When is it time for Game Of Thrones fans to worry about the winds of winter?

Summary

• George RR Martin is 13 years behind when he finished The Winds of Winter, causing concern among fans.
• The final two books in the series, including A Dream of Spring, may experience significant publication delays.
• Martin's original plan was a trilogy, but the series has been expanded, which may affect the final resolution of the story.

Winter is supposed to come to George RR Martin's A song of ice and fire saga, but since it has been 13 years since he released the last book, fans are worried that he will never be able to write an ending to The War of the Five Kings. Even if Game of Thrones TV series delivered their own ending in 2019, there is still much of the story to tell in book form.

Martin has described his plan to write seven books in A song of ice and fire series, with the final two entries The winds of winter and A dream of spring. The author has been open that he is behind in writing The winds of winter. Although he says he has no plans to retire, his advancing age and previous admissions have readers worried about the final two entries.

Where is The Winds of Winter?

Martin started writing The winds of winter by 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 from the show, these events are roughly in line 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 A Game of Thrones, A dance with dragonsand The winds of winter. This again emphasizes the apparent importance of The winds of winter and the story it will tell. This would also have meant that all the books were published earlier 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 the 2005s A feast for crows meaning 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 included A dance with dragons' paperback. He stopped releasing chapters in 2018 because he didn't want to give away any more.

In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Martin has admitted that he is 13 years “late” with the winds of winter, but don't know how it happened. He reiterated that the novel is a priority, explaining:

“It's still a priority. Many people are already writing obituaries for me. [They’re saying] “Oh, he'll never finish.” Maybe they're right. I don't know. I'm alive right now! I seem quite vital!”

This has sparked more complaints from readers, who again point out how The winds of winter has not been the priority he previously promised it would be. As well as taking time to write the sixth book to write Fire & Bloodhe has been working on House of the Dragonhelped to develop A knight of the seven kingdomsand working on a film based on the late Howard Waldrops The ugly chickens.

All of this comes along with FromSoftware's world-building Fire Ringwhich some claim has come to pass The winds of winters cost. Considering he had written four chapters by June 2010, it shows how slow progress has been over the past 14 years. Hopeful release dates for 2014 and 2016 are 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 write nothing until I deliver Winds of Winter. Teleplay, screenplay, short stories, introductions, forewords, nothing.”

He once told fans they could jail him if he wasn't done by July 2020, but nearly four and a half years later, there's no sign of the mythical manuscript. Although Martin jokes that people think he might die before then The winds of winter published, others look even further ahead.

Game of Thrones fans still have a dream about spring

When readers close the book The winds of winter, A dream of spring 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 springit wouldn't come out until 2039. Besides George RR Martin being in the 90s, a large number of fans would likely miss out on seeing how the story ends.

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

“However, what I have noticed more and more lately is that my gardening is taking me further and further away from the TV 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 way)… but much of the rest will be completely different.”

It's no secret Game of ThronesThe ending was divisive, with more than 1.5 million people signing a petition to redo Season 8. This makes The winds of winterrelease is even more important, as it will give critics their first real taste of where things might be headed.

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 set up as the real threat to Westeros, which the show failed to capitalize on. Many were critical of Season 8, feeling it should have focused on Cersei and the battle for King's Landing in the first half, before heading into an epic battle with the White Walkers at Winterfell in the final episodes. Martin hasn't revealed how he plans to end the books, but many expect the others to be de facto big bads. Still, that doesn't mean Daenerys Targaryen won't get her Mad Queen arc.

Like both The winds of winter and A dream of spring are set to be longer than the previous books, it gives an insight into how long they will be. There are crazy theories that Martin has cooked something special and 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 finished word won't trickle out, there WILL be a big announcement…where and when I can't say.

Optimists hope that even if the last two books are not released at the same time, Martin has secretly written the end of the story in case something happens to him. Meanwhile, disgruntled readers have taken to 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 will not make it A dream of springs final pages the readers are waiting for A song of ice and fireThe final entries are as shocking as HBO's live-action adaptation.