It’s now going on six years since the last installment of George R.R. Martin‘s ‘A Song of Ice and Fire’ novel series, which inspired HBO’s hit series ‘Game of Thrones’.  The delay has been so long that the show caught up to all of the published plotlines in the novels and had to start making up new ones (with Martin’s input of course).  Martin insisted he was getting down to business in 2016 and would have the newest book, ‘The Winds of Winter’ out by now.  He didn’t and it’s not.

Via Live Journal, Martin stated that he believes that ‘The Winds of Winter’ will be out this year.  Maybe.

“Not done yet, but I’ve made progress. But not as much as I hoped a year ago, when I thought to be done by now.

I think it will be out this year. (But hey, I thought the same thing last year).”

So… that’s encouraging.  Or not.

But fans of the books should be used to the delays.  Martin notoriously works at his own pace and doesn’t really do deadlines.  After the first three novels arrived within two years of each other, there was a five year gap between 2000’s ‘A Storm of Swords’ and it’s follow up ‘A Feast For Crows’ in 2005.  Then after six years came ‘A Dance With Dragons’ in 2011.  By then, ‘Game of Thrones’ had debuted on HBO and interest was at an all-time high.

And although Martin has advised the creators of ‘GoT’ on their storylines, he has also gone on record saying that his novels will deviate from those plotlines, as the show has occasionally deviated from the books.

At any rate, ‘GoT’ returns this summer for a truncated seven-episode run, which will be the show’s second-to-last.  The question is, without the show on the air, will people still be interested in the books when they finally arrive?

After all, ‘The Winds of Winter’ is only the second-to-last novel.  Martin still has plans for a seventh book, ‘A Song of Spring’ but who knows when that will be out.  You may get it as a gift from your grown grandkids one Christmas.  As a hologram.  That you can read from your hoverchair.

Are you encouraged that ‘The Winds of Winter’ MIGHT be out in 2017?

Source: Live Journal via Screen Crush