Winter is coming very, very slowly for fans of "A Song of Ice and Fire."
George R. R. Martin, author of the fantasy novel series that led to HBO's wildly popular "Game of Thrones" television series, voiced his frustration this week about readers who think that the sixth book, "The Winds of Winter," will not be completed.
In a post on his official blog on Wednesday, Martin was originally announcing his involvement with an animated project unrelated to his hit fantasy franchise. But he then took a moment to address the skeptical fans of "A Song of Ice and Fire."
"I know, I know," Martin wrote. "Some of you will just be pissed off by this, as you are by everything I announce here that is not about Westeros or THE WINDS OF WINTER. You have given up on me, or on the book."
"I will never finish WINDS," Martin wrote."If I do, I will never finish A DREAM OF SPRING," referring to what would have been the series' seventh book.
"If I do, it won’t be any good," he wrote, seemingly repeating accusations from critics. "I ought to get some other writer to pinch hit for me… I am going to die soon anyway, because I am so old. I lost all interest in A Song of Ice and Fire decades ago. I don’t give a s--- about writing any longer, I just sit around and spend my money."
Although he didn't say when or if he would finish the next books in the series, he explained he does still care about the franchise and its characters.
"The Starks and Lannisters and Targaryens, Tyrion and Asha, Dany and Daenerys, the dragons and the direwolves, I care about them all," Martin wrote. "More than you can ever imagine."
But he said he also has a passion for the rest of his work that he believes his fans "don’t care about."
Martin mentioned a few short stories he wrote long before "A Game of Thrones," such as "A Song for Lya" and "This Tower of Ashes," in addition to compilations of short stories that he edited more recently, like the 2013 cross-genre anthology "Dangerous Women."
Martin said recently he signed on with Lion Forge Entertainment to adapt the late Howard Waldrop's 1989 novella "A Dozen Tough Jobs" — his take on the Twelve Labors of Hercules — into an animated feature, news the author credited The Hollywood Reporter with breaking on May 21.
"It saddens me that he did not live long enough to see the film; I hope we do him justice," Martin wrote.
