Some years ago, I picked up the A Song of Ice and Fire series in hopes that, perhaps, enough time had passed since the last book that it's writer, George R.R. Martin, might finish the series. Maybe it was a stupid assumption, or hope, but the fame of the television series really had me sure that, maybe, Martin would pull together and complete his most successful series. He wouldn't. I can't tell you how many times, over the last several years, that I've followed every possible tidbit about the forthcoming book 'The Winds of Winter,' getting my hopes up every time Mr. Martin claimed that 'it will be finished this year' or how far progress was coming, how he was writing it, or how it was about to be dropped as this massive 1500 page epic that editors and publishers would just hate for the length alone. Aside from a few iffy preview chapters, almost none of this amounted to anything. Constant delays, theories that the writer was looking for other writers to possibly take up the mantle if he passed on. Yeah, the George RR Martin was busy too - hitting up every single book related event that you could think of, soaking up fame, appearing in documentaries, expanding side projects, hosting airings of the HBO adaption of ASOIAF in Sante Fe, and just about everything but finishing this series - even to this day he does these things. Where the hell is 'The Winds of Winter'? Well, recently, it's apparently come to light that the book will be released during, or possibly after, the final season of HBO's Game of Thrones, a show that had dipped in quality since and failed to be faithful to its source material for quite a while. There are talks of this decision being made due to spoilers, but that is a flimsy excuse - as I've said, the television show has not been faithful for some time, and, wouldn't you know it, 'The Winds of Winter' isn't even supposed to be the final book. No, that is supposed to be 'A Dream of Spring' - does that mean that the television series will not feature even a scant depiction of this content, or is it that elements have already been put into the series? What is going on here? Well, to me, it feels like maybe George RR Martin is enjoying all the fame and respect he's garnered over the books and television series. He is an old man, but he's also a writer who has worked very hard to obtain little in his lifetime - now he has something he can hold onto in his age. Every bout of fame for him, as I've gathered from numerous interviews and Q&As, has been extremely momentary, and whenever his ideas strayed too far from a path others found acceptable, he suffered for it (example: The cancellation and handling of the original Beauty and the Beast TV series). There are even moments in his life that he's spoken of, in interviews, where people had become his friends in times of fame and fortune, only to abruptly drop him when they were over. It wouldn't be too far-fetched to think that maybe these delays and happening because Mr. Martin doesn't want to fizzle out of the spotlight. Things are good, he's cemented himself in both television and literature, but he knows well that these things are fleeting. Who would want to lose that? Nobody, I'd gather. -L. BROOKS
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