

“Finished a Jon Snow chapter, and have just passed the 1100 page (manuscript pages, the page count in the final printed book will be different) mark on A DANCE WITH DRAGONS. That’s counting only finished chapters in something close to final form. I have considerably more in partials, fragments, and roughs.

Even with just the finished portions, DANCE is now longer than A FEAST FOR CROWS and A GAME OF THRONES, and I’m closing in on A CLASH OF KINGS. I do hope I can wrap things up before I approach the 1521 page length of A STORM OF SWORDS.”

It is common for fans of the series, one of the major fantasy works currently ongoing, to complain about the length of time taken by Martin to write each new book. Although the first three in the series were published after intervals of about two years each, according to Wikipedia, the fourth book took a little longer; A Feast for Crows came out in 2005 after a five-year writing stint by Martin.

Note: If you haven’t read our satirical letter to Joe Abercrombie accusing him of being a “pansy boy”, you can find it here.

Joe Abercrombie‘s new stand-alone novel Best Served Cold is a light-on-magic and heavy-on-swords blood-soaked revenge quest that will highly satisfy fantasy fans with a black sense of humour and a taste for gritty and violent prose.

The book’s clever pacing, frequent plot twists and likeable (or hilariously despicable) characters will leave many readers unable to put it down. It’s especially recommended to George R. R. Martin fans, who will find the cruel hoops that Abercrombie’s characters are forced through, and the chapter by chapter pacing, reminiscent of the fantasy master’s epic A Song of Ice and Fire.

Set in the world of Abercrombie’s previous The First Law Trilogy, and with links here and there to it, Best Served Cold can nevertheless be read as a pure stand-alone novel.

There are two lead characters in Best Served Cold, although at various times the reader follows the viewpoint of a minor lead. The first, Monzcarro Murcatto, is one of those rare beasts; a female mercenary, and a good one. Along with her brother, General Murcatto has risen to the top of the mercenary world; she leads the Thousand Swords and has led the mercenary band’s employer, Grand Duke Orso of Talins, to the brink of taking over most of the country the book is set in, Styria.

Styria is a country not unlike Machiavelli’s 15th and 16th century Italy, dominated by warring city-states. Plagued by several decades of conflict, everyone has their price in Styria, and there’s plenty of buying and selling going on. In this bloody world Murcatto is a master of making war for profit — sometimes at the expense of her friends and mentors.

Then one day, the reign of ‘the Snake of Talins’ over Styria’s battlefields comes to an end as she is betrayed in the most cruel fashion by her employers. Broken, left for dead and thrown down a mountain into a pile of trash … it’s the perfect set-up for Murcatto to spend the rest of the book’s 534 pages getting a little of her own back … in style.

Enter Caul Shivers, a warrior from the northern climes. Down on his luck in Styria, Shivers is nevertheless a fighter of honour, trying to be a better man after his crimes of the past. Sadly enough, Murcatto recruits him to assist with her vengeance.

The Northlander initially makes a perfect foil for Murcatto, as we view her revenge quest — and the rogue’s gallery of character she recruits to pursue it — through his more rational eyes. But of course Abercrombie is not naïive, and neither Murcatto or Shivers are one dimensional characters. Revenge is often not as simple as it seems just after we’ve been betrayed, and so the plot and characters of Best Served Cold are not that simple either. Murcatto is not black, and Shivers is not her white opposite.

Best Served Cold is a novel of the grey areas of morality.

One of the best things about Best Served Cold is the pacing. Like GRRM, Abercrombie often throws the reader a curveball at the end of his chapters, using a small plot twist and repetitive phrasing to create irony after reading the earlier portion of the chapter.

Bigger curveballs come at the end of each major, labelled, sub-section of the book. At these points characters’ loyalties often change, and major plot twists are revealed that drive character development and reveal character history.

Because of this structure, the whole book works very well as a stand-alone novel. Just as you’re getting tired of the character and plot setup that Abercrombie has devised, it changes, generally in a most unexpected way (although there are clues, and I successfully predicted several twists). Just as you’ve been sucked into believing you can predict what is going to happen next, you’ll likely get sucked-punched by this extremely intelligent author.

In many ways, the decision to pursue Best Served Cold as a stand-alone novel rather than the series it could easily have been was a very smart one for Abercrombie, although it also has its disadvantages. The author’s previous work was split into three in The First Law trilogy.

The advantage to this approach, and Abercrombie’s stand-alone format, is that it allows him to reel in the reader quicker and provide them with a heightened level of entertainment that doesn’t get stale easily. Best Served Cold is chock-full of action, like a good heist movie.

It also means the reader is not left hanging at the end of the book, waiting for a sequel that could be years away. Best Served Cold gives readers more of what they want, quicker.

However it also means Abercrombie is forced to eschew the sort of deep, underlying plot arcs that are very gradually revealed in series like Janny Wurts’ The Wars of Light and Shadow and Robin Hobb’s Realm of the Elderlings. These are the sort of plot arcs that drive long-term, reader addiction and create a huge fan base.

I’d like to see Abercrombie pursue a much longer series now that he’s been “blooded” in the publishing world with a few hits. Something with deeper, more ineffable characters than are contained in Best Served Cold. In other words, taking a page out of his compatriot Patrick Rothfuss’s The Name of the Wind. But keep all the black humour in — and even intensify it.

Ultimately, Best Served Cold is not a masterwork. By the end of the book, the potential of its characters for further development has more or less been played out, and at times they can be a little transparent. However, the book represents one of the best stand-alone fantasy novels to have been released over the past several years, and leads us to believe Abercrombie has that masterwork in him that will arrive some day soon.

Joe Abercrombie

Note: this article should be considered a feeble attempt at humour. We hope you read it in the spirit in which it was intended.

Dear Joe,

I’m only halfway through through your newest masterpiece, Best Served Cold, and I already know you consider yourself a badass in the best tradition of Clint Eastwood and Sylvester Stallone.

What do I mean? Come on, man. The first thing that tipped me off to your tough guy ambitions was the ‘blue steel’ photo I found on your website (see right) when the publicity circus for Best Served Cold started recently and frenzied fantasy bloggers who got free copies started begging to have your children because of its “gritty, hard-edged style”.

Those burning eyes, tilted towards the right, with half of the face in shadow, like Humphrey Bogart in The Big Sleep, the little half-smile designed to cut through the ladies like a hot knife through butter. And then there’s the manly beard — a required factor for good sci-fi/fantasy writers; it shows the readers your soul is too tortured for you to pay much attention to the little details … like shaving.

You even went so far as to open the neck of your shirt slightly so we could all see how masculine your chest hair is. The whole act reminds me of a young Bruce Willis; before Die Hard took off all the polish.

Then there’s your unorthodox approach to book critics. Not content to rest safely, surrounded by the traditional author code of stoic silence, you use your own site and the power of the internet to take potshots at these poor souls, innocently reviewing your work, sometimes as part of their hard-won paid employment. Crushing their dreams.

I refer you to your post which mentions the gentle Ken, a humble American engineer who put long hours in slaving over a hot Best Served Cold. This is how you rewarded him:

“One might almost be tempted to say something like — “the more-of-same approach of Ken’s reviews entertains, yet becomes tedious at times and unfortunately left me wanting more of that special something that I’m convinced he can give.”"

Harsh words from a man who is undoubtedly one of his heroes.

Then was the poor Jason Henninger from the illustrious Tor.com, who was so shocked by your rebuttal of his review of The First Law trilogy that he was scared to go back:

“Given that, in the author’s view, I completely and utterly misunderstood the ending of The First Law, I’m almost hesitant to make any statements about the ending of Best Served Cold. I mean, if I get it wrong, I might find my coffee poisoned. Or he might just very well fly out to Los Angeles kick me in the fruits.”

But wait; the evidence of your bravado goes on. Your supposed fight with half a dozen hoodlums in real life, where you not only braved your way through being hit with a lump of wood, but then took it off your would-be robber and hit his mate with it … so hard that it broke in half? The fact that you have a whole section of your site devoted to discussing swearing in fantasy?

The fact that a photo recently popped up of you on the internet, wearing a suit, holding a battle axe and grinning devilishly?

But there’s just one problem with all of these efforts. I’m on to you. And I’m one of the few reviewers left who hasn’t published my thoughts on your latest opus.

I’m halfway through Best Served Cold, and yes, it is satisfyingly brutal (although not quite up to GRRM standards; for starters there’s no dwarf and nobody important has been speared while taking a dump), but what do I come across, but a soppy love scene on page 230? This is my impression of it so far.

“Oh Monza, my dear,” whispered the tall, rakishly handsome Shivers, as he glanced back from the window to where his paramour waited, her body artfully arranged on the bed across the tower room, bathed in soft siege-fire light and with her eyes glinting with a hint of the passion yet to come.

He continued, his sorrowful eyes seeking out her own. “I want, I need, my heart cries out to be a good man, to do the right thing, as I’ve been going on about for at least a hundred pages. I just want to love you gently and settle down to be some sort of harmless farmer, away from the cares of the world with you. I can’t bear the guilt of constantly slaying people just to please you, and for money.”

“Oh Shivers,” sighed Monza. “I want that too, more than anything in the world. I want to hold you tightly forever, with your broad, hard shoulders pressed against mine. I want to look up into your eyes and never let you go, except when I have to slay someone.”

“But wait,” he cries. “It can never be. We must needs pursue your vengeance.”

“But wait,” she cries. “Our ultimate fate where you will undoubtedly be torn away from me in some slow-motion scene that will destroy our slowly building feelings for each other is not until page four hundred and something. In the meantime, hold my crippled hand and stroke it, ever so softly.”

What the hell is this, something out of Twilight???

In short, Joe, I believe I have discovered your secret. I know that at heart you are really a softie. You secretly yearn to write “urban fantasy” in the style of Stephanie Meyers and Charlaine Harris, where characters sigh wistfully as they gaze out upon the approaching form of their darkly mysterious loved one.

Hidden beneath the pages of Best Served Cold is a touching romantic tale in the best tradition of Mills and Boon. I know that is the book, in your heart of hearts, you truly want to write. And next time you probably will. Nobody will blame you. We’ll all understand.

With this in mind, Joe, don’t expect me to go easy on you.

I know that my eventual review of Best Served Cold will suffer at your hands and be eviscerated with a series of witty remarks on your blog unless I take drastic action.

So, for self-protection, but also out of the goodness of my heart, I’m going for a pre-emptive strike and do you a favour.

I’m going to expose all of the book’s fallacies in such a way that will free you.

You’ll be so embarassed you will remove all traces of your gritty past from the internet and retire to the south of France, there, in its sun-drenched terraces, finally, free to write the book you want to write. Free to admit that the novel which most influenced your writing was not A Game of Thrones, but in fact, Wuthering Heights.

You pansy.

Kind regards,

Renai LeMay

The next book in George R. R. Martin‘s epic fantasy series A Song of Ice and Fire is almost finished, according to Suvudu blogger and Terry Brooks webmaster Shawn Speakman.

On the Terry Brooks forum, Speakman this week reported comments made by Martin’s editor Anne Groell at the recent Comic-Con conference in the United States to the effect that she expected to get the book by October or November this year. Groell reportedly said she had to answer the same question “over and over and over again”.

Writes Speakman:

“George has indeed passed the 1000 page mark as of last week and those are, to him according to Anne, finished pages that will not be returned to. He also has several hundred more pages of not completed chapters that every week he makes progress on.

Some of those will be in Dance; others will be in the next book. Anne also thinks she’ll be getting the book by October or November, which to her would probably make it a February or March 2010 release, although the progress he is making is quickly happening and she could receive it sooner if those incomplete or mostly complete chapters come together faster. I say don’t get your hopes up.”

Martin has several times stated he hopes to finish the book by September or October this year, although he has missed a previous self-allocated deadline of June.

It is common for fans of the series, one of the major fantasy works currently ongoing, to complain about the length of time taken by Martin to write each new book. Although the first three in the series were published after intervals of about two years each, according to Wikipedia, the fourth booko took a little longer; A Feast for Crows came out in 2005 after a five-year writing stint by Martin.

On his own site, the author offers a defence for not updating fans more often on his progress:

My last formal update on A Dance with Dragons was dated February 15, 2007. If that seems like a long time ago to you, join the queue. It seems like forever and a day to me. When I wrote that update, I was sick of writing updates. So I tried to make that last update the final update, and ended it by saying, “The next update will be the one that announces that the Dance is done.”

…

It is now 2008. I’m still working. There are no short cuts. It’s a chapter at a time, a page at a time, a word at a time. I’m further along than I was, but not as far as I would like. During the last year, I had some good days (and months), some bad days (and months), and some days (and months) that I thought were good that turned out to be bad.

The book is getting longer, and more importantly, the book is getting better. I’ve changed my mind about some of the things I said in earlier updates and on my Live Journal, and I reserve the right to change my mind again, though I am hoping I won’t have to. Believe me, no one wants to finish this book more than me.

Commentary
You can’t blame GRRM for taking his time with A Dance With Dragons. The entire A Song of Ice and Fire series was initially planned to be a trilogy. However, like many fantasy authors before him, as the story grew, so did its scope, and the author’s masterwork has ballooned out into a much bigger tale than he probably initially intended.

It would be criminal to cut that tale short for the sake of pleasing a few impatient fans :)

There’s plenty of precedent in the science fiction and fantasy book world for this sort of expansion. For example, Robert Jordan initially planned The Wheel of Time to be a six book series: a massive epic even at that stage! Now, the series stands at eleven, with the author having passed away and a further three books planned by Brandon Sanderson to finish it off.

Like Jordan during the latter part of The Wheel of Time, Martin appears to be struggling with how to wrap all the threads in his expanding world together so that The Song of Ice and Fire can be satisfactorily concluded. From what we know, there are just three more books planned; A Dance with Dragons (expected in early 2010), The Winds of Winter, and A Dream of Spring.

The optimistic working title of the final book would seem to suggest it will be the final book in the series, although no doubt achieving such a conclusion will prove hard for Martin. As recently as the last published book, A Feast for Crows, Martin was still introducing new characters. Of course, the author is known for killing off characters at need, in his gritty and realistic style, so we shouldn’t be too shocked if enough die off to make resolving the convoluted plot a little easier :)