WiC Club: George R.R. Martin and the fear that dare not speak its name

A Song of Ice and Fire author George R.R. Martin gave an interview the other week, and addressed for approximately the 764th time when he thought The Winds of Winter, the long-awaited sixth volume in his series, would be on store shelves.

Or rather, he pointedly didn’t discuss it. In her write-up, interviewer Sarah Hughes mentions that the release date for Winds is one of a few topics she was asked to steer clear of. I can’t say I blame Martin and his team here; how many times has he heard this question, and how many more ways can he say, ‘It’ll be done when it’s done.’ Fair enough.

…but is it? Increasingly, I think that questions about the release date for Winds — which has been on the way since 2011, I’m sure most of you don’t need reminding — are underlaid with an existential fear related to another of the off-limits topics in that interview: Martin’s health. To put it simply, what is Martin dies before finishing his epic?

Now, this question is in horrible taste and I am going to hell for asking it .Martin himself laid out his feelings on this subject while talking to Swiss daily newspaper Tages-Anzeiger (via the Independent) back in 2014, when he was 65: “I find that question pretty offensive, frankly, when people start speculating as to my death and my health. So, f*** you to those people.”

I’m on board with him. Only a person completely without shame or decency or self-respect would ask this question…so here I am: Is Song of Ice and Fire actually getting done in Martin’s lifetime?

I think it’s a real concern. Martin would be far from the first author to die in the middle of writing a work. Mark Twain never finished The Mysterious Stranger. Charles Dickens was in the middle of writing The Mystery of Edwin Drood when he died. Jane Austen never got around to completing Sandition, Truman Capote died before finishing Answered Prayers, F. Scott Fitzgerald never put the finishing touches on The Last Tycoon, and so on. This kind of thing happens all the time.

Of particular note are other sci-fi and fantasy authors who never got to complete their dream projects. Frank Herbert died before he completed his Dune series; his son Brian Herbert and sci-fi author Kevin J. Anderson finished the cycle after Frank’s death. J.R.R. Tolkien, who had a huge influence on Martin, died before he completing his Silmarillion; his son Christopher compiled what was written into a complete work years later, although it’s hard to tell if it accurately reflects Tolkien’s vision. Perhaps most famously, Robert Jordan died of cardiac amyloidosis before finishing his massive Wheel of Time series; in that case, it wasn’t a relative but fellow author Brandon Sanderson who took up the torch, writing three more books to round out the saga.

So it’s not like fears of Martin not completing A Song of Ice and Fire before he dies are unfounded; there’s a history of that kind of thing happening. And in Martin’s case, there are no obvious candidates to finish what he started. Sanderson, who for better or worse is known as the guy who completes people’s fantasy series, straight up said he wouldn’t finish ASOIAF even if asked, in part because the “pessimistic” view of humanity presented by Martin’s books doesn’t jibe with Sanderson’s approach. And Martin doesn’t have any children to carry on his work, and has been pretty clear that he doesn’t want anyone else writing more of this story anyway. “I don’t see anyone else ever writing (legally) in that universe,” he once told a commenter on his Not a Blog.

Importantly, this doesn’t mean that Martin can’t envision a world where A Song of Ice and Fire isn’t expanded upon (or finished) without his input. As he said in 2013 while speaking in Australia:

"I don’t think my wife, if she survives me, will allow that either. But one thing that history has shown us is eventually these literary rights pass to grandchildren or collateral descendants, or people who didn’t actually know the writer and don’t care about his wishes. It’s just a cash cow to them. And then we get abominations to my mind like Scarlett, the Gone with the Wind sequel."

How’s that for a pessimistic worldview?

He’s right, though. At that same event, Martin said he admired how Christopher Tolkien had kept watch over his father’s estate. “I’m sure there are publishers waiting in the wings with giant bags of money just waiting for someone to say ‘yes, go ahead, let’s write Sauron Strikes Back‘. I hope I never see Sauron Strikes Back written by some third rate writer who leaps at the opportunity.” But then, only a few years after this interview, the Tolkien estate sold the TV rights to Lord of the Rings to Amazon, which is making a splashy new show about it. It’s too early to know if that series will be “third rate,” but Martin was pretty on the money about the fate of literary rights.

In a way, this could be a comfort to fans. even if Martin dies without finishing A Song of Ice and Fire, it’s pretty likely that, eventually, some publisher or literary agent or distant relative will see to it that the series is finished. There’s too much money at stake to let it be.

But is that something fans would want? What’s better: an unfinished A Song of Ice and Fire or a A Song of Ice and Fire where the last two books are quick cash grabs written by people who don’t have a firm command of Martin’s voice and vision?

It’s a chilling choice, and one I hope we’ll never have to seriously contemplate.

But that’s the optimist in me. The pessimist thinks that we’ll probably get to read The Winds of Winter sooner or later — here’s hoping for sooner, good lord. But A Dream of Spring? I’m afraid for that one.

Should the worst happen, the series will be in a very interesting situation, with the books unfinished and the HBO show having wrapped up in an explosively controversial way. It wouldn’t be an ideal to wrap up, would it?

Okay, this is getting very dark. Maybe putting this all into words will drain some of these ominous thoughts of their power. And you know, just because a work is unfinished doesn’t mean it isn’t valuable. Take the Prisoners, uncompleted statues by the master sculptor Michelangelo, who brought us such hits as the David. These carved figures still look like they’re emerged from the rock of the quarry, which gives them an eerie, compelling quality all their own:

Image: public domain

But still, if you have any fears about there being no light at the end of the tunnel, feel free to express them here, even if Martin thinks they’re in bad taste. This is WiC Club, where distasteful fears go to relax and be themselves.