You've all heard of "Game of Thrones." Or at least I hope you have. You are using the internet to read this article, so unless you've just awoken from a coma, or are blatantly trying to avoid any form of entertainment or social contact, you should have at least heard mention of the shows name.
(Seriously though, if you haven't heard of "Game of Thrones," you've got some homework to do. Seriously. Kit Harrington. Sophie Turner. Richard Madden. Natalie Dormer. Get on that.)
If you are a fan of the show (which is unsurprising; who doesn't love it?), you should know where I'm going with this from the title. Despite being a fan of the show, you may not have read the actual books that sparked the greatest creation to grace electronic screens everywhere. "A Song of Ice and Fire" if the book series written by George R. R. Martin, which has since been adapted into GOT, which gains its name from the first book in the series, "A Game of Thrones." The first book is followed by "A Clash of Kings," "A Storm of Swords," "A Feast For Crows," and "A Dance With Dragons" thus far, with "The Winds of Winter" and "A Dream of Spring" hopefully following in the future.
Yes, you read that right. The key word is hopefully.
Martin began the series in 1991, and has yet to release another book in the series since "A Dance With Dragons" in 2011. Though the last book took Martin five years to finish, the extended delay for "The Winds of Winter" has book readers worried. Sure the TV show is amazing, but it does leave out not only incredible plot lines, but various characters as well. Martin has reassured fans that he is continuing to write the series, but the internet wouldn't be the internet if it didn't generate rumors.
Lets go over the situation:
With the crazy success of " Game of Thrones," Martin surely has enough money to retire in whatever fashion he would like, he really doesn't technically need to publish another book. Not financially, anyway.
Not to mention the fact that "Game of Thrones" has surpassed what the books had given audiences to look forward to this past season. Though creators promise the show is following the structure Martin has set out, on can only ponder. The show already has some vast differences to the books. Will finishing the series cause them to stray too far away? Will the plot lines ignored in the show just get cut out? Will the two branches of the franchise even have the same ending?
Fans are also concerning themselves with their basic understanding of mortality. What if George R. R. Martin is unable to finish the series?
Now, as a writer, I can't stress how utterly horrifying it is to leave a character with no set destination, ending, or even a vague glance off into the distance. You can't just abandon them. When you are creating and writing a character, you are essentially bringing them to life. They have their own emotions, goals, and motivations, and when they have been formed enough, they practically write themselves. I personally doubt Martin will allow his characters to dangle on the precipice of nonexistence, despite his proven ability to kill off/emotionally, physically, and mentally torture characters we all know and love.
However, I can't pretend to know what's going on inside that brilliant man's head. So here is your ambiguous non-answer for the question I posed in the title: No one truly knows but him. We'll just have to wait for an indeterminable amount of time for him to publish (or, rather, not publish) the next book. At least we only have another year to wait for season 7 of "Game of Thrones." [Cue the quiet sobbing.]
