Summary

George R.R. Martin is 13 years behind on finishing The Winds of Winter, causing concern among fans.
The final two books in the series, including A Dream of Spring, may face significant delays in publication.
Martin's original plan was for a trilogy, but the series has expanded, potentially impacting the final resolution of the story.

Winter is supposed to be coming to George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire saga, but with it being an achingly long 13 years since he released the last book, fans are worried that he might never get around to writing an end to the War of the Five Kings. Although the Game of Thrones TV series delivered its own ending in 2019, there’s still a lot of the story to tell in book form.

Martin has outlined his plan to write seven books in the A Song of Ice and Fire series, with the final two entries being The Winds of Winter and A Dream of Spring. The author has been open about the fact that he’s behind on writing The Winds of Winter. Despite saying he has no plans to retire, his advancing age and previous admissions have readers concerned about the final two entries.

Where is The Winds of Winter?

George R. R. Martin Game of Thrones Winds of Winter — Game of Thrones creator George R R Martin.

Martin started writing The Winds of Winter no later than 2010, with it expected to pick up from A Dance with Dragons’ cliffhanger ending. Book five ended with Daenerys fleeing a troubled Meereen on the back of Drogon, Jon Snow being stabbed by his own men of the Night’s Watch, and Varys revealing his plot to put Aegon Targaryen on the Iron Throne. Although things have played out differently in terms of missing characters in the show, these events roughly line up with season 5 of the HBO series.

Martin’s original plan was to write A Song of Ice and Fire as a trilogy, with the only books being A Game of Thrones, A Dance with Dragons, and The Winds of Winter. This again stresses the seeming importance of The Winds of Winter and the story it’s going to tell. This would have also meant the books were all published before Game of Thrones even started airing. Instead, it’s been 28 years since the first book was published, and there’s still no end in sight.

Frustratingly, the fact that A Dance with Dragons runs concurrently with 2005’s A Feast for Crows means other dangling plot threads like Brienne of Tarth’s fate at the hands of Lady Stoneheart and Arya Stark being blinded by the Faceless Men remain unresolved. Martin has teased fans by releasing 11 chapters from The Winds of Winter over the years, with one where Theon is captured by Stannis Baratheon being included in A Dance with Dragons’ paperback. He stopped releasing chapters in 2018 because he didn’t want to give more away.

In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Martin has admitted he’s 13 years ‘late’ with The Winds of Winter, but doesn’t know how it happened. Reiterating that the novel is a priority, he explained:

“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!”

This has sparked more complaints from readers, who are once again pointing to how The Winds of Winter hasn’t been the priority he previously promised it would be. As well as taking time out of writing the sixth book to pen Fire & Blood, he’s worked on House of the Dragon, helped develop A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, and is working on a film based on the late Howard Waldrop’s The Ugly Chickens.

All of this comes alongside worldbuilding for FromSoftware’s Elden Ring, which some claim has come at The Winds of Winter’s cost. Considering he’d written four chapters by June 2010, it shows how slow progress has been over the past 14 years. Hopeful release dates of 2014 and 2016 have long gone, and Martin's critics will point to his infamous quote from February 2016 when he promised readers of his Not a Blog site:

“I am not writing anything until I deliver Winds of Winter. Teleplays, screenplays, short stories, introductions, forewords, nothing.”

He once told fans they could imprison him if he wasn’t finished by July 2020, but nearly four and a half years later, there’s no sign of the mythical manuscript. Although Martin jokes about people thinking he might die before The Winds of Winter is published, others are looking even further ahead.

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Game of Thrones Fans Still Have A Dream of Spring

Maegor was the third Targaryen king on the Iron Throne

When readers close the book on The Winds of Winter, A Dream of Spring is expected to be even more epic. Even if The Winds of Winter got a surprise release in 2025, if Martin took as long to write A Dream of Spring, it wouldn’t be out until 2039. Aside from that putting George R.R. Martin in his ‘90s, a huge number of fans would likely miss out on seeing how the story ends.

In a 2022 update on his site, Martin explained how the books will veer away from Game of Thrones’ controversial ending, which makes sense due to a lack of seemingly important characters like Victarion Greyjoy, Arianne Martell, and Jon Connington:

“What I have noticed more and more of late, however, is my gardening is taking me further and further away from the television series. Yes, some of the things you saw on HBO in Game of Thrones you will also see in The Winds of Winter (though maybe not in quite the same ways)… but much of the rest will be quite different.”

It’s no secret that Game of Thrones’ ending was divisive, with more than 1.5 million people signing a petition to remake season 8. This makes The Winds of Winter’s release even more important, as it will give critics their first real taste of where things could be heading.

In Martin’s original plan, the final book would have focused on the Others, who are the book version of the White Walkers. They were pitched as the real threat to Westeros, which the show failed to capitalize on. Many were critical of season 8 and think it should have focused on Cersei and the battle for King’s Landing in the first half, before heading to an epic battle with the White Walkers at Winterfell in the final few episodes. Martin hasn’t revealed how he plans to end the books, but many expect the Others to be the de facto big bad. Still, that doesn’t mean Daenerys Targaryen won’t get her Mad Queen arc.

As both The Winds of Winter and A Dream of Spring are set to be longer than the previous books, it gives an insight into just how long they’ll be. There are swirling theories that Martin has been cooking up something special and has possibly written The Winds of Winter and A Dream of Spring at the same time. In a more recent July 2024 post on his blog, Martin cryptically warned:

When Winds of Winter is done, the word will not trickle out, there WILL be a big announcement…where and when I cannot say.

Optimists hope that even if the final two books aren’t released at the same time, Martin has secretly penned the story’s end in case anything happens to him. In the meantime, disgruntled readers have taken to using ChatGPT to create examples of how they think Martin will round off the sordid saga. With the man himself warning that fan-favorites who died in Game of Thrones will live to fight another day and some who survived won’t make it to A Dream of Spring’s final pages, readers are bracing for A Song of Ice and Fire’s final entries being just as shocking as HBO’s live-action adaptation.

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