George R.R. Martin: The Winds of Winter may be “the longest book…in the series”
By Daniel Roman
It feels like George R.R. Martin has been taking to his blog an awful lot of late, giving us updates about the numerous books he has in the works as well as the enormous slate of television projects he has a hand in, from HBO’s Game of Thrones spinoffs to the Native American detective show Dark Winds. The author’s latest blog post went up over the weekend, and it was no exception. Despite beginning the post by saying he had “no time for a long blog post just now,” Martin went on to give us several pages worth of updates on all these various and sundry projects.
The Winds of Winter “could be bigger” than previous Song of Ice and Fire novels
Of course, the thing that most of Martin’s fans are desperate for more news about is The Winds of Winter, the long-awaited sixth book in his Song of Ice and Fire series. While Martin didn’t give a ton of updates about the book in particular, he did at least mention it, which is more than he’s done in some of his other recent blog posts. Here’s what the author had to say:
"THE WINDS OF WINTER is going to be a big book. The way it is going, it could be bigger than A STORM OF SWORDS or A DANCE WITH DRAGONS, the longest books in the series to date. I do usually cut and trim once I finish, but I need to finish first."
No big surprise there. Martin has been working on The Winds of Winter for over a decade now, so it’d be shocking if it was anything other than monstrously long. Both A Storm of Swords and A Dance with Dragons were just over 414,000 words according to Statista, which works out to be well over 1,000 pages in most bindings of those novels.
Aside from just the amount of time that Martin has spent on The Winds of Winter, there’s also another very good reason why the book would be that long: after A Feast for Crows and A Dance with Dragons split the story in half by geography, Winds will, in theory, be bringing all our favorites back together in one book again. Given the sheer size of the cast, of course it’ll be huge.
It’s always nice when Martin chooses to chime in about The Winds of Winter. But for now, our watch continues.
Next. George R.R. Martin: Game of Thrones prequel is full of “conflicted, grey characters”. dark
To stay up to date on everything fantasy, science fiction, and WiC, follow our all-encompassing Facebook page and sign up for our exclusive newsletter.
Get HBO, Starz, Showtime and MORE for FREE with a no-risk, 7-day free trial of Amazon Channels