Why Fans Have Been Waiting 14 Years for the Next Game of Thrones Book

Summary

  • The long wait for
    The Winds of Winter
    began nearly 14 years ago with the release of
    A Dance with Dragons
    .
  • The heavy anticipation for
    The Winds of Winter
    stems from the desire to see the story end and the disappointment of
    Game of Thrones
    season 8.
  • Delays in
    The Winds of Winter
    are due to Martin’s complicated storyline, various spin-off projects, and other writing obligations.



Since shortly after Game of Thrones was released in 2011, A Song of Ice and Fire‘s readers have been waiting for The Winds of Winter. The book will be the sixth in the mainline Game of Thrones saga and is meant to serve as the penultimate chapter in the original story of Westeros. George R. R. Martin has been working on the book for over a decade, but there has been no word on a publication date.

Fans have been waiting nearly 14 years for a sequel to A Dance with Dragons, and the success of the franchise has only made the upcoming release more exciting. There are many reasons that Martin has been delaying the release, and there are just as many reasons why readers have been waiting to read the book. The long wait has countless readers waiting desperately to see when The Winds of Winter will finally be released.


Updated on August 20, 2024, by Benjamin Vieira: Without a doubt, Game of Thrones is one of the most popular franchises in the world today. George R.R. Martin’s work has been highly regarded and created a phenomenal series. However, fans have been waiting for years for The Winds of Winter. People want to know how the story ends. However, it likely will not come soon. This article has been edited to CBR’s current standards.


A Dance with Dragons was Released Nearly 14 Years Ago

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The last mainline book in the Game of Thrones series was released nearly 14 years ago. The fifth book in the series — A Dance with Dragons — is currently the last in the series. It was released on July 12, 2011, just months after Game of Thrones‘ April 17, 2011 premiere. Martin has released multiple novellas, graphic novels, collections, and companion books since, but that sixth book remains conspicuously absent.


Much of The Winds of Winter was already completed when A Dance with Dragons was released. Numerous chapters were cut from Dance. The conclusion of Dance was cut from the book and held back for the upcoming novel. Martin has already released some chapters, yet the rest of the book remains unwritten. To make the anticipation worse, The Winds of Winter will not even serve as the final book in the franchise. Instead, the seventh book, A Dream of Spring, will conclude the saga. That has only made the long wait more painful. After all, even this book’s release won’t end the story.

Why is The Winds of Winter So Heavily Anticipated?

Fans Want to Know How the Story Ends

The Winds of Winter by George RR Martin's cover


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  • The long wait has promoted a desire to see the story end.
  • Another major factor behind the heavy anticipation is the failure of Game of Thrones season 8.

In the time it has taken for George R. R. Martin to write The Winds of Winter, the entire Game of Thrones show has come and gone. It became one of the most popular television shows before earning complete disdain with its disappointing and controversial final season. The Winds of Winter offers an opportunity to fix that disappointing ending, but it is a feat that cannot be accomplished until Martin finally releases the next book. After 13 years of waiting, the anticipation for the book has only been increasing.


Anticipation is increasing, but so is the wait between each mainline book. There were two years between A Game of Thrones and A Clash of Kings, followed by another two years for A Storm of Swords. A Feast for Crows took longer, having taken five years to be released. A Dance with Dragons had an even longer delay, approximately six years between the books. The Winds of Winter‘s delay has increased exponentially, taking nearly 14 years. Martin is still writing the book, which means that the publication date will inevitably be even further in the future.

The long delay has caused substantial excitement, but frustration has been just as prevalent. The failure of Game of Thrones season 8 means that the books will likely be the only medium through which Martin can offer a truly fitting ending for the franchise. The delay has ensured that anyone hoping for a faithful ending has been left waiting even longer for a satisfying conclusion.


Why Has The Winds of Winter Not Been Released?

George R.R. Martin Has Been Very Busy

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  • A complicated storyline and various spin-off projects have delayed author George R. R. Martin.

Since A Dance with Dragons was released, Martin has completed and released three novellas: The Princess and the Queen, The Rogue Prince, and The Sons of the Dragon. He also collected A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, which tells the story of Dunk and Egg. He also wrote and published The World of Ice & Fire and Fire & Blood and has been hard at work to write the Fire & Blood sequel, Blood & Fire. These works have taken time away from A Song of Ice and Fire, meaning they have all directly resulted in an ever-increasing delay for The Winds of Winter. It has also expanded the A Song of Ice and Fire blueprint, making finding the appropriate order for the Game of Thrones books difficult.


However, Martin’s obligations are not solely related to his A Song of Ice and Fire obligations. He has also served as an editor of Wild Cards, an anthology series that follows a group of human beings mutated by an alien virus. Martin’s Wild Cards obligations mean that he works closely with a group of authors and fellow editor Melinda M. Snodgrass to ensure that the world remains grounded and connected despite a large group of authors producing different sections for the series.

Elden Ring also likely delayed the development of The Winds of Winter. While Martin did not serve as a full-time writer for the game, he contributed heavily to developing the world’s backstory. The modern events of the story were relegated to the game’s typical writers, but Martin still dedicated himself to creating some of the lore. However, this involvement has been largely overshadowed by his involvement in the HBO adaptations of his work, which are likely much more involved for the renowned author.


There have been numerous Game of Thrones spin-offs that have also been drawing Martin’s attention. The hit shows House of the Dragon, The Sea Snake, 10,000 Ships, The Hedge Knight, and The Golden Empire are all in various stages of development. House of the Dragon proved the viability of these spinoffs, which has only increased HBO’s desire to see the shows completed. Some of those spin-offs, including Blood Moon, Empire of Ash, Snow, and Flea Bottom , failed to earn a greenlight from HBO but still had Martin’s involvement at some point in their development.

The biggest reason for the delays, however, is the complexity of The Winds of Winter. With so many different characters, each leading sections of the book, it is incredibly difficult to provide a conclusive means to bring that story to a penultimate point. Arya Stark and Daenerys still need to return to Westeros, while Jon Snow still needs to be brought back to life. Lady Stoneheart remains a haunting face in the Riverlands, and Cersei’s downfall is soon to approach in King’s Landing. All of that even fails to ignore the impending horror of the Others’ approach.


When Will The Winds of Winter Come Out?

Nobody Knows Except George R.R. Martin

george r. r. martin
Photo: Gage Skidmore

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  • Due to Martin’s writing style and other obligations, it is impossible to know when The Winds of Winter will be released.

A Dance with Dragons and A Feast for Crows was so large that Martin needed to split the story into two books — with some content left over for The Winds of Winter. While these stories were important, they failed to bring A Song of Ice and Fire closer to its conclusion. The Winds of Winter will need to fill several key roles as the penultimate book, meaning Martin needs to dedicate himself to perfecting the book. That is a major reason behind the book’s unrelenting and repeated delays.


There is no real way to know when The Winds of Winter will finally be released. Martin occasionally updates his website, which he titled “Not a Blog,” and through Penguin Random House, his publisher. He made several updates in 2022, indicating that he was approximately 75 percent done with the book but that there were approximately four to five hundred pages left to write. As of November 2023, Martin appeared on the “Bangcast” podcast and explained that he has not made any substantial progress on the book since his 2022 updates. He still has several hundred pages left to complete.


Martin has often described himself as a “gardener” rather than an “architect.” That, generally, means that Martin prefers to let stories grow rather than thoroughly planning their development. He often erases entire sections of the book based on the actions of a different character in another part of the world. Because of that, Martin can theoretically write 500 pages in a year, but he could cut 600 pages just as quickly, finding himself further behind than he was at the beginning of the year. This writing style has produced the brilliance of A Song of Ice and Fire, but it has severely delayed The Winds of Winter.

Fans Have Gotten Some Game Of Thrones Content

House of the Dragon Season 2 is Out Now

House of the Dragon Release Date

August 21, 2022

Number of Seasons

2

Number of Episodes

18


With House of the Dragon season 2 already out and more likely to come, there will still be new content from A Song of Ice and Fire‘s world. In addition, HBO also announced that another Game of Thrones prequel will be released in the coming months. A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms will be released and stars Peter Claffey playing Ser Duncan the Tall. It will be yet another expansion of the on-screen Game of Thrones universe. However, fans do certainly still want to see that next book get a release date.

Unfortunately, until Martin provides a final update, The Winds of Winter‘s release date remains a mystery. With hundreds of pages left to write in late 2023, it is unlikely that Martin’s latest epic will be finished anytime soon. The long wait for The Winds of Winter continues, meaning the watch is far from ending.



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