George RR Martin was never, ever, going to finish A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE. But introducing too many perspective characters and excessively widening the story isn’t the only way to screw things up. Now, I personally thought THE WHEEL OF TIME started out mediocre and only got worse from there, but it’s interesting to see the suggestion that it was ruined, not once but twice, by two different authors.
I loved Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan growing up. LOVED IT. MULTIPLE REREADS of the series, even when I wasn’t prepping for the next release. I read it as much as some other folks (me included) reread Harry Potter.
Here is how WOT went down:
Books 1-5 were AMAZING. So was Book 6, but Book 6 did intro, in a minor way, elements/characters that came to be very unpopular. People argue about the JTS book, whether it was Book 6 or 7 (majority argue book 6, but I disagree). From Book 7 on it was a long, meandering trek into the wilderness, wherein popular characters were minimized, unpopular characters/subplots were given tons of coverage, and new characters no one cared about were introduced. The main characters hardly interacted during this time.
Then the OG author DIED. He’d had a long illness, and fans were told that he’d left behind a detailed outline to finish the story, that only lacked being fleshed out by another author. Brandon Sanderson, a then up and coming (he’s since arrived) fantasy writer was tapped to finish the series alongside the widow (who was also the editor of the OG author). Instead of one follow up book, it quickly turned into 2 follow up books. Then it blossomed into 3 books. Fine. Whatever.
Especially since book 1 (under the new guy, book 1 of 3) was so good. A return to the 1-5 level of quality in the minds of readers. Then Book 2 came out. And things got shaky. There were a few iffy sections. But we all sort of explained it away because the author had to arrange pieces on the board to get ready for the finale.
And the last book was straight up terrible. Series ruining terrible. Terrible to the level (and I’m not alone in this) wherein I have not since picked up a single book in the series, and I used to read the entire series (or, OK the first 5-6 books) every 18 months or so. Fan sites saw traffic dip by 80+ percent. Long gestating talk about spinoff novels/stories died instantly (and there was speculation that the widow and publisher were vetting writers and workshopping plots). Again, this all died instantly and permanently.
That detailed outline we’d been told about was, instead, 2-3 legal pads of freeform notes. No organization.
That is where GOT is. The author has written himself into a corner, and has no idea how to end it. All he knows is that he doesn’t know what to do, and that his most likely idea was widely panned in the TV show. He’ll never finish.
I’ve heard this from multiple sources, including some who have worked with him directly on ASOIAF-related products. However, I stand by my original analysis, which is that Martin made a technical and structural mistake that was the initial cause of the problem, which was introducing too many perspective characters. If I recall correctly, he went from 9 in the first book to 22 in the second; ironically for all his bloodthirsty reputation, Martin’s problem is that he doesn’t kill off enough of his perspective characters.
Brandon Sanderson sells incredibly well, but he would not be able to fix the technical problem with the series and bring it to a proper conclusion. I could do it, being sufficiently ruthless to resolve the situation, and I even know how I would do it, but I’m probably the second-to-last person on the planet who would ever be asked to do so. And I’ve got to wrap up ARTS OF DARK AND LIGHT properly in A GRAVE OF GODS.
Chuck Tingle, of course, would be the last.