George RR Martin is once again at the centre of a storm of speculation as fans across the UK, the US and beyond argue over whether The Winds of Winter is already finished and being deliberately held back for posthumous publication, with some even claiming he has secretly completed the final volume, A Dream of Spring, as well.
The sixth book in the A Song of Ice and Fire saga is now more than 13 years overdue by many readers' reckoning, based on expectations that solidified after A Dance with Dragons came out in 2011. Since then, the story has leapt ahead on television with HBO's Game of Thrones, while on the page the narrative has been frozen in time. That vacuum has been filled by fan theorising on Reddit, podcasts and blogs, including an increasingly popular 'dark theory' that imagines Martin keeping finished manuscripts locked away until after his death.
