George R.R. Martin has moved to defend his work on The Winds of Winter in a candid new blog post, after announcing from New Mexico that he is producing an animated film based on a novel by late sci‑fi writer Howard Waldrop. The A Song of Ice and Fire author, writing on his personal site, acknowledged mounting anger from readers over the long‑delayed instalment and insisted he has 'not given up' on finishing the book.
Martin's relationship with his audience has grown increasingly fraught since The Winds of Winter missed a series of informal expectations over the past decade. The sixth volume in the fantasy saga that inspired HBO's Game of Thrones has no release date, despite Martin saying in 2023 that he believed the manuscript was roughly 75 per cent complete. In the vacuum, every new side project is seized upon as evidence, for some readers, that the main story has slipped down his priorities.
