I was listening to the Critical Drinker's after hours stream and they were talking about Winds of Winter due to the fact that GRRM recently released something Westeros related that wasn't WOW along with his many projects with HBO. They all pretty much agreed that it is highly doubtful it will ever be released, at least while he is alive.
Someone in the comments put out the whole "he owes you nothing" argument and that fans are entitled, but he did say GRRM made a mistake in constantly promising that he would end the series.
What do y'all think? I understand that he owes me nothing and I read the books between season 5 and 6 so I haven't been waiting since the 90s, but I would respect him more if he just said that he didn't want to finish and hire someone to finish. I will say now that whenever someone recommends a book series to me the first thing I ask is if the series is completed or not. I also remember someone saying that now people will be less willing to give a new author a chance if he has a multi book series.
I personally believe that once he dies (assuming he never releases the books) that his publisher will take what he had written and publish that or find someone to make it a coherent story. GOT could've been an epic show from start to finish had he finished the source material and even if he does release the last two the interest will be far less than what it could've been.
GoT absolutely nose dives after book three. Whenever this question arises I feel like I've stumbled in to an asylum. When is WoW coming out? does GRRM owe us a finale? what will happen to these characters?????
Ummm, who the fuck cares? I don't know how you can get through DwD, and be asking for more. It was obvious back then that grrm bit off more than he could chew, and now it's been completely validated.
The books were always overrated and then became a lesson in scope creep.
Exactly.
Also worth noting A Game of Thrones came out in 96. In late-90 into early 2000s, a kind of dark pseudo-historical take on epic fantasy was a pretty fresh idea and the nihilistic perspective was unique & largely at odds with the overall tone of fantasy, fiction, and the world at large.
Since the series started we've had ~2 decades of time pass. The dark historical fantasy niche is old hat now. We've seen this done a lot by now, in fact it's pretty much the only kind of multimedia fantasy we get these days that's not coming out of Japan.
The gimmick is stale and anyone who was interested in the books would have to completely reread them to even know what's happening with a new book.
Moreover, people and times change. Does anyone feel optimistic in 2022? Do we need a nihilistic fantasy world where everyone are bastards, or is it bad enough having to live in a world with villains 100x worse than anything in the books?
Can we get a story that sets out to do a thing and delivers on it, instead of endless subversion/deconstruction? Does anyone still have hope GRRM reasonably conclude this series after endless subplots exploded the scope?
Yes. Unironic Klaus Schwab chin jowl shaking yes!