No one can accuse George R.R. Martin for rushing his work. And, honestly, why would he? Over the 17 years it has taken the author to put out the first 5 books in the A Song of Ice & Fire series he has sold millions and millions of copies (some sources quote over 24,000,000 books in North America alone!). The author’s draw was proven the year A Dance With Dragons was published: in 2011 Forbes estimated that Martin was the 12th highest-earning author worldwide and suggested that he raked in as much as $15 million that year alone.
The impressive thing about Martin’s work is that it bridges the gap between Literature and Popular Fiction in terms of the SFF community’s awards. Typically, if a fantasy book wins the Locus, Hugo or Nebula awards it doesn’t achieve mass-sales. Some would go as far to say that you often have to be doing something that is unconsumable by the masses in order to win these awards. Well, take a look at what Martin’s books have picked up over the years:
A Game of Thrones (1996) – Locus Award winner, World Fantasy Award and Nebula Award nominee
A Clash of Kings (1998) – Locus Award winner, Nebula Award nominee
A Storm of Swords (2000) – Locus Award winner, Hugo Award and Nebula Awards nominee
A Feast for Crows (2005) – Hugo, Locus and British Fantasy Awards nominee
A Dance with Dragons (2011) – Locus Award winner, Hugo Award and World Fantasy Award nominee
Incredible, right? Well, of course, with a series so popular and so highly decorated, fans are desperate for the next book in the series. Although it has taken a long, long time to get even to the point we are at right now, most fans had accepted the fact that with just two more books left we wouldn’t be waiting that long… would we? Well, today, fans taking comfort in this fact were dealt quite a blow when George R.R. Martin’s longtime editor, Anne Groell, of Penguin Random House, confirmed her feelings that the series may well end up spanning eight books (as many fans have previously speculated) because of how things are continuing to grow and expand beyond the initial outline:
I begin to wonder [about the number of books] — though 7 is what we currently have under contract. I remember when he called me, years and years back, to confess that his little trilogy was… well… no longer a trilogy. He predicted four books. I said Seven Books for Seven Kingdoms. Then he said five books. I said Seven Books for Seven Kingdoms. Then he went to six. I said… Well, you get it. Finally, we were on the same page. Seven Books for Seven Kingdoms. Good. Only, as I recently learned while editing THE WORLD OF ICE AND FIRE (another awesome thing you must buy when it comes out!), there are really technically eight kingdoms, all having to do with who has annexed what when Aegon the Conqueror landed in Westeros. So, maybe eight books for Seven Kingdoms would be okay. Also, he has promised me that, when he finally wraps this great beast up, I can publish the five page letter outlining the bare bones of the “trilogy.”
This matches my own experiences meeting the author too. When I was at EasterCon a few years ago someone asked Martin about whether A Song of Ice & Fire would still be 7 books and Martin said he didn’t know and that if it took 8 then he wasn’t against doing 8. He admitted that the books was continuing to grow and that although he knew the ending how we would get there and what would go in-between was still very much undecided. Martin’s UK publisher, Jane Johnson, echoes the thoughts of her American counter-part and my experiences of hearing Martin speak, although is far more direct:
“In all honesty only George knows how many books there will be in the series and he’s not saying … Indeed, at this stage of his writing, with the many branching pathways of the characters’ stories still to intersect, he may not know.” During the same interview Johnson admitted that the chance of Martin tying up all the loose ends in only two more books seems unlikely. “But if George continues to kill off characters in his usual ruthless fashion it could easily be over in the planned seven books!” she said.
To be perfectly honest though, I don’t think too many people are worried about how many books there are – in fact, many would welcome more – I think it is the time element. Groell spoke about how she has tried “multiple times” to encourage Martin to write whilst on the road – Martin does a lot of travelling and has a number of high-profile roles in Hollywood. However, “He is one stubborn man and very set in his ways,” she revealed. Indeed, when I listened to Martin speak (at Eastercon, again) he leveled with the room saying something along the lines of: sometimes I set aside some time to write and Hollywood call up offering me an absurd amount of money for a cool project that I can’t turn down (note: I’m giving you the gist and not a word for word quotation).
To me, things looked quite hopeful earlier this year when HBO seemed to be piling pressure onto Martin in saying that if he didn’t release book 6 and 7 by the time they were ready to air it then they’d film the ending he revealed to them during their initial meetings (meaning, therefore, that readers would know the ending of ASoI&F before book 6, 7 and 8 were even published). Martin said that he wasn’t happy about this and I thought maybe we’d see some progress. Sadly, it no longer looks to be the case… However, as I begin to feel annoyed about this fact, Neil Gaiman’s ‘George R.R. Martin is not your bitch’ speech comes back to me and I begin to feel guilty in criticising an artist taking his time to perfect his work.
My only defence is that the time in-between books has been increasing and I’m worried about whether I’d enjoy them as much as an old man: First 2 years then 5 years then 6 years. If we say 7 years for the next one, 8 for the next and 9 for the next we could not see the end of the series until 2035! Of course, I can’t imagine it would take that long, but even if each book only takes 5 years then that is 15 years from 2011, which puts us at 2026. Which leaves me feeling…….
*Neil Gaiman, Nel Gaiman, Nail Gaiman*
So, is 5 years a decent guesstimate? Groell says that she expects The Winds of Winter, to be out “reasonably soon.” Adding that: “I currently have 168 pages that he submitted back in Feb 2013 in order to receive a contracted payment, but I know more exists, because he keeps talking about chapters he hasn’t yet sent me”. Groell promises that “When I have a (publication) date, you will have a date,”.
What do you guys think about this on going saga? Should we accept that if it takes 8 books to tell the story then we should wait for 8 books? What are your thoughts on the fact the HBO show will give us the ending and that we’ll know it before we even pick the books up?
