Martin Says The Winds of Winter Is 75% Done. We'll Believe It When We're Dead.
George R.R. Martin has once again emerged from his writing bunker to assure fans that The Winds of Winter is totally, definitely, maybe on the way.
According to Martin himself, the long-awaited sixth book in A Song of Ice and Fire is about 75% finished — though after 14 years of similar promises, most readers have adopted a "we'll believe it when it's in our cold, lifeless hands" stance.
During a livestream with Penguin Random House, Martin finally offered numbers — not vague metaphors, not cryptic blog ramblings — actual page counts.
Here's where it stands:
- Pages written: ~1,200 manuscript pages
- Pages remaining: ~400–500
- Projected length: Longer than any previous book in the series
- Release date: Don't even ask
Martin blamed the usual suspects for the delay — his packed schedule, TV obligations, the story's scope — but also cited a familiar old villain: the Meereenese Knot. That's his name for the narrative traffic jam involving half the cast trying to crash Daenerys's storyline at the same time. Tyrion, Victarion, Quentyn, Selmy — everyone's inbound, no one's coordinated, and somehow it's taken over a decade to land the metaphorical planes.
"It's a big, big book, I've said that before," Martin said. "It's a challenging book. It's probably gonna be a larger book than any of the previous volumes in the series."
Which tracks, considering that A Dance with Dragons clocked in at over 1,000 pages and somehow only advanced half the characters by a few weeks.
"Some of the point-of-view characters' chapters are already finished," Martin said, "but I still need to interweave their narratives to create one cohesive plot." Translation: the puzzle pieces exist — they just still don't fit.
He also teased that certain events from the Game of Thrones TV show — including Daenerys eventually making it to Westeros — will appear in the books in some form, though how closely things will track is anyone's guess. Given how far the show drifted, fans shouldn't hold their breath for a 1:1 adaptation.
No release date, no tentative year, not even a cheeky guess. Just a word count and another promise that the end is "in sight."
So, is The Winds of Winter almost done? Supposedly. Should we believe it? Only if you've got a Valyrian steel patience level.