For reals.A Dance with Dragons will be published worldwide on 12 July 2011, by Bantam in the United States and by Voyager in the UK. That's about four months from now.
As a bonus, GRRM also unveiled the new American cover for ADWD, to fit in with the new editions of the rest of the series being published later this month. Interestingly, ADWD has variant covers, the gold one above and a silver one (otherwise the same) you can see through the above link.
Martin has also confirmed that A Dance with Dragons is huge, and may exceed A Storm of Swords in size. The hardcover will be over 900 pages in length, and once again the UK mass-market paperback will be in two volumes (the hardcover will still be in one). ASoS was over 420,000 words in length, which means that ADWD is so huge it notably outstrips even recent books like The Way of Kings, The Wise Man's Fear and Steven Erikson's last few books in size.
Good news, obviously!
Interview with GRRM about it here.
And since some have asked for a reposting, here are all the new American ASoIaF covers, which should be hitting the shelves across the USA by the end of the month:
12 comments:
Are the 1st four U.S. hardcover books getting the new cover art as well? Or is that just for paperbacks and/or British editions? I want to rebuy the series in U.S. hardcovers but wonder if I should wait or not, as I'd sorta like them to match ADWD and the new direction.
Anyways...great, great news! Congrats to Mr. Martin!!!
You sure? Way of Kings was a shade over 1,000 pages wasn't it? Since two or three chapters have been on rotation on his blog for about 4 years, in terms of new material, it's bound to be shorter ;)
Good news though. RIP the last update though, that's been part of my life for donkey's years now :D
I think I'm about to pass out!!! I have been slowly reading these books because they are so good and I don't want to rush them and skip any detail. I'm still on the 3rd and read about a character a night. This is great news...thank you so much for this post!!!
I reposted the new US covers for the first four books as well.
Yeah, THE WAY OF KINGS and THE WISE MAN'S FEAR are both at 1,000 pages in hardcover (just short of 400,000 words), but ADWD is notably longer. The difference in page count is down to font size and formatting (ASoS was 420,000 words and 912 pages in hardcover).
900 pages seems a bit short to require splitting the book in two (which will both be charged at full price for paperbacks no doubt). I've read plenty of genre novels that top 1000 pages in a single book.
Isn't this just a way of making more money?
900 pages in hardcover translates to over 1200 in mass-market paperback (this is the case with the American ASoS).
HarperCollins Voyager's printers, for reasons of economies of scale, apparently can't publish 1200-page paperbacks. Pan Macmillan can with Peter F. Hamilton's monstrous novels, Transworld Bantam can with Erikson, but Voyager can't (and neither can Gollancz; THE WAY OF KINGS will be in two volumes in mmpb in the UK and there's a chance THE WISE MAN'S FEAR will be as well).
Frustrating? Yes. But apparently Voyager's printers are adamant they can't print the mmpb in one volume and make it affordable, which is weird as other publishers can.
This is the most awesome news. 2011is shaping up to be a fantastic year for the fans.
Very exciting news. Can't wait. Adam, or anyone, since I have an awful memory, can you recommend anywhere that has really detailed, specific plot synopsis of the first three books? I'd love a refresher on where we stand and everything that has gone on before starting ADWD but I'd prefer not to read the first three books again in their entirety at the moment.
That give me four months to re-read the last book to refresh my tired old memory. - Ian
Hey Wert, love the blog and your posts on sffword and westeros!
Since you seem to be in the know of all things ASOIAF, I was wondering if you could do a primer of sorts for A Dance With Dragons. You know, things we need to remember or brush up on, what's happening?
I think it'd be a great addition to the blog.
Good idea, actually. Though A GAME OF THRONES is going to have a very detailed, 600-minute-long synopsis airing very shortly ;-)
If anyone is looking for a place where they can find useful information to help their memories I'd recommend Tower of the Hand.
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