Game of Thrones fans are losing hope that the A Song of Ice and Fire book series will ever be finished as author George R.R. Martin still isn't close to completing the penultimate book, The Winds of Winter.
Following a reveal from earlier in November that Martin has written 1,100 pages of The Winds of Winter so far, the same number he had in 2022, the Game of Thrones Reddit erupted with conversation around the currently nine-year late novel.
"It's over. He's never finishing the series," wrote Numerous_Resist_8863. "Sadly I agree," replied awfulgrace. "I used to hold out hope, but a few years ago I came to grips with the fact the series would remain unfinished, to the point I’m honestly not even sure I’ll still care to read The Winds of Winter if and when it comes out."
The author admitted he was "struggling" with completing the novel. "I have like 1,100 pages written but I still have hundreds more pages to go," Martin said. "It's a big mother of a book for whatever reason. Maybe I should've started writing smaller books when I began this but it's tough."
An estimated release window for The Winds of Winter was first given in 2011 when the previous book, A Dance With Dragons, was released, and Martin said it would take three years to finish at a good pace. That set expectations for a 2014 release date, but year after year, and delay after delay, Martin still isn't ready to release the penultimate A Song of Ice and Fire entry. And he still has the final book, A Dream of Spring, to write after.
"I think we all know deep down that A Dream of Spring is never coming out but with an update like this I suspect Winds of Winter isn’t either," wrote g2610. "I think it's pretty clear that he needs help finishing the book," added mo_exe.
"Maybe the story has gotten too big or maybe he's just getting older, but he's clearly struggling with weaving the storylines into a coherent narrative. After over a decade of writing he has to have a pretty good idea where the story is going, so he probably struggles mainly with the execution. I hope he's not too proud to admit when he needs help."
Fans proposed several options for Martin to receive that help, whether it be a ghost writer, someone to take over the series altogether, or even have AI do it (though this is unlikely as he's currently one of 17 authors suing OpenAI for copyright infringement). It's understandable Martin wouldn't want to hand over the series in any capacity, of course, as the original A Game of Thrones novel was released way back in 1996 and it's been a huge part of his life ever since.
The failure to increase the page count of The Winds of Winter since December 2022 might not mean a failure to progress on the book, of course. Though he works on other projects like several Game of Thrones spin-off shows, Martin made clear writing The Winds of Winter is "the main thing that dominates most of [his] working life".
"Writing" the book will also include re-reading, re-writing, editing, planning, and so on, so there's still plenty of work to be done without actually increasing the page number total.
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He'll talk about The Witcher all day.
