If there’s one TV show that the whole world watched together just a couple of years ago, then it’s Game of Thrones. The show was adapted from George R.R. Martin’s books and people used to wait impatiently for new episodes. Everyone who was watching even casually must have felt the continuous onslaught of theories and leaks coming through. It was a world-wide fan event basically.

However, Game of Thrones wasn’t adapted fully from the books. Around season 4 or 5, the source material ran out. But, George R.R. Martin did promise that he will be finishing up the latest book in the series- A Song of Ice and Fire by 2020. In fact, there were a lot of trades that reported back in 2019 that George R.R. Martin promised the book will be out in 2020. But now the writer is saying that he made no promises as such.

Did George R.R. Martin Makes Promises About The Release Date Of The Next Game Of Thrones Book?

Fans of Game of Thrones were largely disappointed with the last season of the HBO show. So they have been eagerly waiting for Martin’s books to see if he has changed things, added things, etc. As such people are waiting to read the latest chapter- ‘The Winds of Winter,’ but the author has simply failed to publish the book till now. But the question is- did he actually promise to release the book in 2020? He kind of did. Here is the quote:

“But I tell you this — if I don’t have THE WINDS OF WINTER in hand when I arrive in New Zealand for Worldcon, you have here my formal written permission to imprison me in a small cabin on White Island, overlooking that lake of sulfuric acid, until I’m done.”

While the implied joke is clear enough, but in a way, the creator did promise his fans that the book will be out in their hands soon. But George R.R. Martin seems to have changed his tunes now.

Author Says He Made No Promises

In his recent blog-post, the author called out “internet assholes” who interpret his predictions as to his promises. He stated in his post:

“I will make no predictions on when I will finish. Every time I do, assholes on the internet take that as a ‘promise,’ and then wait eagerly to crucify me when I miss the deadline. All I will say is that I am hopeful.”

Should Fans Hold Martin To His Words?

Martin obviously didn’t mince his words in the latest blog-post. We also have to acknowledge that he didn’t ‘promise’ about anything. All he did was a joke and make predictions on when he will be finishing the book. But then again, fans have been waiting for a decade to read the next instalment in the book series. However, fans have something to rejoice about as well. The writer has in fact made progress on his book The Winds Of Winter. He said:

“What was good about 2020? Besides the election? Well… for me… there was work. I wrote hundreds and hundreds of pages of THE WINDS OF WINTER in 2020. The best year I’ve had on WOW since I began it. Why? I don’t know. Maybe the isolation. Or maybe I just got on a roll. Sometimes I do get on a roll.”

However, you should keep your expectations in check since Martin needs to write hundreds of more pages to finish the book properly. So it’s obviously going to take some more work. So now the question is- will he be able to release the book this year? We are not promising anything, but we do hope that it’s possible, because we can’t wait to read it.

Source: boundingintocomics