It Kind of Sounds Like George R.R. Martin Hated The ‘Game of Thrones’ TV Adaptation
George R.R. Martin has been writing A Song of Ice and Fire since the 1990s. In fact, the first book, A Game of Thrones, was released almost exactly 23 years ago, and the wait between books has been getting longer ever since. Of course, while the series was popular as far as sci-fi/fantasy novel series go, it was nothing compared to the audience brought in by HBO’s adaptation, though it remains to be seen how many people will stick around to see how the books go after that ending.
Martin is kind of a man after my own heart, because he can’t finish a project without starting and maybe finishing four others. Which is why the 70-year-old author hasn’t put out a main-series A Song of Ice and Fire novel in eight years, but in that time he’s written two full novels and two novellas about Daenerys Targaryen’s ancestors.
In a recent interview with The Guardian, Martin refrained from slagging off the show outright, but he didn’t sound super pleased with it, either.
As it turns out, the genial Martin touches on aspects of all three subjects, although, clearly wary of generating negative headlines, he bats away a question about whether he’d watched the show’s final episode with a firm: “We shouldn’t talk about that.”
He agrees, however, that the end of the series has relieved a great deal of pressure. “There were a couple of years where, if I could have finished the book, I could have stayed ahead of the show for another couple of years, and the stress was enormous,” he says. “I don’t think it was very good for me, because the very thing that should have speeded me up actually slowed me down. Every day I sat down to write and even if I had a good day – and a good day for me is three or four pages – I’d feel terrible because I’d be thinking: ‘My God, I have to finish the book. I’ve only written four pages when I should have written 40.’ But having the show finish is freeing, because I’m at my own pace now. I have good days and I have bad days and the stress is far less, although it’s still there… I’m sure that when I finish A Dream of Spring you’ll have to tether me to the Earth.”
Just reading between the lines here, if he had liked the finale, he probably would have said “I thought they did a really good job.” I don’t want to put words into his mouth, but “We shouldn’t talk about that” is basically saying “Those clowns couldn’t write their own names if I didn’t put them in a book for them beforehand.”
