I haven’t done a Fisking in a while! But to be fair I haven’t infuriated the internet this much in several months. My crime? I dedicated the sixth and final book (which comes out February) of my epic fantasy series to George RR Martin.

The original article will be in italics and my responses will be in bold.
Fantasy author taunts Game of Thrones creator George R.R. Martin in his new book
Story by Dan Selcke
• 23h • 3 min read
Yeah, 3 minutes to read, 10 minutes for me to point out all the bullshit in it.
George R.R. Martin is the author of the A Song of Ice and Fire series, which was adapted for TV as Game of Thrones.
Which made George one of the wealthiest and most famous writers in human history, but we’ll get back to that part.
Only the producers behind Game of Thrones had to finish the story before Martin finished the source material; he released the last book in his series, A Dance With Dragons, way back in 2011. Fans have been waiting for the sixth book, The Winds of Winter, for over a decade at this point.
That’s a nice way of saying that babies who were born when the last book came out are now learning to drive.
And Martin will still have at least one more book to write, A Dream of Spring, after that.
And this will still totally happen, provided he lives to be a hundred and forty years old.
Martin’s exceedingly slow writing pace with Winds has become legendary among fans, with some wondering if he’ll ever finish the book.
“Some wondering” is doing some profoundly heavy lifting in that sentence. As I discovered this week after kicking the GRRM Simp Hornet’s Nest on Twitter, normal readers have all given up on the series ever being finished, and the only people who hold out hope have cartoon avatars, their entire personality is based on a TV show, and their screen name is Daemon Tagyaren Daenerys Uterus or something like that.
Fantasy author Larry Correia — who is publishing the sixth and final book in his own epic fantasy series, Saga of the Forgotten Warrior, in February — has noticed.
Well, it is kind of hard not to notice after watching George’s lazy hubris burn a significant part of the epic fantasy market so badly that those customers have given up trying new series until they are done. Thus fucking over an entire generation of new authors, because if nobody will try their first books, they can’t afford to finish the series. Guys like George are fine. He’s got his. Guys like me were fine because we were already established, but don’t kid yourself, George (and a few notable others) fucked over a whole bunch of careers.
I go into detail about that in this link. It is a real fucking problem. If you want to know the real reason I dunk on George, it is this here-
He’s included a dig at Martin on the dedication page of his new book, Heart of the Mountain. “To George R.R. Martin,” Correia writes. “See? It’s not that hard.”
Is this a playful jab or a petty insult?
Trolling, mostly.
It’s probably closer to the latter, seeing as how Martin and Correia have locked horns before.
And now we get into the biased bullshit section of the article. Because of the Brandolini Principle it is going to take me an order of magnitude more effort to refute their bullshit than it took this writer to create it.
Their last public clash involves the Hugo Awards, which are handed out every year to honor the best in science fiction and fantasy fiction.
That’s the problem right there, they’d stopped being about “honoring the best”. I’m the guy who made it public that those awards were really about politically like-minded assholes giving awards to their connected buddies, while excluding every author who wasn’t part of their clique. (and best part, as we shall see, George RR Martin ADMITTED I WAS RIGHT)
Martin has been attending the Hugos since the 1970s, while Correia got involved in the 2010s.
George was nominated for the Campbell Award for best new writer around when I was born. I was nominated for the exact same Campbell Award for best new writer thirty something years later, which was when I saw that entire system was rigged bullshit catering to the tastes of angsty old hippies who had a complete fucking come apart when George Bush got elected.
To make a very long story short,
I like how this totally unbiased reporter links to Wired for a political topic. Never change, progs. Never change.
Correia was involved with a faction of Hugo voters called the Sad Puppies, who thought that too many awards were going to authors who wrote about social issues.
“Social issues” is code for lefty message fiction written by proper Manhattan approved authors. You know, the usual Dying Polar Bears, Everybody Rapes a Robot, bossy preachy claptrap which chased most normal readers out of reading sci-fi.
They conspired to manipulate the voting process and push the authors didn’t like off the ballots.
Ha! By “conspired” they mean I—in public—put up a bunch of blog posts (with a cartoon manatee as my spokesman) to get conservative and libertarian fans involved, and by “manipulate” they mean I did the exact same thing proper approved liberal authors had been doing forever and asked my fans to go vote. And by push them off the ballots, that means we got on and they didn’t, because more of my fans voted than theirs did. HOW NEFARIOUS. DEMOCRACY IS THREATENED! Someone call Liz Cheney!
A smaller faction known as the Rabid Puppies did much the same thing, only with a lot more overt racism, homophobia and sexism.
The difference was my people (SP) didn’t want to destroy it, we just wanted a fair shake at these awards that were claiming to be about picking “the best” (we called ourselves the Sad Puppies, because it was a joke on the whole Sarah McLachlan commercial for animal shelters that showed sad dogs in the rain while singing In The Arms of an Angel, and how boring liberal message fic was the leading cause of puppy related sadness).
The Rabids came along the next year after the Hugo libs treated those conservative fans I brought in like shit and told us our kind weren’t welcome. We (SP) tried to save the awards. They (RP) said fuck it, it deserves to burn down. Asshole reporters have loved confusing the two on purpose ever since.
Also, that whole racism/homophobia/sexism angle was utter fucking bullshit the WorldCon libs launched at Sad Puppies as soon as my people got on the ballot. Bigotry had fuck all to do with what I did. We were just trying to get a bunch of good writers who normally got shunned a chance.
How much is that whole racism/sexism thing a blatant fucking lie? The year before I got involved the winners were 14 white liberals and 1 Asian liberal and these vapid fucks hailed that as “a huge win for diversity”. Then I got outsiders on the ballot, they freaked out and there was an organized news blitz about how I was a racist hate monger trying to keep women and minorities out of publishing. (By nominating a bunch of women and minorities for an award? Huh?)
For example check this Entertainment Weekly article out, including the best fucking retraction ever (which I got after I lawyered up and said I was going to sue them for defamation)
https://ew.com/article/2015/04/06/hugo-award-nominations-sad-puppies/
That’s right. It turns out that my nominees were actually far more diverse than usual. Racially, sexually, religiously, and most of all politically (GASP!). I even got surprised a few of them were gay because I never asked. I didn’t give a shit what boxes anybody checked, I was just nominating good writers and editors who’d always previously been shunned because they didn’t sit at the high school mean girls table.
This scam where libs accuse everybody who disagrees with them of racism/sexism until we go away was relatively new and exciting back then. Sad Puppies was an early battle in the culture war, but now everybody has caught on to their grift. We hit Peak Woke a couple years back, America said no more, and election day put that casket in the ground. Nobody believes these dorks anymore.
It was a strange scandal that resulted in a lot of the big Hugo Awards going to “No Winnter” in 2015.
No WinnTer? Nice job, professional media outlet MSN. What actually happened is after I got a bunch of outsiders nominated, two thousand new voters suddenly materialized from the ether to No Award every category. Because if they couldn’t have it, then nobody will.
These fuckers, in the name of “diversity” blocked a Jewish single mom, who was one of the most respected editors in the history of science fiction, who got the most nominating votes for the editor category in the history of the awards, who had been involved in their cons and their precious fandom for THIRTY YEARS, and they kicked her to the curb like trash because when she FINALLY got nominated, it was by right wingers (previous to this the same few white male liberal editors from one Manhattan publishing house took turns getting the award every year, as is proper and good).
And then at the ceremony, they handed out wooden assholes to all my nominees (keep in mind, I’m the political one, not those writers or editors). And (alleged) serial rapist Neil Gaiman got up on stage and said “fuck the Sad Puppies.” That’s how vile and insular these assholes are.*
So no. There’s nothing “petty” about my insults.
*on that bit, it is crazy that of my loudest detractors during all that, proud “Male Feminists” who kept screaming how Sad Puppies was misogynist (even though half of us were female), like a dozen of them have since been revealed to be some kind of pervert or sexual predator? What an odd coincidence.
Martin has been involved with the Hugos for a long time and was not a fan of what the Sad and Rabid Puppies were doing.
At the convention George Martin spent a bunch of money and threw a banquet celebrating my nominees who had dropped out due to his side’s career threats and peer pressure. He’s classy like that.
He and Correia wrote back and forth about their perspectives on the matter, much of which is preserved online, like on Martin’s blog. Their exchanges are very wordy, but it basically breaks down to Correia claiming that he felt shut out of the cool kids’ club at the Hugo Awards and was thus justified in ruining the awards for everyone, while Martin argued back that he was behaving like a bitter angry loser desperate to feel like a victim despite his work being on The New York Times Best Seller list.
That is truly the dumbest fucking take ever.
That’s my paraphrase, of course.
And you should be proud that it is that fucking dumb, because that takes some effort. You reached for the stars, and the stars looked down and said “wow, that is fucking dumb.”
But the point is that these two had a little internet feud back in the day,
Actually no. That little internet feud came out in my favor so much it was either the Boston Globe or the New York Times which tried to cover for George’s bloviating ass by labeling him “George Martin, son of a humble longshoreman” even though he was like the richest author in the world at the time, while I was “Bestselling author, Larry Correia” even though I was a relative nobody. How come I didn’t get to be Larry Correia, son of a humble Portuguese dairy farmer?
Ironically, that isn’t the first time I’ve been the heavy for “punching down” against a liberal billionaire in a fight. Probably won’t be the last.
Here’s links to our whole exchange, but the most important thing about it, which all these lying ass dorks always manage to leave out, all that stuff I alleged about authors getting excluded because of the wrong politics? Saint George ADMITTED I WAS RIGHT. In his lecturing, sea lioning, and hurumphing, on accident, George helped me prove my point more than anyone else.
These are super long, and looking back it is hilarious how polite I tried to be back then. Ten years later my thin veneer of civility got ground off entirely by these pricks, and I’m way past giving a fuck about fake nice.
and
https://monsterhunternation.com/2015/04/14/george-r-r-martin-responds/
But the important thing here is that George screwed up and admitted what I was saying was true. They’d always claimed that the Hugos were for the best of all fandom, but George was the first big shot to admit that was a lie, and it was actually their precious special little thing that belonged to them only.
which might explain why Correia decided to taunt Martin on the dedication page for his new book rather than, I don’t know, thank his family or something.
Can I just note how incredibly fucking stupid that bit is? Why didn’t I dedicate this book to family or something? Well, because I’ve written 28 other books before this, I’ve dedicated lots of books to close family and friends already and (unlike George) I’ve got more books coming. This book got dedicated to him because it is the final book in a 6 book epic fantasy series, which I STARTED after his last book came out, and I’m sorry, that’s just funny.
Clearly the argument still bugs him.
That’s backwards actually. That argument with George proved that I was right. (and the Hugos have since tried extra hard to prove me right ever since, by going super crazy woke, leaning even harder into the identity politics, and eventually ending up as a bootlicking censorship tool for the government of Communist China). What bugs me about George is that first bit about how his laziness fucked over a generation of new authors, not when he inadvertently proved my point.
Anyway, The Saga of the Forgotten Warrior begins by introducing us to Ashok Vadal, who is charged with enforcing the brutal law of Correia’s fantasy world.
One funny note on my main character’s name, when the 70 IQ simp brigade (and I swear every one of these was named after a GoT character, their entire profile was GoT shit, and they all had Palestinian flags after their name, like they’d come off some cookie cutter assembly line for clichés) rolled into Twitter to bark at me, one dork sneered “Ashok Vadal, what kind of stupid name is that?” and somebody responded “It’s Hindi, racist” and the first dork promptly deleted his tweet.
I’m sorry, internet randos are so dumb it’s hilarious. Having a bunch of broke Gen Z kids who named themselves Jamie Tyrion Hufflepuff defend the lazy mega rich boomer who wrote half a series about pseudo-Englishmen by calling the little guy Gen Xer—with a complete series where all the characters are Indian—a racist has been a hoot.
The first book in the series, Son of the Black Sword, came out in 2015. Nine years later, it wraps up with Heart of the Mountain. Obviously, Correia’s series isn’t anywhere near as well-known as Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire,
No shit, sherlock. HBO gave him the greatest marketing campaign in the history of books. George made like a billion dollars. But the thing about George’s entire career, and this is common knowledge in the publishing business, he only works when he’s hungry. And HBO made it so he’ll never be hungry again.
so taunting Martin in the dedication page, petty though it is, may be good for exposure. We’ll see if all press is good press when Heart of the Mountain drops on February 4.
Maybe. We’ll see. Honestly I’d still have done it either way, because it made me and my friends laugh, but the important thing as the son of a humble Portuguese dairy farmer, that lack of work ethic offends me.
As for when The Winds of Winter might come out, who knows?
I’m guessing that will be sometime after the publisher pays James S.A. Corey to finish it.
At least a bunch of chapters are already available to read: To stay up to date on everything fantasy, science fiction, and WiC, follow our all-encompassing Facebook page and Twitter account, sign up for our exclusive newsletter and check out our YouTube channel.
From that accurate quality reporting, I’d rather get a colonoscopy.
This article was originally published on winteriscoming.com as Fantasy author taunts Game of Thrones creator George R.R. Martin in his new book.
And not even proof read, because MSN is as lazy as George R.R. Martin.
That was Savage, but well deserved.
I had to stop reading three times because I was laughing so hard I couldn’t hold my phone. Superb. Thank you.
it’s good to see a fisking from you again. it has been a long while and this one was well deserved.
Awesome! Your fisks are always funny, on point, and devastating for those who thought they came up with something brilliant. (Not that they would notice or understand).
The reason there was ‘No Awardee’ or whatever that year is because Martin dropped $50,000 to buy voting memberships and voted ‘no award’ with all of them.
I thought it was Tor, but whatever.
George was the first to do it for epic fantasy. who probably had that useless jackass Gerrold as a role model since Gerrold hasn’t written Book 5 of his sci fi saga War Against the chtorr in 30 years. right now compared to Gerrold for span of time…Martin is a piker.
Aw, man, why’d you have to go and bring that guy up? I’d just about managed to forget about him.
Is it fair to compare to Chtorr to ASoIaF? It’s not nearly as pornographic and has 100% fewer dropped plotlines and pointless characters. I always felt like there was some kind of *plan* behind Chtorr, whereas ASoIaF was really Random Wanderings through Westoros with torture porn and actual porn to keep things… ah, interesting?
My Chtrorr-annoyance hardened into bitterness which crumbled to dust sometime around the turn of the century (literally). As for ASoIaF, I nearly threw my copy of the last published volume across the room when I reached the half-way point and realized there was no way it was the last book in the series. That’s one of the few intellectual properties about which I claim the filmed version was better than the books, because it cut out a lot of useless nonsense and maintained a somewhat comprehensible narrative, until that ending, of course.
David is too busy trying to pick up men at conventions instead of writing…
C’mon, the grand master at never delivering a science fiction or fantasy sequel has to be Lucian of Samosata. He wrote “A True Story” in the middle of the 2nd century AD and STILL hasn’t gotten to the promised sequel! He got some government job in Egypt and no one’s seen him since.
I was coming here to say that. But just like David, I’m late. I was even going to call Martin a piker. I really enjoyed the first 3 1/2 books of the chtorr series. I assume the worms won and are protagonist was eaten. ( I don’t even remember his name anymore, and can’t be bothered to look it up.)
I haven’t read the Heart of the Mountain yet, and am already getting value from it, FOR FREE!
Why not? Some of Larry’s best work. Excellent epic fantasy.
Ah. Choice… or cherce, as Spencer Tracy would say.
As someone who’s had a couple of books partly dedicated to me, I think Selcke is doing a good job demonstrating why “Don’t Explain the Joke” is a trope.
And something tells me that James S.A. Corey are too busy to spend the time it would take for them to finish ASoIaF. And they’re pretty well off themselves already.
And they’ve finished their 9 volume Expanse series which started AFTER the last volume of A Song of Fire and Ice was published.
… and started their next one: The Mercy Of Gods (great read BTW)
Been a while since weve read a good fisking.
Well done as usual sir.
‘no winnter”? More like “no winds of winter.”
I’ll see myself out.
So glad to see an excellent and brutal Fisking again. Well done.
The James S.A. Corey remark is one of the funniest things I’ve read, good stuff!
The first axiom of politics:
“The action taken by the person is not what causes offense.
The political affiliation o f the person taking action is causes the offense.”
People are not disturbed by things, but by the views they take of them.
Epictetus
HBO gave him [GRRM] the greatest marketing campaign in the history of books.
I’d argue that GRRM might actually have gotten the second greatest marketing campaign in the history of books.
The greatest marketing campaign is what the American Public School system gave Harper Lee when it made To Kill A Mockingbird required reading in every middle and high school in the nation.
Sure, GRRM made more from HBO, but he at least had to write most of a series to get it. Harper Lee wrote one book and never had to work again.
On a whole, though, excellent take-down and finish. You, sir, have not lost your edge. 🙂
Quick afterthought: Can we get some T-shirts made for future Hugo events that say:
‘No WinnTer’ is coming
With a QR on the back that points to this post?
Well, Harry Potter has to be on the Greatest Marketing of all time list somewhere. People like to dish on it for various reasons, some legit, some weird, but it has positively blitzed the world written and movie market. I’ve actually heard people say “I didn’t like it very much, particularly around the sixth book…” Oh, if only I had a series that people would dislike *and* read through for that long.
Harry Potter is a solid #3.
Maybe even #2 above GoT/ASoIaF, since it’s accessible and appropriate for the whole family … plus the movies rotate through ALL the streaming services … plus the spin-offs … plus that whole wing of Universal Studios’ theme parks … etc, etc.
But I maintain that from a “work-to-income ratio” (or, “Who hit the biggest lottery jackpot?”) perspective, Harper Lee wins.
Harper Lee or J.D. Salinger for Catcher in the Rye?
At least “To Kill a Mockingbird” was a decent novel. “Catcher in the Rye” is one of the worst pieces of drivel I’ve ever had the misfortune to read.
@Daniel Schwarz: Catcher got banned from schools over it’s profane language and explicit portrayals of sexuality. But yes, his sales got a big boost from being required reading for a while.
However, for the purposes of this discussion, the big difference between Lee and Salinger is that Salinger wrote several other novels and short stories, published both before and after Catcher. Lee wrote one novel, cashed in big, and didn’t publish a second until five decades later. The ONLY reason we know this (until recently) “one-hit wonder’s” work is because the Public Schools require it.
Not too different from GRRM, there.
@BassmanCO: Yeah, it’s a slog, but I’m generally of the opinion, if they want to ban it, you really need to read it. There’s an Orwellian warning message there, about the need for human connections and relationships, and the danger of replacing those things with shallow and cheap distractions. Given the prevalence of social media and its impact on young psyches, we need that warning more than ever.
Just my $0.02. I may need to dig out my old copy (with the 50s- or 60s-era yellow-text-on-red cover) and re-read it.
@Archer, I am not saying ban it, just accurately describe it. I don’t think any book should be banned, just restricted from those too young or underdeveloped to read them.
Personally, as far as “postwar young dude wanders post WWII America and ponders life” classic lit goes, “On the Road” is far more interesting.
@BassmanCO: Agreed, nothing should be banned. Restricted to development-appropriate* audiences with accurate content descriptions, maybe, but never banned outright.
And I maintain, if anyone — from either end of the political spectrum — wants to ban a book, you really need to get your hands on a copy and read it. That applies whether it’s Catcher in the Rye, or The Communist Manifesto, or Mein Kampf!, or The Anarchist’s Cookbook.
And learn to read and write in cursive, and teach your kids to read and understand our founding documents, for the exact same reason: Ideas that the elites find “too dangerous” MUST be kept in the hands, hearts, and heads of We the People.
@Joe in PNG: I admit, I’ve not read that one. Adding it to my list. Thanks!
———
* – Not “age-appropriate”; there’s legal-adult-age Leftists that I suspect couldn’t intellectually handle anything more controversial than Sesame Street: 1, 2, 3, Count with Elmo! Some of them might have an emotional breakdown over Goodnight Moon.
At least with a colonoscopy you would sleep through it 🙄
I read that article about Gaiman that you posted on X, and I have to say, I didn’t recognize a single normal human being in the entire thing. It’s like these people being to a different species, living on a different planet. Or maybe it’s a microcosm of Leftists’ preferred social structure, with omnipotent rock stars on one side and utterly dependent supplicants on the other, and nothing in between.
Pretty much. They’re a bunch of weirdos, losers, parasites, and predators. They can’t write books for normal people because they’ve forgot what normal is.
These days, especially if you’ve ever seen all the frankly disgusting and horrific stories involving dudes getting screwed over by ladies and ladies getting away with big crimes with very short sentences that get even lower
And the behavior of many a “nice guy”
You come to a conclusion after awhile, that many of these low testosterone dudes and highly spiteful and crazy ladies are a bunch of psychopathic peacocks who are obsessed with showing off their worthless degrees and how “compassionate” they are about lots of “social issues” and “the environment” whilst causing the most damage to both
The “Culture War” was started by them and their many supporters who joined only due to political affiliation, they don’t care if their hobbies get ruined, people’s lives are ruined, the economy gets fucked over, gangs control the streets, women ironically lose jobs(remember the booth babes and GridGirls, feminists are jealous) etc. So long as they “win”.
Thing is, people eventually choose to vote with their feet and vote with their wallets, when what they got is crap
It’s how you get crap like MGTOW and PassportBros, the latter is becoming more prevalent in my country, with lots of western dudes retiring to here and having local ladies by their side
It’s also how contrary to complaints about consumerism, people DO have tastes, it’s why so many stopped watching Hollywood crap for one
It’s gonna take a LONG time for more people to vote with their wallets and vote with their feet
Till then, the psychopaths on Sweet Baby Inc and other similar “consultation companies” will have power and people will defend the F out of them to “win”
As has been noted by many, being an overt “Male Feminist Ally” is basically a red flag at this point.
I needed these laughs, thank you.
Poor Noah Ward! Got more Hugos than anyone in history, and gets misnamed.
I saw the Facebook post with the dedication in it and split a gut laughing. Then I told some friends of mine at a convention this weekend about it and they had a good laugh at the burn too.
Do NOT google “Jamie Tyrion Hufflepuff”. I had forgotten “SLASH” fan fiction existed and now I need eye bleach!
Rereading those comments on Sad Puppies was like a blast from an earlier, more innocent time. And really, it doesn’t read like “an internet feud”; it reads like two adults who are on opposite sides of an issue discussing it rationally. Yes, GRRM comes across as either disingenuous or incredibly naive, but he offers arguments, Larry counters them, and the whole thing stayed pretty civil. I don’t see how even MSN could suggest that THAT was the reason Larry is annoyed with George.
But the bit that really made it clear that was a more innocent time was Larry’s parting comment:
“Honestly, I figure we’ve said about everything we can say and should move on. If I keep you from writing your next book, YOUR FANS WILL MURDER ME.”
Ah, remember when people thought that, if GRRM wasn’t arguing on the internet, he was writing his book? We were all so naive back then.
Yeah, it does. Just remember that anytime anyone ever disagrees with a leftist, the left will always portray it as the right is outraged/throwing a fit or tantrum/screaming/crying.
It is because these profoundly dishonest people operate from a position of emotion rather than logic, so they project that on others as a weakness to try and dismiss all disagreements.
Republicans pounce headlines.
Absolutely the best takedown I’ve read in quite a while.
Patiently waiting for the next one. I am HERE FOR IT! *snap*
The left has nothing in its arsenal but the tired old accusation of racism-sexism-homophobia. And from the moment I learned about the Hugo Awards, I could see how someone (or some publishing company, naming NO names) could easily manipulate the awards by buying a bunch of “supporting” memberships in Worldcon and voting for all of them.
They like to pretend at being the rebels
Thing is, especially with the past decade and the ongoing “Culture War” that oddly is beyond just entertainment media, but to the universities and workplaces and streets and so on
It’s becoming more and more clear that the Left are too powerful to be the Underdogs
They’re also way too prideful and spiteful to have any pleasure anymore, which is why uglification is becoming more and more of a thing especially for female characters and they insist on badly inserting modern day politics into everything and picking fights with those noticing that it doesn’t make sense like with the Mexican Orcs thing for D&D
Mark my words though, as soon as the Right starts implementing “code authorities” and becoming extra prudes again, like with TheQuartering and MelonieMacGoBoom’s shitting on people for liking fanservice after previously also praised it
You will see them trying to “be your friend” again
With luck, the current big education centers are rendered obsolete and the dependence on big publishers lessens, so that it’s less easy to pressure people into things for anything.
Though should be noted that the reason why so many Western Indie Games are Woke AF, is due to the population being from big western cities, so of course they’re guzzling crazy homeless person crap and refusing to get rid of excess broken wood in the summer
It’s really funny that you used to say that authors don’t have a moral obligation to write for their fans, or that they had an unwritten contract to finish what was started. I guess your sales have slumped since 2017 and you need to farm outrage and get a bunch of simps to buy your novels because they want to feel like culture warriors more than they want to actually read. Suddenly GRRM and Rothfuss not finishing their series in a timely fashion, if ever, is no longer okay. In fact, it’s an existential threat to the industry! You have come down from your cloud to magnanimously stick up for the legion of authors harmed by… people who won’t buy books because the last one they read came out in 2011. Come off it, you hack clown.
You know what’s funny? Your dumb ass is so predictable in your whine that if you click that first blog link up above where I talk about GRRM’s screwing of younger authors, it specifically addresses your idiotic point AND links to that original article I wrote about obligations to demonstrate you vapid dipshits have got really selective memories.
Lol. Dumbfuck. 😀
You go, Troll! Burn that strawman! That’ll show Larry!
Straw Larry has always been a jerk.
“As has been noted by many, being an overt “Male Feminist Ally” is basically a red flag at this point.”
This is the weird thing about getting old. I remember back in the hippie days hearing about feminist male allies mouthing the peities so they could get access to the hot feminists. Back when they were hot.
Funny you should that. In his article about Trudeau’s Resignation (“Woke Elvis Resigns”) Matt Taibi makes a remark to the effect, “If you ask a 100 men
to anonymously respond what it means when a guy says, ‘I’m a feminist’ they’ll tell you, ‘He wants to get laid.'”
Many a hypocrite has used loud virtue signaling as a cover for behavior they openly deplore in others.
It’s not all that new, really- one can always find stories of moral campaigners indulging in vice; of wealth distributionist taking a big personal cut; or a particular wealthy man with mansions & limos imagining a world without either.
But sadly, it’s a tactic that still works.
Think of it this way
The Feminists were hotter back then because they were less spiteful and insecure, as time went on, it became more and more clear that the majority of people aren’t the majority of people’s first choice
Spite and Envy are VERY powerful forces, for why they want other ladies’ covered up or made to uglify themselves
Helps try and lower standards and make them feel less insecure about their lack of beauty
Guys thought before that being “meek” and “non threatening” would get ladies to like em, instead it gets them to despise them for their “weakness”
After awhile, guys will leave and either stay single forever or go get a passport and go to a freaking third world country to try and get a local bride
Very exploitative to say the least
So, how much did George R. R. Martin know about Gaimen?
I know it’s a bit off-topic, but it’s a question that should be asked.
Who knows? My guess is that he probably heard rumors but didn’t look into the matter further because he didn’t want to know, which happens a lot in fandom and artistic circles–see how Walter Breen and Marion Zimmer Bradley were able to do their thing for so long.
I saw this on MSN immediately after it was published and actually am an anon commenter on it, not necessarily defending Larry (because he doesn’t require it, he’s fine), but just trying to spit some truths about how wrong this article is. George’s response to this stuff over the years is much like the Chapelle show Rick James sketch where Rick claims to never put his shoes on Eddie Murphy’s sofa, then minutes later says “Yeah I put my shoes on his sofa”
Thanks. That was all the funnier because it was all true. “Son of a humble Portuguese dairy farmer”- indeed! Punching down…ha!
I discovered the Sad Puppies because I heard about the Entertainment Weekly article. “The Sad Puppies are racist, sexist, blah, blah, blah”, which translates as, “The Sad Puppies are icky conservatives”.
So I decided to engage in my own little buycott by buying some of the books by the people being libeled by EW. I didn’t even particularly intend to read them; I was just supporting people subjected to an orchestrated campaign of defamation. Then I read the first paragraph of “Monster Hunter International” and, well, that was that.
The Puppy Kickers lost me as a fan — I’ll never buy another book from Tor or from any of several authors I used to like — but they gave the Sad Puppies an enthusiastic fan. So, good job, I guess.
The Monster Hunter Books got snubbed so thoroughly by the Library gatekeepers that I had not heard of it until the Campaign to End Puppy-related Sadness. Not even in conjunction with the Alex Awards-! Though I book-talked it to High School students like mad after that. The DP, a teen at the time, loved it.
American Libraries also published a letter claiming Mr. Correia created the 1st Campaign because he was outraged by all the women who won the Nebula Award… a year afterwards.
I know. Sadly they did not publish my letter about the author with a Tardis.
I laughed after reading the dedication page, taking it as a jibe at Martin and an in-joke for serious fantasy readers. Readers who will appreciate the joke are exactly the kind of people who are likely to be reading the 6th book in an epic fantasy series. Multi-millionaires should be rich enough to take a joke.
Also, I have to admit that it took me a little while to dig into this series. I first encountered Larry’s work through the first installment of the Tom Stranger free Audible book. Loved it. It is the ONLY audiobook I’ve listened to more than once.
Then, I listened to the Hard Magic series. It was a bit more graphic, with more swearing, and darker than I’m used to. Still enjoyed it, though, and liked the creativity of the alternate history setting. I also didn’t predict some of the twists with the main characters, which is hard to pull off.
Next, I bought his 2nd Amendment book. It was a bit short for the hardcover price (in my opinion) and written in an informal style, but the content was extremely solid.
Based on the cover designs alone, I was a bit worried that Saga of the Forgotten Warrior would be even darker, so I held off. I had a credit to spare on Audible and listened to the first one, then promptly listened to the rest. There is no swearing (at least with swear words from our culture) or graphic sexuality, which is very difficult to avoid in modern fantasy writing (I actually gave away my box set of George R. R. Martin after reading the first one for this reason).
I greatly appreciate Larry’s versatility in writing different styles. The tone of each series is unique and different, while keeping the same characteristics of Larry’s writing. Keep up the good work!
Being more graphic and swearing, can kinda make a series feel less muted
My problem with older comics code authority type books’ that they feel uncannily muted compared to more modern day stuff
Though, frankly whether it be in written, audio or visual media
I am not sure how some stuff actually manages to truly disgust me with their graphic descriptions compared to others
I am a fan of Kentaro Miura’s Berserk, very bloody and gory series, but I feel nauseating when reading Go Nagai’s Devilman
It’s how it’s done that makes it work or feel really out of place or just forced
I’ve missed your fiskings Larry. Thanks for this, and the dedication is beautiful.
It’s hilarious that this was originally a GoT fansite post. Yet, when I scroll through it, it’s immediately obvious that there’s not enough Song of Fire and Ice/House of the Dragon/Game of Thrones material for them to make it interesting, so over half of it is about OTHER fantasy and sci-fi IP.
This Dan Selcke is proving once again, that intersectionality of the Left is just the intersect of their brains with their lower intestines.
Worrisome. I am coming out with my own multivolume space opera series (a blatant ripoff of Star Wars) — nine are written. If readers don’t trust authors to finish their series any more, I will have to rush and write the last three books of the twelve.
GRRM was too busy whinging and lying to and about Larry Correia to finish his magnum opus.
Every creative has That Project, the one where the only real course of action is to just discard it and do something else instead.
My personal suspicion is that his malignant nihilism led him into writing himself into a corner he has no idea of how to get out of.
He probably even gets a kick out of his books being unresolved.
Looks more like GRR Martin wrote himself into a maze, was unable to write his way out of it, and decided “Fuck it, a few billion bucks are enough”.
He probably doesn’t want to spend any more time with the characters than I do, and I don’t blame him.
John, I thoroughly enjoyed the first book. Keep’em coming! between You, Larry and Sarah, I am not wanting for reading material.
The dedication was passed around enough that I saw it mentioned on places that never talk about books, let alone you. Even if it was just a publicity stunt (and it wasn’t) it was totally worth it.
Takes me back, After the 2016 World Con I decided never to attend another, I did enjoy sauntering into the Hugo Awards with my Sad Puppy bag, my Sad Puppy tea shirt, all 280 lbs walking on my Shillelagh and NO ONE uttered a word to me.
I recall thinking “Yeah you keep saying the Right is Violent, Care to Find Out?” I gave Kate Paulk a big cheer when she entered to let her know she was not alone, I gave the Sad Puppy tea shirt I wore that night to Sarah Hoyt at Liberty Con a few years back
The difference between you and George is I can afford the time, money, and shelf space to read all the books George has put out in the last fifteen years.
Just leave a 1.5″ slot at the end, for all the books George will (maybe) put out in the next 15 years.
At this point, someone could make a little cash by selling appropriately size Bookshelf Place Holders:
A box made of Finest Cardstock with “The Winds of Winter” and “George RR Martin” along the ‘spine’ in the style and motif of the existing books in the series. The front and back have about 2″ of fake dust cover, including truncated back-spiel and reviews, and then the rest is neon green with the words BOOKSHELF PLACEHOLDER. On the top and bottom, 2″ of fake page-edges. On the anti-spine, it is emblazoned “Discard when real book is published”.
Should be shipped as a flat sheet, pre-scored and pre-cut, so the recipient folds the bookshelf placeholder themselves, thus doing more actual work to get it onto their bookshelf than George RR Martin has accomplished to date.
This is pretty pathetic and embarrassing. On to the “never read or recommend” list you go.
That’s okay. I don’t write any books for the Random Bossy Dumbfuck market anyway. 🙂
I wonder how many of our progressive betters have ever read Ntozake Shange, or remember Chinese authoress blackballed by the cream of New York literatiks…?
Leave us not to forget, ABOUT our innelekshul betters, that said betters lost the Hugo’s to Communist China and NEVER SAW IT COMING.
Which is fitting, if you think about it. They’re not actually intellectuals- they just copy the values and positions of people they think are intelligent… who themselves are copying the values and positions of people they thought were intelligent.
So, getting Temu’d is oddly appropriate.
Colleges/Universities and other organizations have a sort of brain drain
They may have lost much of the actual talent and dedicated types
And instead, gained a bunch of posers and those with talent may have already been to varying degrees posers themselves, and wish to ingratiate themselves to the new guys
Either way, I want to see how this ends
I don’t like Ark Fatigue, so I want to see things accelerate quick, so I can see what we get next IRL
Will you be critiquing Biden’s(*) book when that comes out?
Maybe they can ask GRRM to ghostwrite it?
Two hundred pages of nothing about nothing?
The thought occurs to me that GRRMis facing some solvable problems:
1) Trying to write an 1100 page opus is problematic under the best of circumstances. Just think about how long it takes to get up to speed again with your own work if you put it down for two weeks! This is solvable by chapter and plot management so there is a beginning, middle and end. A good editor would really help. Any number of authors have succeeded with very long bodies of work. Our esteemed host has done so. Other fantasy authors have done so. Consider Robin Hobb as another example. Several trilogies of beautiful work, thousands of pages of detailed and moving work. It can be done. Heck fans have done some of the work for GRRM, see inter alia Ball of Beasts.
2) GRRM is already over-committed to new and interesting projects which let him fly all around the world which he apparently enjoys.
However, he refuses to adapt to modern things like laptop computers which allow one to be productive even while away from home. He could adapt and remove his own excuses.
3) As has already been suggested, it is hard to tell a billionaire that they *need* to do anything. But if they really wanted to, if the muse was upon them, they have the resources to hire a team to get things in order. They may not want to (see “removing excuses” above) but they *could* do so.
James Patterson might serve as an example for GRRM, but I wonder if managing such a group might feel like more work than just writing the books.
Funny, but I heard once, he may have been using an old desktop PC
The one that looks more like an old TV instead of a flat screen
It broke down and he lost everything
“fucking over an entire generation of new authors, because if nobody will try their first books, they can’t afford to finish the series.”
A simple cure for this – New authors, how about testing the waters with a couple of good standalone novels first?
Also, looking up how to properly finance, market and self publish
You don’t have to be a starving artist, if you know your craft and audience, even if niche AF
GRRM merits the abuse entirely. His name will become a legend of the dangers of success, of avoiding the Adaptation Siren, and all that cal.
They’re still mad about the Puppies. lol. lmao, even.
Such good advertising for this series should include the link to the six book bundle for those who wish to purchase an honest to goodness completed series.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09WZW8LSF/ref=as_li_qf_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=monshuntnati-20&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=1982124849&linkId=cfc87c9482cf5d94af31fd9f17317852
Not only was it “not so hard” to write but for us it is even easier to purchase!
Oh my goodness. I just got my copy of Heart of the Mountain and saw that dedication.
The burn is visible from other stars.
Epic.
I think it was back in 2005, at Bubonicon (where my buddy Daniel Abraham, who is one half of James S. A. Corey, did a reading from his most recently published book) when I told GRRM directly that I was *buying* the ASoIaF books, but I wasn’t going to *read* them until he was done. He got mad for a moment, and then realized he had absolutely nothing to actually get mad about, since I was doing my part as an SF fan and buying the books, and admitted that was reasonable.
I don’t have those books anymore, of course, because I sold 95+% of my paper books when I got divorced and lost, well, everything.
I don’t particularly expect to need to buy them again, in order to read the series.
Though, on further consideration, it would be truly hilarious if this pricked GRRM’s ego so much that he actually sat down at the keyboard just to spite you. 😀
It’s hilarious to me that people get bothered by Larry’s minor bit of trolling GRRM. Seems to me that in the case of this article it’s more click bait journalism trying to squeeze the last bit of attention leftover from the destruction of the Hugos.
I mean, people have been mocking GRRM for not finishing ASoIaF for years now. Logan Lucky is a decent comedy movie that came out on 2017 and they put in a scene trolling Winds of Winter not getting finished that was harsher than Larry’s dedication. Here it is on YouTube: https://youtu.be/Nwa6xgIZCv8?si=6_Sm0MBzptIwcBQn
Yeah, people were complaining about this seven years ago and the book still isn’t published.