Author George R.R. Martin admitted in a recent interview that some of his fans have solved the mysteries of his epic fantasy series.
Fans of George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series have poured over the dense novels for years, constructing and fine-tuning theories as intricate as the series itself. That labor of love has apparently borne fruit.
“Some of the theories are right,” Martin confirmed, speaking at the Edinburgh International Book Festival.
The author admitted that he has “wrestled” with the fact that some fans have solved the many mysteries of his epic series.
“I do want to surprise my readers. I hate predictable fiction as a reader, I don’t want to write predictable fiction,” he said. “I want to surprise and delight my reader and take them in directions they didn’t see coming.”
“But I can’t change the plans,” Martin stated firmly, recalling that he was first confronted with this issue on fan boards in the ’90’s. “At least one or two readers had put together the extremely subtle and obscure clues that I’d planted in the books and came to the right solution.”
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The Song of Ice and Fire series has exploded in popularity with the progression of HBO’s adaptation, Game of Thrones. As more and more fans join the speculative masses, it becomes more likely that the hive mind will reach Martin’s pre-drawn conclusions.
“So what do I do then? Do I change it?” Martin mused. “I wrestled with that issue and I came to the conclusion that changing it would be a disaster, because the clues were there… so I’m just going to go ahead.”
Still, Martin keeps much of his hope in the less technological segment of the fandom. “Some of my readers who don’t read the boards, which thankfully there are hundreds of thousands of them, will still be surprised,” he said. “And other readers will say: ‘See, I said that four years ago, I’m smarter than you guys.'”