The Winds of Winter isn't finished: it was a sentence no Game of Thrones fan wanted to read, but that's what George R.R. Martin revealed on his blog over the weekend. The sixth book in his series is not yet done, for the fourth year in a row.
Not only is the next book in his A Song of Ice and Fire saga not finished, but Martin confirmed that the sixth season of HBO's hit show would 100 percent arrive before The Winds of Winter is done, in the process, spoiling more than a few major plot points to come. Martin wrote at length about his problems with deadlines, about how the book could have arrived before April's season six premiere had he only finished writing the book by Dec. 31 and much, much more. It was by far one of the most revealing blog posts the author has ever written, one that showed a discouraged Martin disappointed by his inability to finish his latest novel.
However, what came next was perhaps unexpected. Rather than legions of angry fans taking to the blog's comments to tell Martin to hurry up or expressing their disappointment over the next season of the show arriving before the corresponding book, fans instead flocked to the blog to share their support.
More than 1,017 comments have been published on Martin's "Last Year (Winds of Winter)" blog post, the vast majority of them nothing but positive, telling Martin to cheer up and finish the book when he's ready. While some definitely expressed their sadness over not having the next chapter sooner, nearly all wished Martin well.
So well, in fact, that Martin followed up with another blog post thanking all his readers for the outpouring of support.
"The outpouring of support in response to my post on THE WINDS OF WINTER has been astonishing ... I am going to close comments on this post, lest I have even more messages to deal with," Martin writes. "But I cannot tell you how much I appreciate all the kind words and good wishes ... Thank you all, so very much."
Even though book readers won't be able to discover what happens next before Game of Thrones season six spoilers flood the Web, with fan support on his side and no more deadlines to shoot for, perhaps Martin will finish The Winds of Winter in 2016. Perhaps.
