Discussion on:

George R.R. Martin, please commit to a release date for book six

I understood that the target was March 2013. I can't remember where I read it. I sure hope I don't have to wait until 2014.

I'm starting to get antsy. I'm in the middle of Dreamsongs and might have to get some Dunc & Egg novels to tide me over.

Its interesting how much more sense the book makes, a lot of key plot points are said in the characters mind, and these points are missing in the TV show.

Everyone's greatest fear is GRRM won't finish it. I actually talked to Robert Jordan about this subject after he found his cancer was probably terminal. He said it is so hard to end an epic because writers are living the fantasy. It is a piece of them and the end is just that, an end. He intially paniced about the cancer, but then he began a process to ensure Wheel O Time was finished. He did recognize that Ann McCaffery pretty much destroyed her epic by never ending it and he did not want Wheel of Time to be like that. His final book was stretched to three, but it did meet his wishes. GRRM does not seem too worried, but in part the delay is because he refuses to let HBO change his stoies. HBO executives never actually read the books before they signed the contract and never realized that so many characters change. The rumor is to continue with season 3, HBO needed an ironclad commitment to the end of the story and do not want this turning into something that goes forever. And they want GRRM to finish the manuscript, but push final publication back a couple years. The delay in the last book will increase interest in the series, or so they think. I personally believe that GRRM has it done, but is constantly fiddling with it. Although successful, this series is bringing in his first true pile of cash and he is in fact playing it for all it is worth. The attention, the praise, and the cash all work to keep him stretching it out.