Nominations for the 2018 Hugo Awards, the annual ceremony that honors the best in genre writing, are open, and as a longtime genre writer, A Song of Ice and Fire creator George R.R. Martin has something to say about them. And while he’s at it, he dropped a few tidbits about A Song of Ice and Fire itself, always of interest to Game of Thrones fans.
Martin’s comments may be more notable for what they leave out. When asked by a reader if he has any plans to release “Asoiaf-related writing” in 2018, Martin responded only with, “FIRE & BLOOD is planned.” Fire and Blood is Martin’s “(fake) history of the Targaryen kings of Westeros,” parts of which have already been published. The most recent example is “The Sons of the Dragon,” a novella-length story about the sons of Aegon the Conqueror. It appeared in the anthology volume The Book of Swords. “By design, it reads like history, not fiction,” Martin said of the story, “but since the history is entirely imaginative, it’s still fiction, even if dressed up as (fake) non-fiction.”
Noticeably absent from his response is any mention of The Winds of Winter, the long-awaited sixth book in the Song of Ice and Fire series. Are we to take that as confirmation that we’re not getting Winds this year?
And there’s more. Discussing his views on the Song of Ice and Fire series as a whole, Martin dubbed his work “one single story, being published in (we hope) seven volumes.” Did you catch that? “We hope.”
Winds and A Dream of Spring are the planned sixth and seventh volumes of the saga. Is Martin’s comment an indication that the story could spill over into an eighth volume? A fan asked exactly that question, and Martin deflected. “If so, that’s news to me.” So chew on that a while.
His comments about ASOIAF not being a series but rather a “mega-novel” are interesting, too. “FWIW, Tolkien wasn’t writing a series when he wrote LORD OF THE RINGS either,” Martin said. “He wrote a big novel and his publisher divided it into three parts, none of which stands on its own.” For an example of what Martin considers a series, look at the long-running line of Wild Cards books he edits.
Finally, a reader opined “that mega-novels like ASOIAF shouldn’t be nominated for anything until they are finished…Finishing a story is part of an author’s skill set, and needs to be demonstrated before awards are given. The ending is half the story.” Martin’s response:
"Half is a bit much, but yes, of course, endings are crucial."
Now let’s hope we get one.
Next: Producers hint at how Cersei’s map room will figure into Game of Thrones season 8
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h/t Not a Blog