Fans of George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire fantasy novels have lengthy, lengthy, lengthy, awaited the deliberate sixth entry within the sequence, The Winds of Winter. But after greater than a decade of delays, even Martin is acknowledging the likelihood that it might by no means come to be.
Martin spoke in regards to the e-book in a current interview with THR, principally centered on the 4 movies he is self-financed primarily based on the brief tales of science-fiction author Howard Waldrop. But, after all, the topic of The Winds of Winter — and the way Martin is managing to steadiness that extremely anticipated novel together with his different pursuits — inevitably got here up.
“Unfortunately, I’m 13 years late,” he informed the outlet. “Every time I say that, I’m [like], ‘How might I be 13 years late?’ I don’t know, it occurs a day at a time.”
“But that’s nonetheless a precedence,” he continued. “Lots of people are already writing obituaries for me. [They’re saying] ‘Oh, he’ll by no means be completed.’ Maybe they’re proper. I don’t know. I’m alive proper now! I appear fairly very important!”
It’s solely the most recent in what’s been an more and more bleak look ahead to The Winds of Winter, with the latest entry within the sequence, A Dance With Dragons, publishing in 2011. That’s the identical yr that HBO premiered the insanely widespread TV sequence Game of Thrones, which relies on the A Song of Ice and Fire sequence and drew lots extra eyes to the world of Westeros.
Martin made the reveal in November 2023 that he is written 1,100 pages of The Winds of Winter, which would not be so disappointing if it weren’t the identical variety of pages he had written a yr prior. Before that, in 2022, he mentioned he was “about three-quarters of the best way performed,” and that the e-book would probably be greater than 1,500 pages.
Most just lately, this previous September, Martin admitted that he hadn’t made as a lot progress as he would’ve appreciated to, as his numerous TV exhibits “ate up” a lot of his time. It’s additionally value mentioning that The Winds of Winter is not even set to be the ultimate e-book in A Song of Ice and Fire. A seventh novel, A Dream of Spring, was set to shut out the sequence, though many followers have all however given up hope for that. (Note: The THR article calls The Winds of Winter the “sixth and closing e-book” within the A Song of Ice and Fire sequence, however we’re assuming that is only a mistake; Martin’s by no means formally canceled A Dream of Spring publicly).
Still, in a glimmer of hope, Martin did observe within the interview that he might by no means retire, as he is “not a golfer.” So hey, there’s that!
Even if we by no means get The Winds of Winter, there’s loads occurring in Westeros on the TV aspect. House of the Dragon continues to be on observe for 4 seasons, with the third anticipated to start out manufacturing early subsequent yr. Another spinoff, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, is ready to reach someday in late 2025, and there is even been early discuss of a Game of Thrones film.
Alex Stedman is a Senior News Editor with IGN, overseeing leisure reporting. When she’s not writing or enhancing, yow will discover her studying fantasy novels or enjoying Dungeons & Dragons.
