[clockwirk]

My question centers around the fact that many of Martins characters are very young to moderately young and have a lot to live up to in terms of the foreshadowing and prophecy that we've seen in the books. Bran's got his "inner eye" thing, Samwell's going to be a maester, Arya is on her way to being an assassin, Sansa could turn into a political intrigue genius, Dany will conquer the world, and certainly Rickon will have something cool going on. The problem is, we're four books into a seven book series and the kids haven't really aged all that much. I would think that Samwell, Arya, and Bran at least have a good number of years ahead of them if we're going to see them fulfill they're potential.
Is Martin going to:
A) Include a time gap (like he was going to for Feast) in order to let the characters develop?
B) Have them all reach potential at shockingly young ages?
C) Have the series end with everyone on their way to reaching their potentials but never really seeing it?
D) Make the series significantly longer?
E) Other

What do you think?

[Evil Agent]

Thankfully, I can partially answer this! Because... I asked Mr. Martin a similar question tonight, at his book signing event! :D

I asked him specifically about the 5 year gap. I said I knew he was originally planning a gap, but then scrapped the idea which contributed to the delay with Feast. But then I asked him that since Feast only covers a short period of time, was he still planning a gap or not? And could it still be 7 books.

He said the Gap is totally gone. It was actually a long, funny answer. He said the gap was a totally bad idea, and explained why. In King's Landing, so much had happened that he was having whole chapters of pure flashbacks, trying to fill in all the craziness that had happened there in 5 years. Then Martin went on about the Wall, and how he was writing about Jon, thinking "Well, it's been a pretty slow 5 years here at the Wall.. hanging out here with Stannis... but now all these things are about to happen", etc.

He mentioned that the gap would have helped give time for the dragons to get bigger, and the children to grow older, but for better or for worse the gap is now totally scrapped. But he still seems to think it will be 7 books.

Lastly, he said that the next book, a Dance with Dragons, could be out by the end of this year, or early 2007.

[clockwirk]

I had heard that the gap was gone, and it makes sense why he would get rid of it, but there's still the fundamental question of whether (or how) the young characters are going to come into their own, so to speak. The dragons really do present a similar problem in that you wouldn't expect Dany to be able to conquer Westeros with pre-adolescent Dragons.
The gap may have been a bad idea, but getting rid of it doesn't solve the problem.

[Brys]

Perhaps we're just assuming too much - this is Martin's series, and he isn't trying to do the predictable. How do we know that Dany will actually conquer Westeros, or Jon will defeat the Others, or Sansa will become a political genius? Martin doesn't have to do any of these things - in fact, their youth could be a prime reason for them to fail at them. Dany may try and attack with her young dragons (perhaps they grow faster?) too early.

What I could see Martin doing is slowly getting more time to pass in each book, so that he doesn't have to worry about including a gap, but A Dance for Dragons might take place over a few years rather than a few months etc.

[Number Ten Ox]

I suppose my own answer is closest to C: the characters never "reach their potentials," with my own caveat. I think you are expecting something different from what Martin is planning. Sam, Arya and Bran won't complete their training, the dragons won't get to be full grown, and Dany won't entirely conquer Westeros. The key won't be that the children ride in and rescue the world for the adults, which is unrealistic and (IMO) beneath Martin, even if he changed his plot after aFfC for timeline reasons. Instead, they will trigger various events that get the adults in line to help themselves.

The key is that these characters will deal with various crises before they are ready. It won't be as clean as "the dragons grow up, Dany claims the Iron Throne, Jon throws back the Others at the Wall, and the Stark kids mop up the bad guys for revenge." And I kind of like it that way, and not only because I get to keep thinking that Martin can close this in a satisfying and believeable way in my own lifetime. I like it because the characters will have something left to do with themselves when (and if!) they get through their crises. Sam, for example, will get to grow up and be a historian/maester, assuming he lives. Or Sansa will start putting the pieces of the kingdom back together, having learnt how it SHOULDNT be, assuming Littlefinger lets her. Or Bran gets an army of the Children of the Forest, and becomes King Beyond the Wall, and rides on mammoths as has 50 kids with wildling women :rolleyes: ... In short there is reason to hope that there is a happy ending, because there is something to hope for... while at the same time, never being assured that it will happen that way. Martin has pulled similar punches on us in the recent past, I should say. And it sets his readers to asking, if he can pull a fast-one like THAT, what can't I expect before the end? The end of aFfC will, IMO, be viewed as a very clever set-up over the course of the series, because it denies expectations or "safe" endings. I hope that won't be construed as a spoiler. :o

The only problem is... surviving the wait! Write like a man possessed, Mr. Martin!

[The Other]

I am not sure, it will be hard for him to finish the series in seven books. I guess he will turn to the dark site to achieve powers unknown to mere humans, but then again that didn't work for Jordan.

[escape]

he has 4 more books.

instead of doing one capitalized "The Gap" in the story he can do a bunch of couple long gaps in between viewpoint jumps, to leapfrog them.

over the course of 1 book i dont see why he couldnt clear 2 years. that'd at least get the majority of the chars into their low to mid 20's by the end of the tale.

but yeah, the whole "children rescue the world" theme needs to stay in Disney. unless i see tinkerbell fly around that castle before each scene i'm liable to gag.

[Evil Agent]

No, he has 3 more books. He still says he hopes to finish it in 7, and there are already 4 books published.

[nikleas]

I am kind of disappointed to read the gap won't happen.
I thought this book and the next were about the 6 months after book 3 and then we would have the gap.

I think the gap would still be a very interesting idea. I like the concept of a gap and rediscover the settings of every character. Seeing a character 5 years later and learn by subtle sentences, comments, what he/she has been doing all this time.

I thought the gap would really happen after the 2 books and we would see:
-Jon still at the wall but with Stannis off somewhere (maybe at winterfell ?)
-Bran, now on his way back to the land south of the wall, with new powers and flashback of his tranning.
-Dany, controlling most of the lands in the sea, preparing the last stage of her conquest of westeros. We would see her new entourage and say: "so that's were he/she went!"
-Arya, completing her trainning as assassin but cast off cause she couldn't forget who she is. So a faceless, but not a "official" faceless...
-Brienne with the band of ladystoneheart or somewhere else, and we learn what happenned with flashbacks.
-Cersei, 5 years later, and i would just let martin suprise me!
-Sansa, married with the heir guy (although I kinda liked Tyrion as a husband ;)), now quite a political genius.
-Jaime, now almost as good with his left hand.
-and other surprises...

I just loved the idea of rediscovering what's going on in the land of westeros. Grasping the whole situation again with flashbacks and unexpected POVs. That's too bad...

I thought Feast for crows was just a transition before a gap and made peace with how the story went on slowly. Now i realise that if there is no gap following the event of FFC, the book and the story is just slow paced.
It reminds me of some robert jordan's books in the WOT series. A pace of story-telling very unbalanced between a book and another.

In short: I enjoyed the book a lot, but I think you could tell something went wrong with his original plan even if he had not said so himself on his website and everything. He had to fix it and slow the pace of the serie to make it work.

Still very enjoyable book and serie. And personnally, i don't care if the story takes another 20 books to finish (as long as he finishes it before his death). I am like that, when something is that good, i just can't have enough!
That's also why i still read and enjoy Robert jordan a lot too. Although i understand that can annoy many people.

[Pluvious]

I don't think you need the gap but I would definately like to see some of the characters older. A small gap between books would be fine. I hope time does pass and we can see the characters at different stages in their lives.