It’s not a competition; some of the best books ever written are not particularly long. The one that surprised me most is WATERSHIP DOWN, as that has always struck me as a massive and epic tale. But it does put things in perspective, sizewise.
The Hobbit – 95,022 The Fellowship of the Ring – 187,790 The Two Towers – 156,198 The Return of the King – 137,115 THE LORD OF THE RINGS – 573,125 total
Summa Elvetica & Other Stories – 173,493 A Throne of Bones – 297,500 A Sea of Skulls – 299,320 ARTS OF DARK AND LIGHT – 717,313 and counting
Philosopher’s Stone – 77,325 Chamber of Secrets – 84,799 Prisoner of Azkaban – 106,821 Goblet of Fire – 190,858 Order of the Phoenix – 257,154 Half Blood Prince – 169,441 Deathly Hallows – 198,227 HARRY POTTER SERIES – 1,084,675 total
A Game of Thrones – 296,901 A Clash of Kings – 321,676 A Storm of Swords – 414,792 A Feast for Crows – 296,989 A Dance with Dragons – 413,202 A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE – 1,746,560 total (assuming the reports that he’s laid down the pen are true)
Gardens of the Moon – 242,265 Deadhouse Gates – 316,975 Memories of Ice – 408,425 House of Chains – 326,275 Midnight Tides – 288,920 The Bonehunters – 390,755 Reaper’s Gale – 382,000 Toll the Hounds – 409,355 Dust of Dreams – 402,070 The Crippled God – 421,755 MALAZAN BOOK OF THE FALLEN – 3,255,546 total
Dune – 187,240 Dune Messiah – 75,127 Children of Dune – 148,381 God Emperor of Dune – 138,167 Heretics of Dune – 165,131 Chapterhouse Dune – 143,435 DUNE SAGA – 857,481 total
A highly literate reader named JC emails a detailed analysis of George RR Martin’s difficulty in finishing A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE, and reaches precisely the same conclusion that I have assumed all along, which is that Martin is too devoted to intellectual subversion to accept the true and obvious heroic end to his fantasy saga, which is to say, the triumphant marriage of ice and fire.
To put it rather more concisely: one can no more write an English-style novel and not end it with a wedding than one can write a Japanese-style novel and not end it with a suicide.
I don’t think it’s so much that Martin won’t finish the saga as that he can’t. And principally for one reason (though I imagine there’s a host of ancillary reasons): Jon Snow & Danaerys Targaryan themselves. He didn’t anticipate when he set out to write his story, I suspect, to write one genuinely heroic character, let alone two.
It’s clear that Tyrion, and the Lannister family in general, are his favoured characters, and it’s the Lannisters who set the tone of the series. I think this is so for both internal-structural reasons and for personal reasons. Martin just prefers them and sympathises most with their worldview. Structurally, I believe the Lannisters are the vehicle through which Martin has tried to accomplish his main artistic goal in writing A Song of Ice and Fire: to subvert the Fantasy genre, with its roots in the heroic and the mythical, by introducing an element of cynicism and realist historiography, a literary Real Politik.
To do this he had to build a typical Fantasy setting with mythological elements, in order to deconstruct them from within. What he didn’t anticipate, I suspect, is that the ‘machinery’ of his writing would churn out two more or less heroic characters, there among all the cynics, warlords, cowards, bureaucrats, hypocrites, mercenaries, careerists et al. with which his universe abounds: Jon and Dany — who do fit the classical standards of heroism, despite Martin’s critique of their characters, as their motivations ultimately transcend the merely self-interested, and they are brave in the pursuit. Martin is, at bottom, a good storyteller with a keen sense of character, so it’s very likely he trusted his intuitions in writing these characters and plotting out their stories, without fully realising the overall structural implications for his saga.
Now I think he’s reached a bind in his grand narrative. There are two irresolvably conflicting impulses acting within him as a writer — and it’s this irresolvability that has given him an incurable writer’s block, sapping him of all motivation to conclude his epic: the first impulse is the conscious wish to accomplish his artistic aim of deconstructing the heroic and mythical foundations of Fantasy; and the second impulse is the novelist’s natural need not to betray his own characters, to provide a coherent resolution to their ‘character arc’. The problem is that, unwittingly, Jon and Dany have turned out to be genuine heroes in their own right, and Martin can’t figure out how to give their stories a fittingly heroic ending without succumbing to classical Fantasy standards, the very standards he set out to subvert in the first place. Jon and Dany narratologically deserve an heroic ending, but can Martin bring himself to do justice to their heroism, or even to spoil it with one last act of cynicism?
It’s clear that the ‘Ice’ and ‘Fire’ in A Song of Ice and Fire are Jon and Dany respectively, and that it’s ultimately their tale. I can only imagine that Martin did this unconsciously, and that it’s made him nauseous now that he’s discovered it. What we see in the TV Show — Jon and Dany having a romantic affair and it being discovered to be incestuous — I think is Martin’s intention, and I think this development shows his good writer’s instinct. It’s what comes after (the final season of the TV Show) where everything falls apart, and I think Martin knows it. He knows the notes he provided to the show directors are sloppy, inconsistent, and unfulfilling. I can only imagine that when he now sits to write the final chapters in his story, he feels a debilitating anxiety over the problem the existence of Jon and Dany, and the challenge their unforeseen heroism, transcending the pettiness of their surroundings, has caused for him, leaving out all that enthusiasm he once had for the narrative and its setting, when he was writing the opening volumes.
CDAN reports that George RR Martin is not going to finish A SONG OF FIRE AND ICE.
This permanent A list author has told a few close friends that he never intends on finishing a long awaited book series.
It’s no surprise at this point. All authors, sooner or later, lose their literary fastball, usually around the age of 70 or so. Martin is 75, he is in poor health, he has more money than he can reasonably spend in his lifetime, and he has no children, so he has literally nothing to gain from finishing a story that has already been concluded, however unsatisfactorily, in the television format.
He knows that the fans don’t like his intended end to the saga, so what’s the purpose of devoting several of his last remaining years to torturing himself in order to finish a story that he knows the fans will not find satisfying?
As a reader, I completely sympathize with the firestorm of fury that will likely greet the realization that the saga has already been effectively concluded. But as an author, I can’t honestly say that Martin’s rumored decision is not the right one. Martin knows that his latter books in the series don’t live up to the first two, and I have no doubt he’s well aware that what he’s written since will be widely criticized as sub-par. Better not to publish than publish that which can only detract from his respectable literary legacy.
However, fans of the series need not worry overmuch. There is no way his publisher is walking away from a gold mine that is so easily mined, so I expect that after his death, the publisher will convince whoever ends up with the rights to permit the hiring of a writer to finish the series ala Brandon Sanderson and The Wheel of Time. Ironically, as a proven epic fantasy author, I would probably be one of the top three candidates to do it except for a) my persona non grata status in the SF/F publishing world and b) I have my own epic fantasy saga to bring to a close.
This is an automated transcription of an interview with the late English popular historian, John Julius Cooper, 2nd Viscount Norwich, CVO, recorded in 2011.
VOX DAY: I’m delighted to be able to tell you today that my guest is one of my favourite historians, John Julius Norwich. He’s the author of more than 20 books including A History of Venice, Byzantium: The Decline and Fall, Shakespeare’s Kings, as well as his recently published memoirs entitled Trying to Please. Lord Norwich, welcome to the podcast. Western culture has always been obsessed with the Western Roman Empire, and paid relatively little attention to the Eastern Roman Empire, so to what do you attribute this general lack of attention or interest in the Byzantines versus the ancient Greeks and Romans?
JOHN JULIUS NORWICH: I think largely that… I mean, I didn’t. I had the sort of ordinary interest in the Greeks and Romans, because that’s what you have. If you go to school in England, you know, you go to public school education, you learn a lot about the Greeks and the Romans. But the interesting thing in England is that you never, never get any education at all about the Eastern Roman Empire, about Byzantium. It’s a conspiracy of silence, and it has been for the last 200 years. And I fell in love with the Byzantine Empire really, largely because of my friend, Patrick Leigh Fermor, who died last week, who was the greatest archeologist and a scholar of it, and who I went on a cruise around Eastern Mediterranean with. And also when, in 1955, when I joined the Foreign Service, My first post was Belgrade, in Serbia, or Yugoslavia as it was in those days, and I was just sort of swept up in the whole. That seemed to me the sort of the whole mystery and the magic of the Orthodox Church and the Eastern Roman Empire and Byzantium and all that. I suppose I’ve been swept up in it ever since.
VD: To what do you attribute the fact that it was a mystery to you? I mean, it’s certainly a mystery to Americans, we don’t spend any time learning about it either. Why is there such ignorance of it?
JJN: Why is there a conspiracy of silence? Precisely. I wish I knew. I went through what I’m sure would have been considered a very good English public school education at Eton. And I hardly knew what Byzantium was. I’m not sure that I knew whether it was Christian or Muslim. I’m not sure whether I don’t think I knew anything about it at all. And because nobody ever mentioned it all throughout my schooling. And I think I was not alone in this. I mean, people just didn’t. It was never taken seriously by English educationists.
VD: Constantine’s decision to move his capital from Rome to Byzantium was one of the more monumental decisions in history.
JJN: Yes, it tends to distract the reader, as if Obama had suddenly decided to move the US Capitol from Washington, DC to Mexico City.
VD: What was behind Constantine’s decision to establish a new capital? And why did the eastern half of the Empire survive so much longer than the Western one did?
JJN: Well, the capital had really, to all intents and purposes already left Rome. I mean, what happened already in this, in the second century? The second century AD, the whole focus of political and cultural activity, is moving to the east, is moving east from Rome, to the eastern Mediterranean. I mean, if you read the Acts of the Apostles, or if, if you read any of that stuff, I mean, it is it is in Asia Minor on the eastern Mediterranean, that everything is happening. Rome has become a backwater, it’s too far away. By this time. The Empire’s principal enemy is Persia, Rome to Persia. I mean, it’s, I don’t know, three or four months probably travel. And it was no it was absolutely necessary to move the capitol to where all the action was. Diocletian did it first. I mean, he, he decided to divide the imprint of the empire into four. And each one had a what he called a Tetrarch. But all four of them were in the east. None of them are in Rome, even then. So when Constantine decided in 332, to move to move the Capitol, it wasn’t a terribly new or revolutionary idea at all. I mean, he was really doing what had already happened. He was just choosing a new a new place. You know, I mean, Nicomedia. Antioquia was three or four other places, which had been tried out and they were very successful. So he just found this new place. which was superbly in a superb defensive position, and said, right, this is it, this is going to be in future capital. Apart from that we’re exactly the same Empire we’ve always been, where we’re Romans whether our empire is the empire of Adios, Nero and Hadrian and Trajan and all that lot. There’s no change, except that we’ve moved to a new capital.
VD: Why did the eastern half of the Empire survive so much longer than the Western one did?
JJN: Well, I mean, it’s survived. Very, very surprisingly, it remained. Except for 50 years in the 13th century, it remained undefeated, I mean, the Roman Empire continued under the new capital in Constantinople, and got incredibly powerful and is by far the richest, by far the most powerful state in the in the civilised world. Until two terrible things happen. One was the the surge of checks, the first wave of tax arrived, and defeated the Byzantine army. This was intense. And more or less flooded all over the whole of Asia Minor, which was where Byzantium got most of its food, and nearly all its manpower. And, and then, and then, that was the that was the first great disaster from which from which you’ve never recovered. And the second great disaster, of course, was the Fourth Crusade when the the Christian armies, who should have done everything they could to protect and defend and strengthen this last great outpost of Christianity in the east, turned against it and destroyed it, and left it a poor, pale shred of what it had been before, to the point where, although it lasted another 250 years, God knows how it did it. It really had completely lost its importance.
We’re finalizing the art for Books 2 and 3 of the Castalia History subscription, and there has been a lot of discussion for what, if any, subscriptions will be created once the Bindery comes online and the two volumes of Homer have been completed. What we’ve learned so far is that we will be able to offer subscriptions with much smaller print runs than before, which means that we can do more esoteric sets that we wouldn’t have previously contemplated.
But the History subscription is already on very sound footing, and the interiors for Book 4 are already being printed. So, we’re pleased to introduce the Castalia History logo in the form that will appear on the spines of all of the History subscription books in order to set them apart from the Library books as well as the future subscriptions. A more elaborate form will appear inside the books beginning with Book 4.
We would also welcome a discussion among subscribers concerning their opinions on what the next subscription or two should be. We’re presently in discussions with a major publisher that, if successful, will be offered as a separate subscription, and we’ve also kicked around a few ideas among the Castalia team.
The There Will Be War series (10 volumes)
Thomas Aquinas series (4-6 volumes)
Chinese Classics series (5 volumes)
Chick Lit Classics series (Austen, Bronte, etc.)
The Hardy Boys (3+ as copyright allows)
Arkhaven omnibus comic series
Please don’t opine without taking into account the availability of the works. Obviously, we will do a Tolkien series whenever we have the opportunity to do so. Anyhow, if you haven’t subscribed to Castalia History yet, you might want to wait until January to start your subscription with Book 4 so that you don’t start with the second book in a two-volume set. Unless, of course, you don’t mind paying five catchups to ensure you get both volumes of the Cambridge Medieval History.
In order to maximize the availability of the Castalia Junior Classics to every homeschooling family, we’ve now made the Junior Classics volumes 1-8 available as ebook editions in DRM-free EPUB format for less than $35 for the 3,500-page set. Ebook backers of the project should check their emails tonight, as we’ll be sending out a code that will provide for a free download of all eight volumes, which are as follows:
Fairy Tales & Fables
Myths & Legends
Tales of Greece & Rome
Heroes of Chivalry
Tales That Never Grow Old
Stories of Boys & Girls
The Animal Book
Heroes of History
Readers have already seen what the covers and spines look like, but the interiors bear consideration too, as the layouts are done to the exacting Castalia Library specifications and feature literally hundreds of classic illustrations. Volume VII: The Animal Book contains the most illustrations of any book we’ve published to date; THE SEA OTTER is a particularly beautiful tale about one of my favorite animals.
While Volume VIII: Heroes of History doesn’t contain as many illustrations as its predecessor, it does contain 35 stories about unforgettable historical figures from the most famous to the now-obscure spanning more than 2,000 years. Which means the young reader of this volume will come away with a grasp of human history that likely exceeds that of the average college history major.
Volumes 9 and 10 are expected to be released next summer. We do not anticipate releasing these ebook editions as single volumes, but if we do, it will probably be via Amazon and not via the Arkhaven store.
As those who have subscribed to the Castalia monthly newsletter already know, Volumes VII and VIII of the Castalia Junior Classics are now a) being printed for shipment to backers this month and b) available for order from Arkhaven at a discount with free shipping and a free ebook edition included for those in the USA and the UK. The books will be available worldwide via Amazon and other booksellers next week.
Volume VII: The Animal Book, contains illustrated stories by Beatrix Potter, Anne Sewell, Rudyard Kipling, and John C. Wright, as well as dozens of classic short stories about animals ranging from black bears and catamounts to woodchucks and sea otters. It will be a particular favorite of younger readers, due to its incredible collection of classic illustrations. Hardcover+ edition. 438 pages.
Volume VIII: Heroes of History, includes stories about great historical figures such as Leonidas, Julius Caesar, Joan of Arc, Horatio Nelson, Daniel Boone, and Andrew Jackson, as well as stories about lesser-known individuals whose courage and achievements will fascinate children. Hardcover+ edition. 434 pages.
For those who did not back the Castalia Junior Classics or have not yet begun collecting what will eventually be a 10-volume set, we have made a partial set of volumes 1 through 8 available to order exclusively from the Arkhaven store. All eight volumes are hardcover+ editions, which means the ebook editions are also included with the purchase. All of the covers and spines feature the original artwork of Arkhaven’s Lacey Fairchild.
The Junior Classics are, hands-down, one of the greatest educational tools you can provide your children, whether you homeschool them or not. A significant portion of my own childhood education was provided by the 1958 edition, and I can testify, without any shadow of a doubt, that the Castalia Junior Classics is the best, most attractive, and most comprehensive edition of the Junior Classics produced since the original set was published in 1919.
If you are a Junior Classics backer whose mailing address has changed since the campaign four years ago, please email castaliashipping_AT_gmail_DOT_com with your backer ID and your new address.
After more than two years chipping away at the colossal classic, finished reading Plutarch’s Lives. This was the Castalia Library leatherbound edition, limited to 750, and uses the Bernadotte Perrin translation. Two years may seem like a while for a recommended pair of books, but these tomes total something like 1600 pages, so even turning a page every day, this is how long it will take, so a considerable commitment for all but the fastest readers.
Many of these biographies are of exciting, admirable statesmen, and so it is no wonder that in centuries past, Plutarch was enjoyed by boys for the battlefield action, good examples to follow, and witticisms. After a few lives of semi-legendary Greek and Roman founders, this is almost all drum-and-trumpet history, and more often than not, the subject meets a violent death! Even the rhetoricians who make it in end up little more than propagandists for some power-hungry faction. Clearly, the Lives as a whole are much too long for practical use in instruction; it would be challenging to fit them into a single academic year, and even then there would be gaps. Besides, after a while, the Lives start to blend together, and it can feel like you‘re reading about a compsoite or averaged Greco-Roman marching his troops around, swapping wives, and saying amusing things, so the most distinctive Lives should be set apart, as the student will have a better chance of retaining the information. For an advanced placement high school course, or a 100 or 200 level college course, I think these ten select Lives would give students a rich taste of classical history, while more than holding interest and providing fruitful inspiration to greatness in our times:
—Lycurgus and Numa, wise founding lawgivers —Alexander and Julius Caesar, unparalleled conquerors —Agis & Cleomenes and the Gracchi, attempted restorers in a decadent age —Timoleon and Brutus, supernatural intervention in human affairs?
In English translation, Plutarch is the canonical writer I have read who most closely follows one of the standards of writing that was most drilled into us in my school days: the thesis statement. Because the Lives are mostly paired, Plutarch usually includes prefatory remarks to explain why the two belong together, and then follows the biographies with a comparison.
Read the rest of it there. This is the sort of book review that I really like to see, because it reviews the book rather than just discussing the reader’s reaction to the book. One thing that many reviewers fail to grasp is that the subject of the review should be the thing reviewed, not the reviewer himself.
Obviously, many editions that purport to be Plutarch’s Lives are actually an abridgement of them, which is normally abhorrent to us; we’d rather divide a massive tome into two or even three volumes rather than cut it down to a size that will not destroy itself on the bookshelf with the assistance of gravity over time. But, in the event that we ever decide to do a Homeschooling subscription, an abridged version of Plutarch might make sense.
Castalia House is very pleased to announce that, at long last, Vols. VII and VIII of the Junior Classics are now complete. With dozens of stories and hundreds of pictures, as well as beautiful cover and spine art from Lacey Fairchild, both The Animal Book and Heroes of History are certain to be lifelong favorites of young readers. And yes, there is a story about sea otters.
The first books are now printing and we’re waiting to review them, after which we will a) order the backer editions for shipment to all the backers and b) make the individual hardcovers available for sale to everyone on the Arkhaven store as well as via Amazon, B&N, and other booksellers. The retail price will be $34.99, but we will continue to sell them at Arkhaven for $29.99. We expect to make them available for sale the first week of November, and to begin shipping to backers the third week of November.
We will also make an eight-volume set available for $219.99, which will be replaced by a ten-volume set at a higher price when all ten volumes are finished.
In response to some questions regarding the direct bookstore.
Yes, you can buy THE ALTAR OF HATE ebook edition separately from the hardcover+ edition. Yes, it is the current epub that contains “Shinjuku Satan” and the other new additions to the anthology.
Yes, you can buy A THRONE OF BONES hardcover+ edition directly from Arkhaven now. No, not the paperback, but the audiobook+ and the ebook editions are also available there.
No, you cannot buy most of our ebooks from Amazon right now. We’ll get them back up there eventually, but it is not a top priority at the moment. Please recall that most of the independent publishers that relied on Amazon are struggling or have already gone under; our direct business will always be our priority.
Yes, we are working on expanding our direct business beyond the USA and the UK. One step at a time. Please recall that it’s only been seven months since Aerio shut down and we began replacing it.
Yes, there will be A SEA OF SKULLS audiobook+ edition. No, it will not be available on Audible. It will only be available directly from Arkhaven or UATV.
Yes, the JUNIOR CLASSICS VOLS. VII and VIII will ship to backers and will be available for sale before Christmas.
If you have any other questions, leave them at the link below on SG. Unless they are shipping-related questions, in which case please contact the appropriate shipment house by email or on SG.
There is also some exciting Castalia-related news coming with regards to an upcoming crowdfunding campaign by a third party.
And since we’re at it, here is another selection from the short story “A Reliable Source”, an addition to THE ALTAR OF HATE that was originally published in the anthology RIDING THE RED HORSE.
From “A Reliable Source”
“There’s the man of the hour!” General William Norstad, commander of SATGO, was a tall man whose broad shoulders bore three stars apiece. “Colonel James, allow me to be the first to congratulate you. And someone get this man a beer!”
“Thank you, General.” James smiled at the blank looks on the faces of the men from the other three forces. “We had some first-rate support from the intelligence community.”
“Earlier this morning, a Grimm pilot under Colonel James’s command terminated with what can only be described as extreme prejudice both Aden al-Muhajir and Osama al-Ansari, numbers twelve and eighteen on our priority list.”
“Just doing our job, General.” The officers with their hands free clapped, others raised their drinks in salute. Three more officers arrived, including another Air Force general, and they, too, came over to congratulate James and shake his hand as the reason for the celebratory mood was explained to them.
Once all sixteen of the invited commanders were present, Norstad’s face grew more serious and he urged them all to take a seat and get comfortable.
“I’m sure most of you are wondering what the purpose of this interservice conclave is. As I expect you will have worked out by now, all of you command drone bases located on U.S. soil. As it happens, you represent sixteen of the twenty-five most effective drone commands in terms of kill-to-mission ratio. I think it speaks well of the armed forces that each branch is represented here today!
“However, the nature of war is such that no success long goes unremarked by the enemy. As with the laws of physics, for every action there is bound to be a reaction of some kind. In the last four years, our drones have successfully targeted over fifty-six hundred enemy combatants and proven to be our most effective weapon in the ongoing effort against terrorists and militant extremists around the globe. So, it is not surprising that the enemy appears to have embarked upon a new strategy, one that involves attacking our drone pilots and sensor operators here in the United States of America!”
There was more than a little murmuring at this, but James exchanged a glance with the Marine general, who nodded at him, his face showing absolutely no surprise. Had the Marines lost any pilots, or was this simply the Corps’s storied stoicism in action?
“In the last six months, fourteen drone pilots and three sensor operators have been found dead in circumstances ranging from deeply suspicious to seemingly innocuous. In addition, eight non-flying staff officers have either been murdered or committed suicide, inexplicably in the case of the latter. These deaths fall within the range of statistical probability, although they are on the high side, and none of them show any overt signs of being the result of terrorist activity. Moreover, the 25 deaths were spread out among twenty different bases, which is why no one recognized the pattern until there was a reason to go looking for it.”
“What sort of reason was that, General?”
Norstad smiled grimly and turned to face the Army general who’d asked the question. “Two weeks ago, the National Security Agency contacted SATGO with regards to intel it harvested from a social media site. We were informed that a YouTube channel was being used by a militant branch of Parisian jihadists to disseminate coded messages in retro music videos, hiding their communications in plain sight. Apparently single frames consisting of one letter were being inserted into the videos, which were invisible at a normal 24 frames-per-second rate, but allowed the viewer to read the message when the video was slowed down.”
“Are you’re saying that a connection between some of these deaths and the YouTube videos has been established? Or is this just civilian conjecture?” The admiral from Pax River sounded skeptical.
“All the videos associated with that channel have been analyzed. They contained direct references to eighteen of the twenty bases previously mentioned.”
And with that, the room fell into stunned silence. Norstad nodded. “We are no longer the predators, gentlemen, we are now the prey. In consultation with the NSA and the FBI, SATGO is in the process of developing an enhanced security protocol for all drone bases, foreign and domestic, with a particular emphasis on the bases deemed to be at the greatest risk. I assume you grasp, gentlemen, that your own bases are most certainly among those most likely to be targeted.”
“How many of those twenty bases that have already been hit are represented here, General?”
Norstad gave the Marine general a tight smile. “Twelve of them, General. Twelve of them.”
