George R.R. Martin Breaks His ‘Game Of Thrones’ Book Release Promise … Again

All men must die … waiting for the new “Game of Thrones” books to be released.

George R.R. Martin previously said if he didn’t have the next book in his “Song of Ice and Fire” series done by July, he gives everyone permission to imprison him “in a small cabin on White Island, overlooking that lake of sulfuric acid, until I’m done.” 

Well, hopefully that cabin has a view.

On his Not A Blog on Tuesday, Martin gave a new update on his book, saying he hopes that both COVID-19 and the penultimate book in his series, “The Winds of Winter,” will be done next year.

The author isn’t totally brushing aside his imprisonment promise apparently. He is at least working from a cabin and says the forced isolation has helped him stay focused.

“I am spending long hours every day on ‘The Winds of Winter,’ and making steady progress. I finished a new chapter yesterday, another one three days ago, another one the previous week,” Martin wrote. 

But don’t get your hopes too high. 

He adds, “This does not mean that the book will be finished tomorrow or published next week. It’s going to be a huge book, and I still have a long way to go. Please do not give any credence to any of the click-bait websites that like to parse every word of my posts as if they were papal encyclicals to divine hidden meanings.”

The author says he’s written for Cersei, Asha, Tyrion, Ser Barristan, and Areo Hotah recently. He’s also working on content for Braavos next week. 

“I do wish they would go faster, of course. Way way back in 1999, when I was deep in the writing of ‘A Storm of Swords,’ I was averaging about 150 pages of manuscript a month. I fear I shall never recapture that pace again,” he wrote.

Martin had previously been determined to finish “The Winds of Winter” in 2016, according to Entertainment Weekly. He was determined to finish it in 2017 too. In 2019, the same year HBO’s “Game of Thrones” wrapped up, he wrote the aforementioned blog post saying it’d be “in hand” in 2020. Now in 2020, he says he hopes it’s out in 2021. 

Perhaps the book really will be delivered next year. But, as they say: Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Fool me over and over again every year for the rest of my life? You must be George R.R. Martin.