An Honest Take on the Winds of Winter
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A Song of Ice an Fire. The series from George RR Martin that started back in 1996. Yes the series is now 30 years old. Older than a majority of fantasy readers. It’s also incomplete. At the time of creating this blog post the wait for the Winds of Winter has now outlasted the time it took George RR Martin to write the first 5 books in the series combined. Today we are going to talk about the wait for the Winds of Winter, our hopes for a continuation the series as well as our thoughts on writers making their fans wait for new content.
This is not a normal blog post that we do here. But we have reached a pretty insane milestone in the everlasting wait for The Winds of Winter. To put into context. Here is a detailed release window between each of the main series books.
A Game of Thrones to A Clash of Kings: 869 days (August 1, 1996, to November 16, 1998)
A Clash of Kings to A Storm of Swords: 630 days (November 16, 1998, to August 8, 2000)
A Storm of Swords to A Feast for Crows: 1,886 days (August 8, 2000, to October 17, 2005)
A Feast for Crows to A Dance with Dragons: 2,099 days (October 17, 2005, to July 12, 2011)
A Dance with Dragons to The Winds of Winter: 5,500 days and counting.
You may have seen posts online recently like this one:
The wait for 'The Winds of Winter' has officially surpassed the time it took George R.R. Martin to release the first 5 ‘A Song of Ice and Fire’ books 📚 pic.twitter.com/5o7UutcYY9
— Culture Crave 🍿 (@CultureCrave) June 21, 2026
The fact is that a wait between books this long now exceeding the time it took to write the entire series and some side stories like the A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms stories, or Fire and Blood, shows that George RR Martin is still invested in the world of A Song of Ice and Fire. Just maybe though, he is not very interested anymore in continuing on the series.
George RR Martin’s “Not a Blog” has also been relatively stagnant on posting updates with the last post coming from George being in February of 2026 discussing “The Mad King” play and the fact that he will be attending it. The Mad King is set to Premier July 20th 2026.
George has had much interactions with the House of the Dragon, and Dunk and Egg series that are airing on HBO. This year the first Season of A Knight of the Seven Kingdom aired. As of June 21st 2026 the first episode of Season 3 of House of the Dragon has aired as well.
Could it be that George RR Martin truly wants to focus on Dunk and Egg Novellas as well as Fire and Blood as to ensure that the shows do not tread to far off the beaten path? Could it be that the disappointing ending to the Game of Thrones adaptation from HBO has scared George off from the main series?
I think that because the Game of Thrones series has told the story of A Song of Ice and Fire (regardless of detail and changes), that because it has some level of closure and the other series do not, that it would be hard not to want to finish other works in the Song of Ice and Fire universe.
George RR Martin is sitting in the realm with writers like Robert Jordan (Wheel of Time) Frank Herbert (Dune), and Patrick Rothfuss (King Killer Chronicles). However, he sits at the top of the time between book releases.
The Difference between Martin, Herbert and Jordan however is that the series of Herbert and Jordan did continue to a close. Frank Herbert had Dune complete despite his wishes to end it when he passed despite not completing the series himself. Jordan also had the wish for the books to not be complete by others until before his passing where the reigns and notes where carefully given and used by author Brandon Sanderson.
George does not want anyone else finishing his series as well. Should this change in the future is something we fans can only speculate on. Martin is currently 77 years old and very involved with the work of this world he has created.
George RR Martin does not owe anything to the fans to continue the story if he does not want to. Even though it would be a shame and is a hard pill to swallow, I think we should all take solace in getting anything from the world of Ice and Fire and come to terms that there is no end in sight for the release of the Winds of Winter.
We have not received much new information on the Winds of Winter other than there are around 1,100 manuscript pages and that certain character chapters are completed. This information has not really changes since stated in 2022, 4 years ago.
There have been all kinds of wild theories. Ideas such as, that Martin has written Winds of Winter and is currently working on a Dream of Spring. Or ideas that he is working on them both at the same time. Or that the series is actually done and he is just waiting to have them released posthumously. It could also just be that he is not writing anything at all. Again we are not owed anything from the man.
If I was to bet myself, George is working on Winds of Winter, and outlining how to wrap things up, or will be changing the Winds of Winter into two books. Especially if the book is already projected to be a long one.
So what are your thoughts on this milestone of the Wait for Winds of Winter? Comment below and let us know.
