It is safe to say that Martin’s book series had a huge head start. “Game of Thrones” premiered in April 2011 while “A Dance with Dragons” — the fifth book — arrived in stores in July of the same month. However, the novel saga came to a long-running hiatus since then and the release date of “The Winds of Winter” is still unknown.
Martin previously admitted he was “struggling” to write “The Winds of Winter” for years. The fact that fans will see “Game of Thrones” ending in the next couple of months while his book’s release date is not set in stone yet is giving him “mixed feelings,” the author told Entertainment Weekly.
However, the author of “The Winds of Winter” still appreciates the show’s development and referred to it as “an incredible ride.” Many fans are still upset the TV series has surpassed the release of the books and Martin said he also wanted the same. “Obviously, I wished I finished these books sooner so the show hadn’t gotten ahead of me. I never anticipated that,” he added.
On a more positive note, Martin has been reassuring fans that he is hard at work in finishing “The Winds of Winter” especially after the release of his fictional history book “Fire and Blood” last November. “It’s the end for a lot of people. It’s not the end for me. I’m still deeply in it. I better live a long time because I have a lot of work left to do,” Martin said.