George R.R. Martin is being urged to put The Winds of Winter back in the drawer after a Forbes columnist argued the long delayed novel is unlikely to arrive before late 2027. Writing for Forbes on 24 February 2026, Erik Kain made the case that Martin should stop trying to untangle A Song of Ice and Fire's sprawling plot and focus instead on smaller, finishable stories set in Westeros.
For context, Kain notes that readers are nearing fifteen years since A Dance With Dragons, the fifth book in the series, was published, and that the wait for The Winds of Winter has stretched on without a release. He also reminds readers that Game of Thrones launched on HBO in April 2011, only months before A Dance With Dragons hit shelves, a neat piece of timing that now looks almost cruel in hindsight.
