George R. R. Martin Has Some Bad News For Game Of Thrones Fans

If you’re one of those Game Of Thrones fans who’s read all the books and enjoys knowing what’s in store, we have some bad news for you. George R. R. Martin announced early Saturday that the highly anticipated sixth book in the series won’t be ready before the television show’s season 6 premiere. “[T]he book’s not done,” Martin said via a post on his LiveJournal. “Nor is it likely to be finished tomorrow, or next week... [T]here's also a lot still left to write. I am months away still... and that's if the writing goes well.” Fans were hoping to see The Winds Of Winter, the sixth book in the series, published before the mid-April television premiere. But at this point, it looks like the book won’t be available until at least the middle of the year — or even later. In March of 2015, a fan did a frighteningly thorough statistical analysis of Martin’s writing habits to come up with a potential window of publication. The findings? An expected completion date of late 2016 to early 2017. Martin has previously asked fans to stop hounding him about when the book will be released, saying it would be done when it’s done. “I am not going to set another deadline for myself to trip over,” he said in his post. “The deadlines just stress me out.” But George, we’ve waited so long! The last book, A Dance With Dragons, was published back in 2011, only a few months after the debut of the HBO series. Has it really already been almost five whole years? Dragons grow up so fast.