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  ===Bridging the timeline gap (2000–2011) ===
  After ''A Game of Thrones'', ''A Clash of Kings'', and ''A Storm of Swords'', Martin originally intended to write three more books. The fourth book, tentatively titled ''A Dance with Dragons'', was to focus on Daenerys Targaryen's return to Westeros and the associated conflicts. Martin wanted to set this story five years after ''A Storm of Swords'' so that the younger characters could grow older and the dragons grow larger. Agreeing with his publishers early on that the new book should be shorter than ''A Storm of Swords'', Martin set out to write the novel closer in length to ''A Clash of Kings''. A long prologue was to establish what had happened in the meantime, initially just as one chapter of Aeron Damphair on the Iron Islands at the Kingsmoot. Since the events on the Iron Islands were to have an impact in the book and could not be told with existing POV characters, Martin eventually introduced three new viewpoints.
  In 2001, Martin was still optimistic that the fourth installment might be released in the last quarter of 2002. However, the five-year gap did not work for all characters during writing. On one hand, Martin was unsatisfied with covering the events during the gap solely through flashbacks and internal retrospection. On the other hand, it was implausible to have nothing happen for five years. After working on the book for about a year, Martin realized he needed an additional interim book, which he called ''A Feast for Crows''. The book would pick up the story immediately after the third book, and Martin scrapped the idea of a five-year gap. The material of the written 250-page prologue was mixed in as new viewpoint characters from Dorne and the Iron Islands. These expanded storylines and the resulting story interactions complicated the plot for Martin.
  The manuscript length of ''A Feast for Crows'' eventually surpassed ''A Storm of Swords''. Martin was reluctant to make the necessary deep cuts to get the book down to publishable length, as that would have compromised the story he had in mind. Printing the book in "microtype on onion skin paper and giving each reader a magnifying glass" was also not an option for him. On the other hand, Martin rejected the publishers' idea of splitting the narrative chronologically into ''A Feast for Crows'', Parts One and Two. Being already late with the book, Martin had not even started writing all characters' stories and also objected to ending the first book without any resolution for its many viewpoint characters as in previous books.
  With the characters spread out across the world, a friend suggested that Martin divide the story geographically into two volumes, of which ''A Feast for Crows'' would be the first. This approach would give Martin the room to complete his commenced story arcs as he had originally intended, which he still felt was the best approach years later. Martin moved the unfinished characters' stories set in the east (Essos) and north (Winterfell and the Wall) into the next book, ''A Dance with Dragons'', and left ''A Feast for Crows'' to cover the events in King's Landing, the Riverlands, Dorne, and the Iron Islands. Both books begin immediately after the end of ''A Storm of Swords'', running in parallel instead of sequentially, and involve different casts of characters with only little overlap. Martin split Arya's chapters into both books after having already moved the three other most popular characters (Jon Snow, Tyrion, and Daenerys) into ''A Dance with Dragons''.
  Upon its release in October 2005 in the UK and November 2005 in the US, ''A Feast for Crows'' went straight to the top of ''The New York Times'' bestseller list. Among the positive reviewers was Lev Grossman of ''Time'', who dubbed Martin "the American Tolkien". However, fans and critics alike were disappointed with the story split that left the fates of several popular characters unresolved after ''A Storm of Swords'' cliffhanger ending. With ''A Dance with Dragons'' said to be half-finished, Martin mentioned in the epilogue of ''A Feast for Crows'' that the next volume would be released by the next year. However, planned release dates were repeatedly pushed back. Meanwhile, HBO acquired the rights to turn ''A Song of Ice and Fire'' into a fantasy drama series in 2007 and aired the first of ten episodes covering ''A Game of Thrones'' in April 2011.
  With around 1600 pages in manuscript length, ''A Dance with Dragons'' was eventually published in July 2011 after six years of writing, longer in page count and writing time than any of the preceding four novels. The story of ''A Dance with Dragons'' catches up with and goes beyond ''A Feast for Crows'' around two-thirds into the book, but nevertheless covers less story than Martin had intended, omitting at least one planned large battle sequence and leaving several character threads ending in cliff-hangers. Martin attributed the delay mainly to his untangling "the Meereenese knot", which the interviewer understood as "making the chronology and characters mesh up as various threads converged on Daenerys". Martin also acknowledged spending too much time on rewriting and perfecting the story, but soundly rejected the theories of some of his critics that he had lost interest in the series or would bide his time to make more money.