The Winds of Winter publishing date guesses?

[Koopa]

I'm watching them too, even though their are parts of the show i don't like all that much.
It won't spoil the books (entirely) for me, i'll still enjoy them if we ever get are hands on them.

 

[Judderman]

I will watch the new season first if it comes out before the new book. But I think it will spoil the twists and shocks in the book considerably. You spend so many hours reading the books to get to those points.

 

[Pedro Del Mar]

I still seriously doubt we ever see TWOW but even if we do, I'm tired of waiting. I don't think it will ruin enjoyment of the books since there are so many differences from the show.

I think we'll see TWOW but I'm not expecting to see any after that

 

[Heir]

I think we'll see TWOW but I'm not expecting to see any after that

That's literally how I see it happening too. I think Winds is the last book we'll be seeing unless GRRM somehow becomes proficient at releasing a book in an uncharacteristic two years. Then again, part of what makes these books great is the care put into them. If they came out a lot faster, it'd probably be to the detriment of the book and by extension our reading experience.

On the plus side, from here on nobody can spoil the show for anyone who's not read the books!

 

[Pedro Del Mar]

Since A Storm of Swords it's taking George between 5 and 6 years to write each one of the novels. Working on this basis and estimating TWOW will be released in 2016 (which isn't guaranteed) then A Dream of Spring could be 2021-ish

 

[Koopa]

I think we'll see TWOW but I'm not expecting to see any after that

On that note, I suppose it's a good thing GRRM sold the rights. That way we are at least not left wondering what the end of the story should have been more or less like. I'm hoping he does finish the series, I mean he is still working on the books and said to be still invested/committed to them, but he has referred to the still to be released books as monkeys on his back before or something like that.

 

[viZion]

Then again, part of what makes these books great is the care put into them. If they came out a lot faster, it'd probably be to the detriment of the book and by extension our reading experience.

I disagree here. If anything, the quality of AFFC and ADWD went down in comparison to the first three books due to the lack of an editor who could rein in GRRM which led to a lot of bloat. I say that as someone who enjoyed AFFC enough to read it three times. However, I read ADWD once and have no desire to read it again any time soon. There were two entire Tyrion chapters that could have been cut out with no effect on the story. Then throw in the Quentyn fiasco; he was an entire POV character who served absolutely no purpose other than to provide us a SHOCKING DEATH (meh). Anyway, I (and others) have written enough posts about that. The point is that taking longer isn't directly related to *good* quality. If anything, it appears that taking longer to write the books lowers the quality.

 

[MWagner]

I disagree here. If anything, the quality of AFFC and ADWD went down in comparison to the first three books due to the lack of an editor who could rein in GRRM which led to a lot of bloat. I say that as someone who enjoyed AFFC enough to read it three times. However, I read ADWD once and have no desire to read it again any time soon. There were two entire Tyrion chapters that could have been cut out with no effect on the story. Then throw in the Quentyn fiasco; he was an entire POV character who served absolutely no purpose other than to provide us a SHOCKING DEATH (meh). Anyway, I (and others) have written enough posts about that. The point is that taking longer isn't directly related to *good* quality. If anything, it appears that taking longer to write the books lowers the quality.

Yeah, it seems to me that the increased time Martin is taking to write the books isn't a result of painstaking care with the plot and prose (ADWD is not any better written than ASOS), but rather the result of Martin letting the story getting hopelessly tangled and weighted down with digressions.

 

[Pedro Del Mar]

Not good news on George's blog. The book isn't finished and he doesn't know when it will be.

In all honesty I'd be surprised now if it's released in 2016.

I'm just going to watch the show in the meantime and read books by other authors who I've come to enjoy as much as I did the first books of ASOIAF

 

[Ursa major]

I watch the show on Blu-ray (so have yet to see the 2015 episodes).

I'm rather hoping the book will be out before this season's episodes arrive (in February/March 2017), but won't be entirely surprised if it isn't.

 

[MWagner]

It seems pretty clear to me that it's gotten to the point where Martin dreads sitting down to write these novels. And like all of us faced with a project we dread, he procrastinates by diverting himself with other projects. It might be best for readers, and for Martin himself, if he just hands off the series to another writer to finish.

 

[Judderman]

Disappointing news. Well maybe it will be a Christmas 2016 purchase. When you miss a deadline it could be by a few weeks but then he implies it will be several months at best. So he obviously knew it wouldn't be done in time months ago. What is his publishers reaction? Well it will sell eventually.

A pity he didn't wait a few years longer to sell the TV rights really, so he could write the story first. But you can't blaming him for taking that deal.


George R.R. Martin Misses Deadline for Latest Game of Thrones Book to be Published Ahead of TV Season

 

[Pedro Del Mar]

He's actually said he won't hand the story off for someone else to finish even if he dies before its completed. I can't see it ever being finished. If he does eventually finish Winds of Winter I can't see him even starting on the last one

 

[Overread]

Sometimes you hit a sticky patch and Winds of Winter is one. I suspect he's got a fair bit of the next books in planning and don't forget he's having to re-write a lot of his original ideas by cutting out his time jump which is likely messing up a lot of his long term plans as many character who would have been adult are still kids and Westros is not a world where kids rise up to win the day because they are kids in a story - its one where they do so only because of political powers attached to their blood/name and because they've got some influential adults with them (or in one case a few dragons too)

 

[soulsinging]

He's actually said he won't hand the story off for someone else to finish even if he dies before its completed. I can't see it ever being finished. If he does eventually finish Winds of Winter I can't see him even starting on the last one

This is why I bailed years ago. I could tell 100 pages into AFFC that he was never going to finish this series, he'd gone Robert Jordan and lost control of the narrative. I think at a certain point with a series like this, readers become SO invested in certain characters and stories that there is enormous pressure on a writer to (impossibly) meet all their (contradictory) expectations. As a result, writing about those characters becomes far more pain than pleasure, and in an effort to dodge that pain and pressure, they start writing about new and more exciting (for them) parts of the world and struggle to bring it all together.

 

[soulsinging]

Sometimes you hit a sticky patch and Winds of Winter is one. I suspect he's got a fair bit of the next books in planning and don't forget he's having to re-write a lot of his original ideas by cutting out his time jump which is likely messing up a lot of his long term plans as many character who would have been adult are still kids and Westros is not a world where kids rise up to win the day because they are kids in a story - its one where they do so only because of political powers attached to their blood/name and because they've got some influential adults with them (or in one case a few dragons too)

Everything since ASOS has been a sticky patch. He claimed when AFFC came out that ADWD was supposedly already planned (if not mostly written) and just had to be split from AFFC because of size. How many years elapsed between those too? It's way more than a sticky patch and I don't think he has much of the future planned. I think he's written himself into a corner.

 

[Pedro Del Mar]

I agree with you there. I think with AFFC he lost control. Previous to that the story was structured, concise and with a manageable amount of viewpoints. I also think his editor should have given him more constructive advice

 

[althea]

I am very sad to hear this news.
I really enjoyed ASOIAF all the way up to the present.
I have been hoping against hope that TWOW would suddenly appear.
I can understand how the sheer size of this epic has become unwieldy and difficult to bring to a conclusion.
I would hate George to rush the ending just to get it out.
I once waited about 15 years for the next book in a series (Earth's Children) to come out.
I'm afraid when it was finally published,it was an anticlimax.

 

[MWagner]

He's actually said he won't hand the story off for someone else to finish even if he dies before its completed. I can't see it ever being finished. If he does eventually finish Winds of Winter I can't see him even starting on the last one

That's too bad. While I can see how Martin would be possessive of his work, presumably it would be a relief at this point to done with the project and move on to things that excite him and give him happiness. And I agree that if Winds of Winter is ever published, Martin will walk away from the series. If not publicly then in his own mind. He'll bang out a few pages now and then, go through the motions. But he won't be fooling his editor or his publisher, only the most die-hard of fans.

 

[Anushka Mokosh]

I didn't expect that the news would be any different than what we got. I'll wait for the books. They may never happen, they may happen someday, but I lost interest in the show. I don't particularly care about spoilers anymore (I shocked myself with this revelation after latest Star Wars happened and I was spoiled every single plot-twist and couldn't care less), but I will not watch it and I will not seek out information about it. I'll let Martin amaze me or disappoint me at his own pace.