George R. R. Martin Misses Latest Book Deadline, Internet Forgives The 'Game of Thrones' television show has now outpaced its source materials.
By Carly Okyle
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Winter is coming, albeit late.
George R.R. Martin, the author of the book series that spawned television's popular fantasy drama Game of Thrones on HBO, announced on his LiveJournal page this weekend that he failed to meet his Dec. 31, 2015 deadline to finish his novel The Winds of Winter.
The bearded scribe, who uses an old-school DOS machine to write, said he knows he let his fans down. "You're disappointed, and you're not alone...but no one could possibly be more disappointed than me."
"But the book's not done," he continued. "Nor is it likely to be finished tomorrow, or next week. Yes, there's a lot written. Hundreds of pages. Dozens of chapters….But there's also a lot still left to write. I am months away still... and that's if the writing goes well."
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This is the second deadline for the novel's completion that Martin has missed. The first was October 31, 2015. With the sixth season of Game of Thrones set to air in April, Martin's publishers wanted the latest installment of the A Song of Ice and Fire series to be on shelves by March. The author admitted to fans of the story -- both in written and televised form -- that there may be some aspects of the novels that are spoiled by seeing the acted adaptation first, but also acknowledged how the story differs between the two mediums.
The Internet's response was surprisingly compassionate. While many have complained about the series' delay in the past -- once prompting fellow author Neil Gaiman to tell a reader, "George R. R. Martin is not your bitch" -- the reaction to the latest announcement has been kind.
Martin was grateful. "There were forty pages of screened comments on the post by the time I logged on this morning," he said in a LiveJournal post entitled "Thanks."
Martin did not give a timeline for when he expects The Winds of Winter to be completed.
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