‘Winds of Winter’: When will George R. R. Martin finish the next book in the Game of Thrones saga?

The series that Max’s shows are based on is planned to be a seven-volume saga, but so far only five have been published.

George R R Martin (Steve Snowden/Getty Images for AMC Networks)

The second season of the successful prequel series of Game of Thrones, House of the Dragon, has already arrived on the Max platform and fans have started to be amazed by the new adventure promised in this second installment.

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But the fans of Westeros know that there is still a long way to go in the incredible saga created by George R. R. Martin. For the past 14 years, they have been waiting for the author to finish Winds of Winter.

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The epic central story that inspired Game of Thrones is known as A Song of Ice and Fire. It is planned to be a seven-volume saga, but so far only five have been published.

The first one, Game of Thrones, hit bookstores in 1996 and was followed by sequels at a good pace: A Clash of Kings arrived in 1998 and A Storm of Swords in 2000. However, the other installments were delayed a bit, with a five-year gap before A Feast for Crows in 2005 and then a six-year wait for A Dance with Dragons in 2011.

When can we expect George R. R. Martin to finish 'Winds of Winter'?

After the successful launch of the series on HBO, Martin's productivity pace seemed to decrease considerably. However, the writer has remained busy, publishing a series of short novels, graphic novels, collections, and complementary books, but there is still no sign of either of the final books in the series, The Winds of Winter and A Dream of Spring.

The good news is that Martin has claimed to have been dedicating time to it. In fact, in 2019 the author revealed that he had turned down the opportunity to make a cameo in the final season of Game of Thrones in order to focus on writing the books. The following year, he confirmed that his books would have a different ending from the television series, which was widely debated: "People know an ending, but not the ending. The show's creators surpassed me, which I didn't expect."

Martin then clarified that the series, created for television by writers David Benioff and D. B. Weiss, had already deviated from the books in several aspects. "I work in a very different medium than David and Dan, never forget that," he said. "They had six hours for this final season. I hope my last two books cover 3,000 manuscript pages between the two before it ends... and if more pages, chapters, and scenes are needed, I will add them."

The problem does not seem to be the lack of ideas, as Martin calculates that the last two books will be even longer than A Dance with Dragons and A Storm of Swords, the longest in the series to date.

In 2022, he described Winds of Winter as a “great, great book” and added: “It’s a complex book. It will probably be a longer book than any of the previous volumes in the series.” Promisingly, he also revealed that he had already finished about “three quarters” of it.

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