George R.R. Martin has finally given us an update on his Winds of Winter progress.
The Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon author was on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on Tuesday, where he was asked the mandatory, yet wearisome, question about his progress on the long-long-awaited next A Song of Ice and Fire book.
Martin was on the show to promote his new book, The Rise of the Dragon: An Illustrated History of the Targaryen Dynasty, Volume One, which takes the core story from Fire & Blood (which is the basis for House of the Dragon) and adds illustrations. “Fire & Blood is about 300,000 words of Targaryen history,” he explained. “This one is about a quarter of that length in terms of words, but we added 150 original illustrations by some of the finest fantasy artists in the world.”
In regard to Winds of Winter, “I think it’s going to be a very big book [more than 1500 pages] and I think I’m about three-quarters of the way done,” Martin said. “The characters all interweave, and I’m actually finished with a couple of the characters, but not others. I have to finish all that weaving.”
Colbert did the math. “So [it’s taken] 10 years to go 75 percent of the way through … which means about … three more years?”
“That’s depressing,” Martin replied, and also lamented that the moment he finishes, he’ll get the first tweet asking when his seventh and final ASOIAF book is coming, A Dream of Spring. The author said he hasn’t even played his hit game, Elden Ring, due to his writing commitment.
Martin’s last ASOIAF novel, A Dance with Dragons, was released in 2011 — the year HBO’s Game of Thrones debuted. (House of the Dragon just aired its season one finale.)
