...I would watch the shit out of the ending of that series instead of waiting for Mr. Martin to finish writing. I would never forgive myself for skipping the season(s) that aren't out in written form yet and then getting spoiled about the ending on the internet.
I like the show version of the series well enough to replace the book version with it if he doesn't speed up his output towards the solution of the show.
If we end up talking about years between the end of the show and the end of the books, staying unspoiled could be a serious challenge if a person decided to wait for the books. If it was only a few months or one year, I think I could do it.
I just don't know if I would want my first impression of the ending to come from the show, where everything is (to my taste, at least) so shortened and smaller-scaled, and where so many details are skipped.
But maybe my biggest worry is that Martin would set aside the books to focus on acting as a plot consultant for the show, helping them get the details closer to what he envisions. At that point, not only would he be taking much longer to finish the books, but he might be influenced in his writing by what's on the screen.
All in all it would be a strange thing to have to navigate as a book fan, and I hope it doesn't come to that. But if Winds of Winter isn't out sometime in 2014, then the show is almost certainly going to pass the books before the end, and I'll have to see how I feel about that.
Chapterfish — Nate's Writing Blog
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