It was six years ago this week when HBO hit TV show Game of Thrones aired its last episode.
Since George RR Martin hadn’t written the final two books in his A Song of Ice Fire series, the showrunners had to rely on his planned plot points for The Winds of Winter and A Dream of Spring, in the final couple of seasons.
The 76-year-old last published a novel in his fantasy series in 2011, when the Game of Thrones TV show first aired.
There was one point when he was hoping to have The Winds of Winter out by 2018.
Yet six years on from Game of Thrones’ last episode and there’s still no sign of a publication. Here’s the latest from the author.
In a 2025 interview with TIME, Martin called The Winds of Winter “the curse of my life here. There’s no doubt Winds of Winter is 13 years late. I’m still working on it. I have periods where I make progress and then other things… divert my attention and then suddenly I’m working for… I have a deadline for one of the HBO shows, I have something else to do.”
In recent years, he’s also teased that it will be a big book, the longest to date. Meanwhile, about 18 months ago, he said he’d written 1100 to 1200 pages with around 400 to 500 left but admitted he was “struggling.”