'A Feast for Crows' News

[Jay]

Copy and pasting a post on my board I just put up:

Some news gathered by loyal fans as reported by Westeros.org. I also want to give specific thanks to the user Odie Dragon, and this is info from Martin from this weekend's Convention, and the next days Q & A session.

-1527 manuscript pages done, he has 100 more pages to finish, each in various satges of completiton.

-publishing will be rushed to compesate for time.

-A few chapters of the next book A Dance with Dragons is done.

-Half of the next Dunk and Egg story is completed

-He has confirmed what has been most speculated, Renly and Loras were intended to be gay.

-the series is still planned to be 6 or 7 books long.

-Daenerys gets a lot of time in Feast for Crows

Again thanks for the info from Odiedragon.

 

[Lacedaemonian]

Exciting news!! Renly was gay? I thought that maybe Loras was homosexual but I never considered that Renly was too. All good news anyway, George has been a very busy man.

 

[LadyFel]

I never even speculated about Renly and Loras...they were just so covertly blatant (what a contradiction in terms ) it was unbelievable...And all the stuff about how Maergery is the spitting image of her brother...

 

[Brian G Turner]

Actually, the sexuality element was one bat I never read wielded in ASoFaI - seemed like GRRM had kept from that.

 

[monkeydude]

Very good news. Now I just have to finish A Storm Of Swords...


I always figured Loras was guy, but Renly shocks me. Well, maybe not...

There is the lesbian scene in A Storm of Swords between Dany and her maid.

 

[Frey Slayer]

Stannis pretty much called him out at their meeting....Saying Margaery (sp?) would likely die a maiden in Renly's bed...pretty much said it all!!!

 

[Raven]

I don't get how anyone could think Loras was gay, and yet somehow miss that Renly was his lover. The clues to Loras' sexuality are so closely linked to his relationship with Renly...

 

[Jeroam]

Yeah, the Renly/Loras love affair was hinted at in small parts, but they were there and obvious once you realized that was what was going on. The first big hint was Sansa's chapter when she has lunch with the Tyrells. Loras walks her in and she talks about the tournament, and some friends he lost during the battle. She thinks he's sad about someone else but its all about Renly.

When Jaimie returns to Kings Landing with one hand and runs into Loras who tries to kill Brienne, Jaimie grabs him and says something like "I command here, obey or I'll shove that sword of yours up a place even Renly never found."

The new Cersei sample chapter has a few lines. "Twice wedded and never bedded, they said, but Cersei had her own suspicions. Margaery looked very like her brother, the Knight of Flowers. The queen wondered if they had other things as common. Our little rose has a good many ladies waiting attendance on her, night and day. They were with her now, almost a dozen of them."

There are a few other hints scattered throughout the books, I can't remember all of them, some are more vague than others. The ones I just mentioned are the more overt ones that stick out in my memory.

 

[Brian G Turner]

Okay, I completely missed those clues.

 

[Raven]

Jeroam: well, the first clue is well before that, actually.

Probably the most blatant clue is in ACOK, when Cat advises Renly to pray, and Renly laughs and says 'Stay and help me pray, Loras, it's been so long I've quite forgotten how'. Later, there's anotehr reference to this 'praying' when Loras and Jaime talk.

Just before that, Cat notices how Renly and Loras pay more attention to each other than Renly pays his new bride at the feast. On top of that, Renly gives Loras the van in the battle against Stannis that never happens, which although seemingly a fair decision is a bit of a hint that he favours Loras: and Loras gets, um, rather upset when Renly is killed, perhaps more than can be explained by mere friendship. There are also hints of jealousy between Brienne and Loras, and Loras is referred to as 'Renly's little rose'.

There are more hints that Renly is gay, too - someone (Varys, or LF?) makes a reference to how Renly's servants are practised at being discreet, for example, and there is Stannis' rather out-of-character dig at Renly's wife being likelt to die a maiden. Crude sexual insults are not like Stannis, so he's obviously not referring to Renly's sexual abilities, but his preferences. And then there's the fact that Renly, one of the most eligible bachelors in the Seven Kingdoms, remains unmarried at 21... the hints go on and on.

 

[Jinglehopper]

Ok, enough about the gay issue.

When is the next book coming out? No speculations or theories on that? He's only got 100 pages left to edit!

And can anyone else even fathom 1500 pages? That's freaking huge. What does manuscript pages translate to, does anyone know? Can we expect 1200 book pages from that, or is it more like a 1 to 1?

 

[Young Wolf]

Judging from the point he's at now in the whole publishing process, I'd say between the end of this year and next summer.

 

[red_temple]

It also states that publishing will be "rushed." What does that mean? Are they currently working on the publication, and will finish it off as GRRM trickles in the final pages? Can it work like that?

 

[Brian G Turner]

I believe the official publication date was for this October, so I figure when there's a reference to "rushing" the book, it's to keep as close to this as possible.

 

[LadyFel]

Amazon says July I think...somehow, I doubt it, but it's nice to hope

 

[Raven]

The 'official' line (ie direct from George) is that he hasn't finished the book. Until he has, there is little point in speculating about when it will come out, because something might come up in the last chapter, for example, that requires him to go back and pull apart and redo other chapters as a result. He doesn't think it's likely, but he can't rule it out. And if it happens, well, that's more time.

My best guess is this autumn. Brian is probably correct that the publishers will want to meet (or hopefully beat) the October date.

 

[LadyFel]

Brian is probably correct that the publishers will want to meet (or hopefully beat) the October date.

I'm sure they'd love to, but as you say, it's not going to happen until GRRM is 100% satisfied he's done the best possible job

 

[Young Wolf]

I'm sure they'd love to, but as you say, it's not going to happen until GRRM is 100% satisfied he's done the best possible job

Good point. That's why I'd be surprised to see AFFC released before summer 2006.

 

[Raven]

Young Wolf: based on the latest con reports, not to mention other information I have seen, I'd say that's a very, very pessimistic estimate.