A busy summer, and a deluge of fantasy.

It's been a good while since I've written anything remotely insightful or opinionated due to (ironically enough) moving away to study Journalism at university, so this is my first attempt at giving my atrophied creative muscles a good kicking.

My summer has been spent pursuing fantasy novels in the hopes of finding some inspiration to begin writing my own stories again (What was once an absolutely predominant part of my character has grown somewhat meek, and I fear if I don't get back into gear I'll lose all rights to title myself a writer). This began with an assault on George RR Martin's gargantuan series, A Song of Ice and Fire. Now, I'd heard much and more of this epic before HBO succeeded in condensing the first book into ten gripping episodes of sex, death, and betrayal, but I must admit, even for me, it was daunting. It wasn't the size of the saga that gave me cause to hesitate, rather two uncertainties that lingered in the back of my head as a long time fantasy reader.

Reason number one: Due to an issue between Martin and his publisher regarding the size of the original manuscript, there was a huge delay between the release of A Feast For Crows and A Dance With Dragons - seeing as these two were intended to be pushed as one book. Six years separate the publications, and I have no doubt that ADWD's release was well-timed after the conclusion of the massively successful HBO series. No offense to the author, but I don't know if I can genuinely stay interested in the series long enough to wait potentially another decade for its conclusion - and Martin isn't getting any younger!

Reason number two: Series that stay active for this long seem to start to lose priority in the author's mind - unless of course we're talking about bloated cash cow franchises. Not only that, but one with the expertly crafted multi-thread narrative of A Song of Ice and Fire's will eventually begin to loop around on itself, questions will go unanswered, and the story will begin to drag. After reading the latest instalment I realized that Martin has fallen into this trap, and this was a truly sad realization, as this man is a master of the literary craft, and ASOIAF had the potential to overcome classic literary epics.

I'm not a long time reader of the series, but I love them all the same -  perhaps not with the somewhat creepy passion of people who have been reading it since the beginning, but hell, they've been sat on this particular journey for almost 20 years now, they've earned the right to be a little weird about it. Here's hoping Martin can get things moving again in The Winds of Winter!

-L