Daily Dose of Awesome: Finish the Book, George

I haven't read George R.R. Martin's highly regarded A Song of Ice and Fire novels yet, though I do have all 5 books on my Kindle.

This series, and author in particular, have become notorious for schedule slips.  The first few books came out in two year increments (1996, 98, and 2000 respectively). Book 4 came out in 2005 and book 5, called A Dance with Dragons, came out in 2011.

In my random internet searchings, I came across a blog called "Finish the book, George" that basically takes potshots at the author for taking so long on the series and "wasting time" with other things such as editing or watching football.

The two primary contributors go by the name of "Pesci" and "Liotta" inspired by the two Hollywood actors, Joe Pesci and Ray Liotta (even using photos of the respective actors as their avatars).  They seem to go back and forth from writing "in character" to talking as their true selves, which is a tad bizarre, but nothing to really raise a stink over.

They have come to represent a portion of ASoIaF's fan base that has become fed up with the delays.  Now, as I said before, I haven't read the books and have only recently picked them up.  As such, I'm really in no position to complain about having to wait, so I won't.

I will say, however, that reading the archive is a riot.  The two are quite snarky and, God help me, I love me some good snark.  You would think that the constant shots at Martin's weight and diet would either A) become repetitive and boring or B) cross a line where it just becomes mean; they somehow manage to avoid both of those circumstances.  Maybe I'm just juvenile (maybe?), but the image of the author rummaging through his beard looking for food amuses me to no end.

Some of the posts go into analysis of the books themselves, which is fine, but I did tend to avoid those because I had no real clue what they were talking about.  This had the added bonus of helping me avoid potential spoilers.

If you have been following the series from the beginning, I imagine you will get a laugh out of this particular blog.  It also says something that I was able to jump into it, essentially blind, and still get a kick out of what the two were saying.

You might also get a kick out of scrolling through the comments, which contain an even split between people who agree that Martin is slacking and needs to hurry up, and fans who are willing to wait and defend Martin's work ethic.  You'd think something like this would act as troll-bait, but the discussions do tend to be pretty tactful for the most part.

You can find the blog here.


It should be noted that since the release of "A Dance with Dragons", the blog has more or less been retired.  They tried to adapt their tagline and MO for the next Ice and Fire book, but it didn't really take.  Still, the archives are a hoot, so you may still get some enjoyment out of scrolling through the back log.