discussion Will GRRM ever finish the last 2 ASOIAF (GOT) books?

[Harriser]

We will get some version of Winds of Winter eventually, whether posthumously or not.

But the final book simply isn't happening. He's written himself into a corner and can't fix it.

And forever the only ending to the saga will be the trashfire that was season 8. A nightmare 

[Sugar-Rush]

Honestly, screw GRRM. It's been 11 years since the 5th book came out and he's mentioned having hundreds/thousands of pages of manuscript already written, yet we still don't have the 6th book. Instead he has devoted more time to his spin-off novels and other side projects that shouldn't even take precedence over the main storyline.

 

I think we'll at least get TWoW in the next few years, but I don't think we'll ever get ADoS. I imagine it would take more than a decade for GRRM to finish that one too, but I doubt he'd live to see the day given his unhealthy lifestyle.

[Miles.]

I think:

 

1. Winds Of Winter was almost done when S8 came out and was universally panned.  George cares a lot about what people think, he knows ASOIAF is his magnum opus and he wants it to be both critically and commercially acclaimed.  I think the S8 backlash (specifically the backlash to Dany's and Bran's endings, which I think were two of the things that he DID plan to have happen in his actual ending) scared him, and he has now changed his ending substantially enough that WOW requires significant editing, including entire sections being rewritten.  

 

2. On top of that, I think he is refusing to release WOW until he's finished writing the whole series.  I know he SAYS this isn't the case, but I think he wants to leave WOW open to editing until the very last word of DOS is done, so as to better connect everything and make sure the story all makes sense.

 

3. And I think that WOW/DOS have grown too long and the entire series will be 8 books, not 7.  So there will be WOW, then Book 7, and then DOS.

 

Either way, I've given up anticipating the books.  I still want them desperately - more desperately than ever, in fact, to erase the awful taste of S8 - but there's no point in hoping for any particular date.  I do think WOW will be released before he dies, but I would not be shocked at all if DOS is not.  I just hope he is able to write enough beforehand that another fantasy author (Sanderson?) can finish the story once and for all.

 

And once DOS is out and ASOIAF is complete, I expect HBO to reboot the series (either as a live action or as an animated show) and actually follow the books all the way through.  I want this and I know millions of other fans do too.  They'd be idiots not to.

Edited October 3, 2022 by Miles.