Writing encompasses a small portion of the projects whirling through Martin’s mind, only some of which are Westeros-related. Answer: more than half a million words’ worth-and that was before the 2018 release of the 700-plus-page Targaryen history Fire & Blood. More than four years ago, I estimated how much writing Martin had published via his blog and various other projects in the five-plus years since the debut of A Dance of Dragons. His imagination is at once a wasteland (if judged solely by finishing Winds) and a fecund domain (if judged by his whole output). Martin doesn’t fit into either the involuntarily tapped-out or the voluntarily checked-out categories. When he shows up to play the hits, nobody boos him because they haven’t forgiven him for deciding to stop recording after River of Dreams. Billy Joel (just to name another once-prolific, 70-something, tri-state area icon) hasn’t released an album of original songs since 1993, and he’s made it clear that he doesn’t want to. Weiss ending to the saga was so satisfying that it would be impossible to top-then his readers could mourn and move on. Alternatively, if Martin had decided that he didn’t intend to finish Winds-you know, because the David Benioff and D.B. Martin would be far from the first artist whose creative tap turned off. If the author’s output had simply ceased, then we could consign the last two volumes of A Song of Ice and Fire to the fantasy scrap heap. “It is ridiculous to think otherwise.” Rightly or wrongly, though, it’s actually easy to think otherwise, because Martin has been busy writing or consulting on so many projects other than the one he says is foremost on his mind. “Work on Winds of Winter continues, and remains my top priority,” Martin blogged in June 2018. Most of the latter-day discourse surrounding Winds stems from such fresh affronts as Martin commenting about the book-admittedly, often at the public’s prompting-or devoting his time to other tasks. There’s only so much to say about the ongoing absence of something. Martin’s failure to finish Winds (let alone its anticipated sequel, A Dream of Spring) isn’t really a rich text on its own.
At this point, it’s probably best to abandon all hope and be pleasantly surprised if Martin ever does deliver the book. Miles made a long list, and that was almost three years ago. My colleague Miles Surrey once recounted every instance of Martin promising or supposedly prioritizing the completion of Winds and then breezing (pun partially intended) by whatever target he’d set. Even the matter of whether Winds will blow has been raised so often, and remains so uncertain, that asking the question seems passé. But when will words be Winds? Martin and most of his readers are well past the point of predicting when Winds will be out. What do you know of long waits?”įor the ‘Game of Thrones’ Pilot, Chaos Turned Out to Be a LadderĪs Martin’s tomes tell us, words are wind. To paraphrase Old Nan, “Oh, my sweet summer children. At this late date, it’s almost amusing (if you’re into dark comedy) that Martin’s readers, spoiled by the two-year gaps between A Game of Thrones and A Clash of Kings and Clash and A Storm of Swords, were up in arms about the five- and six-year halts, respectively, between books 4 and 5. A decade later-and roughly 11 years after Martin mentioned the first chapters ticketed for the penultimate installment of his series- Winds is still vaporware, aside from a smattering of sample chapters released long ago. I hope it doesn’t take me six years like this last one has.” Realistically, it’s going to take me three years to finish the next one at a good pace. Martin, fresh off the announcement of the release date for A Dance With Dragons (the fifth book in his beloved fantasy series), said, “Hopefully, the last two books will go a little bit quicker than this one has, but that doesn’t mean they’re going to be quick.
This past Tuesday, another milestone passed mostly unobserved: the 10th anniversary of the publication of an interview in which author George R.R. This Saturday will mark the 10th anniversary of the airing of the first episode of Game of Thrones. On Wednesday morning, HBO’s official Game of Thrones Twitter account cryptically tweeted, “Winter is coming.” And as soon as they saw it, countless A Song of Ice and Fire fans, burned by years of false rumors and misleading potential teasers for The Winds of Winter, thought, “No, it’s not.”
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