It’s been eight years since A Dance with Dragons hit bookshelves and now George RR Martin is hoping to release The Winds of Winter next year. Well, the Game of Thrones author’s personal deadline is next summer before WonderCon in New Zealand anyway. Even so, Martin is now 70-years-old and still has A Dream of Spring to go before he finally completes A Song of Ice and Fire. Despite fans worrying he may never complete his fantasy epic, Martin has this week reassured them that he will.
Martin received the International Recognition Award at the Irish Book Awards in Dublin on Tuesday evening.
According to RTE, the author said during his speech: “My latest book Fire and Blood is a work of imaginary history and A Song of Ice and Fire is a work of fiction, fantasy novels, which I will finish.
This was met with laughs from the audience in attendance.
He apologised: “I know I should be at home writing right now, I’m sorry!”
With so much more to write and having reached his seventies, it’s unsurprising that one of the no-go topics in Martin’s latest big interview with The Observer was his health.
And despite Martin’s affirmations that he will finish the books, some fans just don’t believe him.
Last year, one frustrated fan wrote an opinion for Forbes saying: “I think it’s reasonable to begin burying our expectations. Martin is no spring chicken.
“It’s reasonable to worry that he might not be able to finish at this rate and equally reasonable to suspect he doesn’t much care.”
With such a long-writing process, Martin has previously been angered when fans were concerned he might die before finishing the series.
Such a situation occurred with his fellow fantasy author Robert Jordan, who died in 2007 before completing The Wheel of Time.
Started in 1984, there were still three novels to go in the 14-volume series when he passed away.
In the end, the series was completed by another fantasy writer called Brandon Sanderson.