1) After the fallout of a five year hiatus in between Feast and Dragons, George follows up with a six years and counting hiatus....
It was a big deal that Dance took five years especially since it was only "the other half" of Feast with no substantial plot progression. I may be wrong but I believe it's now been a whopping 20 years since GoT the novel first came out and yet we have two more books. The pace isn't just slow, it isn't just glacial, it's, at this point, frozen. And there's no sign at all of melting.
2) He has repeatedly said he's interested in being a part of the celebrity, pop culture, cultural zeitgeist.
Here's the thing about blockbuster hits--they're not accidents. Song of Ice and Fire was written to be a mega hit. It has everything Lord of the rings has plus it has everything The War of the Roses has plus even more relatable characters than has ever been seen in high fantasy before. Again, they're not so much complicated as they are relatable. Each character speaks to some of the readers, the vast cast encompasses all major personality traits. It's designed to let you in.
All this to say, we should take the hint when George says he loves doing interviews, hosting panels at Comic Con and different book festivals, penning eps of the tv show, writing more sci fi, writing more short stories, putting together anthologies of his fantasy buddies best work, creating supplemental material for the series etc. etc. etc. He doesn't really want to finish the books, so why should we really believe he will?
3) It's in his benefit to keep us thinking that books are coming...
Until the television show is over, the books create a larger sense of cult status to the series. The fact that they're "not over" means no one knows what's going to happen which helps the show as much as it does the books. There's synergy in the two audiences. Even after the show ends, it would of course hurt sales to say the last few books are not coming out and that the tv show ending will be the real ending. In other words, he has something to gain by stringing the world along...
4) He's been outspoken about his lack of appreciation for material that repeats itself without hope of suspense and for "alternate storylines" of others work (also known as fan fiction.)
If you go on his hilariously basic website, you'll see one of his biggest tips to young writers is to NOT write fan fiction. Fan fiction he believes does not challenge writers to come up with characters settings of their own even though fan fic writers do write the plot and occasionally supplemental characters. Further, he's stated that he does not want to do a prequel series on Robert's Rebellion because everyone would know how it turns out. This second fact suggests that even with "variations" to the plot of Winds of Winter it would largely be a waste of time since most readers would know how it ends even if the characters take different routes there. As for the fan fic statement, this suggests that he no longer finds writing a book where he's in a way imitating himself that much fun.
5) GoT will never go back to its slow pace...
A lot of fans have noticed how the pace slowed down a lot in the fourth and fifth seasons. Some fans suggest that this is because they were stalling for George to catch up. Whatever the reason, the fact that this has become such a concern and was rectified by the show's creators in the most recent season suggests that the show, despite its shortened seasons going forward, is going to pack a lot of story and won't be afraid of jumping ahead in time. With no announcement of Winds the novel being released at any certain date, it's certain that the show will be far far ahead of the books by the time the book comes out. The fact that the show creators might have "given up" on waiting for George to finish might be reason enough to think they know something that we don't for sure--that he never had really intended to...
What Girls & Guys Said
Opinion
2Opinion
I'm so tired of waiting, I've read all the books twice and plan on reading them again this summer-when will we get the next book... when when when.
It was so annoying how fast everything went early in the show, blazing through things like that. I'm happy they slowed down a bit, for whatever reason :)
so sad you'll probably never get to read those two books at best we'll have a bit of manuscript or some notes.
Sucks, I really want to see what happens to
Dorne
watch the white queen! in many ways its got even more intrigue plus the fact that a lot of the stuff really happened which is pretty crazy considering how many plot twists there are
Looks good, is it on Netflix?
Amazon Instant & Starz
I think he's said at one point that someone in reddit had already said the theory that will be his actual ending so it's not like he doesn't have the material thought of yet he's just not bothering to write it. Yeah A Song of Ice and Fire is going to only conclude through the TV show and not through the novels.
that sucks... i wonder what the ending is
Probably never know. There's so many out there. He basically teased it without giving anything away. But it makes sense, people have had years to come up with theories it was basically a statistical fact someone was bound to think of the right one eventually.
Well, he'll have to finish it eventually, he won't live forever, I hope he is aware of that fact.
and today he announces that a fifth spinoff pilot is in the works, while he obviously won't be penning them himself and they won't necessarily go to series or even to pilot, the fact that he's even involved in that process is totally ridiculous when it's been six years since he put out his last book and the new season of the show starts in in two months
I guess he is kinda sloppy and negligent person.
and didn't some of the storylines seem to wrap up haphazardly even compared to clash which was also considered a bridge book and not meant to contain big climaxes like got and swords