George R.R. Martin May Not Finish A Song of Ice and Fire
Many fans of A Song of Ice and Fire, the fantasy novel series that was adapted as Game of Thrones on HBO, have speculated that it would never be finished, and after years of insisting otherwise, author George R.R. Martin has finally admitted that this may be the case. A Song of Ice and Fire is set to be a seven-book series, and so far, five of those books have been written and released: A Game of Thrones, A Clash of Kings, A Storm of Swords, A Fest for Crows, and A Dance With Dragons. The next book, The Winds of Winter, has been in the works for thirteen years now, and fans have grown increasingly frustrated with Martin’s seeming procrastination, with many assuming he’s simply no longer interested in the books, preferring to see more TV adaptations of his work, which bring in a lot of easy money for him. In a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter about a couple of short films he had made based on his now-deceased friend’s work (which is a very nice story), Martin was asked about The Winds of Winter and said this:
“Unfortunately, I am 13 years late… Every time I say that, I’m [like], ‘How could I be 13 years late?’ I don’t know, it happens a day at a time… But that’s still a priority. A lot of people are already writing obituaries for me. [They’re saying] ‘Oh, he’ll never be finished.’ Maybe they’re right. I don’t know. I’m alive right now! I seem pretty vital!”
On the surface, this doesn’t seem significant; George R.R. Martin has repeatedly said that he cares about The Winds of Winter and the final installment of A Song of Ice and Fire, A Dream of Spring, and will finish the books, that they’re his priority, etc. But this is, as far as I know, the first time he’s said that he may never finish his opus, and for a fandom that long assumed he’d never make good on his promises, the admission that they may be right could effectively be confirmation that they are. First of all, he’s full of it when he says the books are a priority; if they were, he’d at least be done with The Winds of Winter by now. I know it’s long – supposedly over 1500 pages – but thirteen years should be enough time to get that done. And he’s filled that time with other projects that are clearly more important to him, even books; he wrote a book set in the world of A Song of Ice and Fire, and it turned out to be Fire and Blood, a Targaryen history book nobody wanted before The Winds of Winter and A Dream of Spring were completed. You don’t start on the apocryphal stuff until after you’ve finished the main story. It also seems clear the only reason he wrote Fire and Blood was so it could be turned into a TV show, which it has been in House of the Dragon. And he’s got at least one more of those on the way: A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, an adaptation of his Tales of Dunk and Egg stories.
I don’t blame George R.R. Martin’s fans for being furious at him for this. Years ago, in the lead-up to A Dance With Dragons, author Neil Gaiman famously told a fan, “George R.R. Martin is not your bitch.” Aside from wondering what he’d say on the subject now (probably the same; Gaiman is a wonderful writer, but he sounds like a dick in real life), I disagree with the sentiment in this case. A Song of Ice and Fire is not a series of standalone or interconnected novels; it is one big story being told over several books. Fans aren’t waiting for Batman Returns; they’re waiting for the next act of Batman. If it were otherwise, I’d agree with Gaiman, but when you’re asking people to buy into a long-form story like that, I think there is an implied agreement that you will make a good-faith effort to finish it, with some of the caveats Gaiman mentions. Otherwise, why should anyone bother starting until the entire series has been published – which it won’t be if nobody buys the first one? That’s kind of where I am with it; after the disastrous ending of Game of Thrones, I began reading A Song of Ice and Fire in the hopes it would ultimately be a better version of the story Dan Weiss and Dave Benioff screwed up so badly. But after reading the first three (all of which I thought were great) and moving on to some other things, I haven’t felt particularly compelled to pick up A Feast for Crows, and it’s largely because The Winds of Winter and especially A Dream of Spring are looking increasingly unlikely ever to see the light of day. Some have suggested a different writer may eventually write (or finish, in the case of The Winds of Winter) the books, but is anyone really going to be satisfied with that? Won’t you always wonder what Martin’s version – the real version – would have been like? I suppose we’ll always wonder, because now more than ever, it looks like A Song of Ice and Fire will never see its next note.
Let us know if you think George R.R. Martin will finish A Song of Ice and Fire in the comments!
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Comments (6)
This is gonna get rocks thrown at me, but I’m not much for Lord of the Rings. I never read the books, but I saw the movies when they came out in theaters, and I was mostly just bored. But I don’t usually like high fantasy, so it’s probably more a me thing than anything wrong with Lord of the Rings. That’s why I was surprised that I liked Game of Thrones. I didn’t expect to, so I skipped it, but it got so popular that I decided I should at least give it a try.
Well, dude. To each their own! I LOVE it but you don’t have to! That’s beauty of taste! Especially that you don’t seem to dislike it cause it’s “bad”. It’s just not your cup of tea! And that’s great!
Also, do you agree on Game of Thrones with me? People say how Season 7 and 8 were trash. 7 had gigantic problems and plot holes… but story was still good. Just not that well executed and decidedly SUPER-RUSHED (fast travel was cringe for instance). Season 8 was a straight up middle-finger to all previous seasons INCLUDING 7!
Yeah, I was mostly kidding. I just know how beloved Lord of the Rings is. Every so often I think about trying it again, just to see if my taste has changed; it’s been 20 years or so, and stranger things have happened.
I think I mostly agree with you. I think season 7 was bad in a lot of places, but there were parts of it I really liked. And I agree that a lot of it had to do with how rushed it was. You started to see some of the main people acting very out of character, and that’s partly because they didn’t take the time to explain how they’d develop to a point where they would believably do some of the things they did. I didn’t mind where some of them ended up, but I didn’t buy it because they didn’t do the work to get there. For example, the way Petyr Baelish was dispatched was a very cool idea for a few reasons, but it came about way too quickly to be believable. And the super fast travel everyone mentions is a big deal, especially when Daenerys just arrives north of the Wall from Dragonstone in like five minutes. It takes you out of the story when they start breaking their own geography rules. The idea of a men-on-a-mission quest beyond the Wall is terrific (and I love the idea of the Knight King turning a dragon into a White Walker; imagine if season 8 did absolutely anything at all with that), but it could have been a whole season, or the better part of one, not an episode and a quarter. And the weird mixed messages about how Daenerys was waging her war made no sense and were, in retrospect, clearly a half-assed attempt to show her getting darker for the finale.
Someone said that he wrote himself into a corner. In a way, I prefer unfinished things because maybe some smart writer in the future will pick it up and do something with it.
I’ve heard that too, that he killed off some people he really should have kept alive. I also read something really interesting a day or two ago; someone on X said that while the story starts off very dark and unforgiving, it’s actually setting up a more traditional, relatively happy good-triumphs-over-evil ending, but that he doesn’t want to do that, so he’s trying to figure out how to keep it dark. I find that idea fascinating because that’s how I always felt about Game of Thrones; things were getting very dark, evil was consistently winning, bad men profited while good men died, but there was a new generation of heroes on the horizon who were going to put a stop to that. You could see it happening throughout the first six seasons, with Daenerys, Tyrion, Jon Snow, Sansa and Arya Stark, Theon (although it was a bumpy path for him) and his sister whose name I forget, and a few others. Even Varys, who was a realist and, to a certain extent, a manipulator, but wanted good to win out. That final shot of season 6 was incredible, with Daenerys and her legions setting sail for Westeros, bringing justice with them. But Dan and Dave screwed up the ending in about a thousand different ways because they wanted to make their stupid Star Wars movie that never even happened.
Honestly, I gave up on him finishing the books LONG AGO! Also, never asked you but what do you think of Lord of the Rings? Those are my most beloved movies of all time (I even could pick a favorite). Love books too.