Re: A Song of Ice and Fire: the long-awaited Book 4 is nearly here
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I hope he does wrap it up quickly. All the other long-term series have degenerated terribly. Terry Goodkind became boring, and The Wheel of Time became unreadable 3 or 4 books ago.
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Fantasy series are subject to a version of the hold-up problem.
Say an author has a solid 7-book series planned.
He writes 5 books and has a loyal following. Now, he can either write 2 more good books or 4 medium quality books. He sells more books and makes more money doing the latter. Say he writes two more medium quality books. He know has about a book worth of content that he can stick in two medium quality books or 4 shitty books, etc.,etc. The latest Robert Jordan book could be summarized on an index card worth of bullet points.
Terry Goodkind suffers from this effect, but to a lesser degree, because the series' gimmick makes it obvious how shitty his books are becoming. "Richard, you forgot the Wizard's Fourteenth Rule: 'Buy low, sell high'!" doesn't have the same quality as some of the earlier books.
I think Ice and Fire is going that way too, from this development.
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