Winter may finally be on its way to Westeros. Finally. Or not.
But all fans of “A Song of Ice and Fire,” the fantasy series that led to the hit HBO show “Game of Thrones,” have to continue, is the word of George RR Martin, its creator.
The 71-year-old Martin, who lives in Santa Fe, NM, has long missed deadlines for submitting the final manuscript of “The Winds of Winter,” the sixth book in the series, which began publication in 1996. On Wednesday, He tweeted that “forced isolation” from life during a pandemic was helping him make “steady progress” in the book.
He did not say when readers might check it out. “I finished a new chapter yesterday, another three days ago, another the week before,” he wrote in a Tuesday update on his blog that was shared with the tweet. “But no, this does not mean that the book will be finished tomorrow or published next week. It will be a huge book, and I still have a long way to go. “
He also regretted that he had been forced to cancel plans to visit New Zealand, but said “there was definitely a silver lining to that cloud.”
“The last thing I need right now is a long interruption that could cost me all the momentum I’ve built up,” he wrote. “I can always visit Wellington next year, when I expect both Covid-19 and THE WINDS OF WINTER to be over.”
That was the only clue to his publishing plans. He urged fans not to “give credit to any of the click-bait websites that like to analyze every word of my posts,” though fans of the series are well known for doing it on their own.
David Moench, Mr. Martin’s representative at Random House, declined to answer questions about the timing of the next book.
“George Martin is not available for an interview, as he is actually focused on writing THE WINDS OF WINTER,” he said. “Random House will publish that book once it’s finished, whenever possible.”
On Reddit, fans of the “A Song of Ice and Fire” subreddit responded to the ad with a mix of despair, excitement, and plot suggestions. “This is not great news, it doesn’t even qualify as news,” wrote one contributor. “I hate being negative, but the only posts I want to see are about an impending release,” wrote another.
Hungry fans of the written series have been gathering on the subreddit for years, collectively sharing their hopes and frustrations for the series, noticing every blog update and dissecting every word from the author in an attempt to find just one more crumb about the upcoming book. .
Martin also assured readers that he was healthy “for a 71-year-old out of shape guy,” gave some author recommendations: Stephen King, Emily St. John Mandel, and said he was still involved in the slow production of “The House. of the Dragon “, continuation of HBO to” Game of Thrones “.
The latest volume in the series, “A Dance With Dragons,” was released in 2011. The HBO adaptation began airing around the same time, spanned eight years, and then surpassed Mr. Martin’s plot production. While that show rose to the height of the audience, regularly breaking HBO’s audience records, it ended in a critical defeat for its creators.
Martin has turned down interview requests from The New York Times this year, and his team protects his writing time. In recent months, he found time to buy a railroad with his friends. (It also has a cinema in Santa Fe).
With a possible delivery date of 2021, that would make book development a three-decade process.
Except “The Winds of Winter” is not the end of this story. There must be one more.
Aimee Ortiz contributed reporting.
