This is my first contracted novel, and now it has reached its end.
It may not be perfect, but at least it's finished.
I'd like to share a few thoughts about this book.
To be honest, I haven't read many Western fantasy novels. Most of my reading has been in xuanhuan, xianxia, and historical fiction, with the occasional fanfic mixed in. My earlier original novels never managed to secure a contract, so I eventually turned to writing fanfiction instead.
A Song of Ice and Fire is a series I truly love. I finished all five published volumes back when I was in university. Because the world of Ice and Fire is so vast, I never imagined I would write fanfiction for it.
What really pushed me to start was a moment earlier this year. In the first half of the year, Martin posted a passage on his website responding to fans' complaints about the long delays of The Winds of Winter. That passage moved me deeply at the time.
Because of that, I decided to write my own A Song of Ice and Fire fanfic from my own perspective. That was the biggest reason and source of inspiration for starting this book.
In May, I revisited both the original novels and the TV series, then spent a great deal of effort designing the plot and the overall worldbuilding. From starting the book in June to finishing it in October, the whole process took nearly half a year.
I'm extremely grateful for the support of my readers. Whether you followed the story from the first chapter all the way to the final one, or jumped in and out along the way, thank you all the same.
I write part-time, so reader feedback has been a huge source of motivation for me. While the performance of this book was fairly average, it still exceeded my expectations.
When designing the story, I chose a relatively bold approach. Both the opening and the progression deliberately avoided following the usual, well-trodden paths.
I'm also very thankful to the Ice and Fire fans across various platforms who shared theories, speculations, and interpretations of the worldbuilding. That saved me a lot of effort and allowed me to draw from a rich pool of ideas.
Since A Song of Ice and Fire is still unfinished, no one can guarantee where the original story will go. For anything beyond what's already written, bold innovation was unavoidable.
But adaptation is not the same as random invention.
Many characters were handled using Martin-style logic or based on hints scattered throughout the original text.
For example, with Tommen, there has long been a theory among readers that after Jon Connington lands and takes King's Landing, his failure to find Tommen would be triggered by the sound of the bells, reminding him of Stoney Sept and driving him to burn the city. In my story, because King's Landing was already destroyed by Cersei, I used Stoney Sept instead. Compared to King's Landing, I felt Stoney Sept would better ignite Connington's madness.
Then there's Cersei. There has always been a theory that both Cersei and Jaime are actually Aerys's children. If that were true, then Cersei would be completing what her father never finished, while Jaime would be doing the same thing Tyrion did. The most dramatic part is that the son Tywin hated most would turn out to be his true son. That would be utterly insane.
That said, there are also elements I handled differently.
In the TV series, Stannis burns Shireen, and Bran becomes king. According to the showrunners, these ideas came from Martin himself rather than being their own inventions. That revelation shocked the fandom at the time, though given the poor reception, it's very possible Martin will change things in Book Six.
In my version, I didn't have Stannis do this. That's partly personal bias. I have a relatively positive view of Stannis, and burning one's own daughter feels far too extreme.
As for Jon's resurrection, I let Lady Stoneheart play a role. That was my own idea, but it felt fitting. Having Catelyn do this made more sense to me. The person who hated Jon the most uses her own life to bring him back.
For the Dornish storyline, I supported the true-and-fake Quentyn theory, which I feel fits Prince Doran's scheming nature better.
In terms of worldbuilding, I took a bold approach by incorporating material Martin has hinted at for Book Six, along with ideas from various setting guides. In fact, Ice and Fire readers have already formed a broad consensus about Lovecraftian elements over the past few years, something that can be inferred from the released Winds of Winter Aeron Damphair POV chapters.
How Martin will ultimately develop this remains unknown. But based on his hints, Euron's blood sacrifice at Oldtown to achieve godhood is almost a certainty. A shape-shifting Kraken is also highly likely, and it's very possible that Euron will summon it to destroy the Hightower–Redwyne fleet.
Finally, for Ice and Fire itself, I not only used the Lovecraftian concept of the Blasphemous Twins, but also borrowed a little from Naruto's Asura and Indra. The Drowned God draws inspiration from Black Zetsu, which should be easy to spot, and I also leaned into the Old Gods' weirwood-fish-seed theory.
Overall, my version of the world is bound to differ greatly from whatever Martin eventually writes. I personally suspect Martin may introduce more overtly benevolent divine figures.
From my perspective, however, no god or ancient king can truly be innocent. As a result, my worldview is very gray. Every god and ruler carries blood on their hands.
One regret is that writing this way naturally pushes the story toward a large ensemble cast, which compresses the space available for the protagonist. To keep the focus on the main character, I eventually had to accelerate the pacing.
Originally, the plan was to have about a hundred more chapters than what you see now. Many plotlines involving prolonged power struggles with Westerosi nobles were cut, especially around the War of the Five Kings, which alone was meant to add fifty to a hundred chapters.
But it couldn't be helped. This was my first time writing a book, and pacing-wise, it was very much a process of learning while doing and building experience along the way.
I hope I can continue to improve in the future.
With this book, I want to thank Martin, thank fellow fans, thank my editor, and most importantly, thank all the readers for your genuine, tangible support.
See you in the next book.