Game of Thrones fans are used to waiting, especially when it comes to the books. After all, it’s been eight years since the most recent installment in George R.R. Martin‘s fantasy series, A Dance With Dragons, was published. With the HBO series having wrapped up, fans have since been eagerly waiting for some news that the next book in the series, The Winds of Winter, will be published soon. Thus far, that wait has been in vain as there has been no announcement about that book. In fact, there hasn’t been much of anything from Martin recently even on his own blog and that lack of words has a bit cautiously optimistic as they think the silence might be hinting there’s a big announcement coming soon.
Over on Reddit’s A Song of Ice and Fire community, r/asoiaf, one fan has shared their theory that the recent lack of new posts on Martin’s blog may be an indicator that some sort of announcement about The Winds of Winter is coming soon. You can check out the actual theory in the post here, but the general gist of it is that the user has largely sorted out that Martin’s volume of blog posts often correlate to whether he is traveling or at his home in Santa Fe, with most of his posting coming when he’s in Santa Fe “getting work done”. However, with Martin having not posted for almost two weeks, the fan thinks it could mean that there’s a major announcement coming — hopefully an update on The Winds of Winter or an actual publication date.
Of course, if you dig into the comments of that theory, you might not want to get your hopes up too much. As many have pointed out, it’s not uncommon for Martin’s blog activity to drop off without any updates or book announcements coming during that time. Several comments point out that this is a situation that seems to happen every year around this time, though others have pointed out that there have been a few periods inactivity each year that fans think is leading to an announcement, yet no announcement ever comes.
While no announcement about The Winds of Winter appears to be imminent and Martin has been pretty quiet on his blog since late November, he has somewhat recently indicated that the book remains his work priority, even with the prequel series House of the Dragon getting a straight-to-series order on HBO. In a post to his blog in October, Martin outlined what role he hopes to have on House of the Dragon — but only after he finishes writing The Winds of Winter.
“I expect to be involved in [the production of House of the Dragon] to some extent… and, who knows, if things work out, I may even be able to script a few episodes, as I did for the first four seasons of Game Of Thrones,” Martin writes. “But… let me make this perfectly clear… I am not taking on any scripts until I have finished and delivered Winds Of Winter. Winter is still coming, and Winds remains my priority, as much as I’d love to write an [episode] of House.”
What do you think? Do you think Martin’s silence on his blog is an indicator that a big announcement is coming? Let us know in the comments below.
