Daily Archives: Wednesday, July 6, 2011

News

An Aside | A DANCE WITH DRAGONS: Ten ‘burning’ questions answered

By Aidan Moher July 6th, 2011

A DANCE WITH DRAGONS Release Date AnnouncedJames Hibbard, one of the writers at Entertainment Weekly who was lucky enough to get an early copy of A Dance with Dragons by George R.R. Martin, has answered ten ‘burning’ questions about the novel.

Some of the more interesting questions/answers:

Be aware, there are no true spoilers, but some might want to keep their eyes unsullied from all opinion/content. If so, stop reading now. My commentary includes spoilers through A Feast for Crows.

Is Dance better than Book 4?
Definitely. I’d rank the Ice and Fire series: 3>1>5>2>4.

What’s the most awesome thing about Dance?
Your favorite characters are back, and in abundance. Tyrion, Dany and Jon Snow get a lot of chapters, plus one character returns unexpectedly and that story just might be the strongest (and most heartbreaking) in the bunch.

[…]

Are there any new viewpoint characters?
Yes, mainly a prince of Dorne who sets out to win the hand of Dany. Other characters get one or two chapters where we duck into their perspective along the way, but the book mostly focuses on Dany, Tyrion, Jon and that other unexpected character I mentioned.

Are there any huge shocks?
That would be a “Yes.” One scene in particular will haunt you.

Really, all of this should be expected from a GRRM book. Of course there are huge shocks (with the exception, I suppose, of A Feast for Crows, all the novels have been full of shocking events that’ve flipped the series’ plot on its head), and of course there are new viewpoint characters scattered about (every novel in the series has featured new POV characters). The ‘heartbreaking’ viewpoint? Barristan Selmy. It will be interesting to get his take on Dany and her growing determination to gain back the country that was stolen from here. There should be heartbreak galore if he has to watch her grow to become more like her father and less like her eldest brother. Would be interesting, however, if the ‘heartbreaking’ character turned out to be the Hound, Sandor Clegane, who always struck me as one of the most interesting and melancholy characters in the series.

It’s both encouraging and discouraging to see Hibbard rank A Dance with Dragons smack in the middle of the series in terms of quality. We all hoped to see A Storm of Swords surpassed (which was likely presumptuous), but to see it placed above A Clash of Kings (a fine and under-rated addition to the series) is solid praise.

Well, only a few more days before we all get our grubby mitts on A Dance with Dragons and can make up our own mind about where it ranks against the other novels in A Song of Ice and Fire.

Feature Article

Guest Post | ‘On Writing the Second Novel’ by Bradley P. Beaulieu

By Bradley P. Beaulieu July 6th, 2011

The Winds of Khalakovo by Bradley P. BeaulieuI recently published my debut novel, The Winds of Khalakovo. I also recently finished the first draft of the second novel in The Lays of Anuskaya trilogy, so when Aidan brought up the possibility of a guest post, one of the things I immediately thought of was talking a bit about the differences in writing Book 2 vs. Book 1.

I had been wary of writing the second novel in a series for quite some time. That sounds strange, even to my ear, but it’s true. I didn’t used to think this way. When I first starting writing seriously, ten years ago or so, I thought a sequel would be a natural extension of the first book, and in many ways that’s true, but as I grew in my craft and began to go to conventions and get advice about writing a sequel, I grew … not worried, but certainly concerned.

Why? Well, there are a few things going on here.

First of all, you don’t want to be complacent. The Winds of Khalakovo was my first published book. Not my first book, mind you (I have a trunk filled with three others), but the first one I’d published. By the time Night Shade Books accepted Winds for publication, it had been workshopped and critiqued a number of times. It was tight, but it had taken a lot of energy from a lot of people (not just me).
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