BOOKS: A Feast for Crows -- wait, seriously?

George R. R. Martin has finally finished A Feast for Crows!!! The long (long, long) awaited fourth book in the Song of Ice and Fire series will finally see the light of day! Calloo, callay, and whatnot.*

I've been waiting for this freaking book to come out for... well, since I finished the previous book, A Storm of Swords, which was released way back in October, 2000. (Ah, the good ol' days, pre-election fiasco, pre-Dubya.) Dude. Five years between books? Not cool.

Whether Martin will actually, genuinely, seriously meet the publishing date (Amazon lists it as September 27, but I'm cool with any time before that) -- I still wouldn't put any money on it, no matter what he says. There have been at least six projected publishing dates which have come and gone over the long wait for Crows. (In fact, I've written about Martin's failure to meet publishing dates before.) I wouldn't put money on it... but I'm crossing my fingers like crazy.

Other good news: the next book in the series, A Dance with Dragons, may actually be released in a relatively timely fashion, due to the fact that since Crows turned out to be such a gigantic manuscript, Martin split it in two. So the next book is already at least half finished! Please, no more five year waits. I can't take it.

Damn, now I've gotta go reread the first three books! By which I mean: goody! I love those books. If you haven't read them, and you have any interest in fantasy -- seriously, if you've only just watched the Lord of the Rings movies -- you have got to read this series. Best fantasy fiction ever published -- bar none. And I don't say that lightly. After the first two books, I used to amend that statement with "since Tolkien". After the third book, I dropped the qualification. And I stand by it! Goldurn it.

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*"Whatnot" has recently become my go-to comedy word. I apologize if this causes any inconvenience.