In January of 2017, he said he thought it would be released that year, but recently he said it won’t be before 2019. That would have kept the books ahead of the show, a goal he repeatedly said he was confident he could achieve. In early 2015 he said he thought he could finish it in a few months, then later in the year said he was hopeful it would be out before the spring of 2016.

In 2012, Martin predicted The Winds of Winter, for which he already said he had chapters completed in 2010, would be released in 2014. Upon looking at Martin’s array of mistakes, I realized something: It almost looks as though he were hiding something from us. Earlier this month, though, Miles Surrey at The Ringer put together a timeline of the world’s predictions of when Martin would finish the sixth book, factoring in the author’s own many (many) wrong guesses. I swear to the old gods and the new that’s not a totally insane idea.įor a long time I’ve hoped this was the case, mostly as a coping mechanism to avoid falling into the same pessimistic abyss of those described above. Martin is actually in the process of finishing the seventh and final book, A Dream of Spring.Please stop laughing. Which is why I am painfully aware that what I am about to say might make me sound like the dumbest, most naïve simpleton in the Seven Kingdoms: I think The Winds of Winter is already done and George R.R. For these lucky masses, the Long Night is already here, so there’s no need to worry that winter is coming.Īnd yes, they may be right. They’ve made peace with the nightmare possibility that he will never complete the last two books, forever leaving behind unanswered questions about the fates of numerous characters and plot lines that aren’t a part of Game of Thrones. They don’t hopelessly fall for every new rumor that ultimately proves incorrect, or get angry when he announces he’s working on another project altogether. I envy them because their certainty means they don’t spend time or energy being disappointed by his missed deadlines and never-ending delays. Sometimes I can’t help but envy fans of A Song of Ice and Fire series who are convinced George R.R.

A song of ice and fire book 6