The Winds of Winter is the next installment in George R.R Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series, and is currently his most anticipated novel to date, mostly because it has been over nine years since his last release, and he promised his fans that he was going to have it finished long ago! (Yes, I know he wrote Fire and Blood, but that’s not a continuation of the of the A Song of Ice and Fire saga, which is what all of his fans have been waiting for).
For those of you who may be unaware, George Martin’s first due date was for The Winds of Winter was 2015, and now, five years later, he still doesn’t have it done. In a blog post the following year, 2016, George Martin updated the fans on the status of his upcoming book:
“THE WINDS OF WINTER is not finished. Believe me, it gave me no pleasure to type those words. You’re disappointed, and you’re not alone. My editors and publishers are disappointed, HBO is disappointed, my agents and foreign publishers and translators are disappointed… but no one could possibly be more disappointed than me. For months now I have wanted nothing so much as to be able to say, “I have completed and delivered THE WINDS OF WINTER” on or before the last day of 2015. But the book’s not done.”
He continues, denying the claims that he hasn’t even begun writing yet, saying that he has hundreds of pages down, yet still has far more to write. He ends his blog post by saying that he will refrain from setting a deadline so he doesn’t keep disappointing the fans, saying, “It will be done when it’s done. And it will be as good as I could possibly make it.”
However, in another blog post he made last year, he did make a statement regarding The Winds of Winter when he was invited to WorldCon 2020 in New Zealand. While he didn’t explicitly say that he will have the novel completed between the dates of July 29th and August 2nd, he did give New Zelanders his permission to imprison him in a small cabin on White Island until he’s done.
I’d like to conclude this article by encouraging my fellow fans to not be too frustrated with George Martin. I couldn’t imagine the amount of pressure he’s under. He must know that the longer he keeps his fans waiting, the higher expectations they have for his next, which can’t help the situation. While I’m not convinced that he’s going to have The Winds of Winter completed by the ends of next month, I’m willing to wait patiently. After all, I waited for almost a decade already, what’s a little while longer?