A co-worker of mine started watching House of the Dragon and asked me to borrow the Song of Ice and Fire books. I gave her the usual disclaimer about the fact that the series may never be finished and let her borrow them.
I am curious as to why GRRM's publisher doesn't cut ties with him or how he can get away with not doing anything with his main series. Is it because he has enough money that it wouldn't matter or that he publishes side books like Fire and Blood to make the publisher happy? Had he released Winds of Winter before season 6 it would've been massive. Granted, I'll still buy it when it comes out ( I am thinking Winds of Winter will come out eventually but I don't think book 7 will).
I honestly think what will happen is that the publisher will wait until he dies and then gather all his writing and hire someone to complete the books with it. I find it highly interesting that now GRRM is claiming the books will be different and attacking GOT. Although HBO is a fool to keep working with him because had he finished the series, GOT would've been much better at the end.
I never read the books, but it was clear by the end of season 4 that the show was never going to get better. The story liked to keep building and adding instead of deepening character depth. The characters just kinda flopped into their new roles with the new characters. This of course is why we saw the rushed ending, because all the characters with any depth to them were killed off and the bandwagon of “heroes” to fight the night king was just brutally lame.