With the final season of Game of Thrones reaching its climax, much speculation has been abound regarding the status of the final two books in the series, which author George R.R. Martin is still working on. Excitement reached breaking point when it was reported that Martin had apparently finished both of the books, but was waiting for the show to finish before publishing them. This, Martin has since confirmed, is completely false.
The news first spread when an actor from the hit TV show, Ian McElhinney, who played Ser Barristan Selmy, said in an interview at a Russian convention that he’d heard Martin had finished writing both The Winds of Winter and A Dream of Spring and was waiting for the show to finish before publishing them. Many news outlets took this as fact and word quickly spread that Martin was simply biding his time before releasing these long awaited books. However, these false reports have since been soundly debunked by the man himself.
On his Not a Blog, Martin made it very clear that there is to truth to the reports and that neither The Winds of Winter or A Dream of Spring are finished.
“All of a sudden this crazy story about my finishing THE WINDS OF WINTER and A DREAM OF SPRING years ago is popping up everywhere. No, I am not going to provide links. I don’t want to reward purveyors of misinformation with hits,” wrote Martin
“I will, however, say for the record — no, THE WINDS OF WINTER and A DREAM OF SPRING are not finished. DREAM is not even begun; I am not going to start writing volume seven until I finish volume six.”
He added: “It seems absurd to me that I need to state this. The world is round, the Earth revolves around the sun, water is wet… do I need to say that too? It boggles me that anyone would believe this story, even for an instant. It makes not a whit of sense. Why would I sit for years on completed novels? Why would my publishers — not just here in the US, but all around the world — ever consent to this? They make millions and millions of dollars every time a new Ice & Fire book comes out, as do I. Delaying makes no sense. Why would HBO want the books delayed? The books help create interest in the show, just as the show creates interest in the books.”
He finished by shooting down speculation that HBO or the show’s writers had made a deal with him not to publish the books before the show ends. “So… no, the books are not done. HBO did not ask me to delay them. Nor did David & Dan. There is no “deal” to hold back on the books. I assure you, HBO and David & Dan would both have been thrilled and delighted if THE WINDS OF WINTER had been delivered and published four or five years ago… and NO ONE would have been more delighted than me.”
The last book in Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series was published in 2011 and fans have been eagerly awaiting the next book, The Winds of Winter. No doubt some fans were hoping that the end of the TV show might signal the continuation of the books, but this is clearly not the case. Here’s hoping that the next book is worth the wait.