A few weeks ago, George R.R. Martin revealed that he was not finished with the draft of The Winds of Winter. This caused some rather predictable dismay among fans of the Song of Ice and Fire series. After all, the first book in the series, A Game of Thrones, was published in 1996, and the last one, A Dance with Dragons, came out in 2011, five years ago. Needless to say, some fans of the series have become just a little impatient with the long gaps between the release of each of the books. This somewhat goo-natured ribbing of Martin was first recorded and released in 2012, and now it is 2016 with no book yet in sight.
On the one hand, these complaints are understandable: Fans love the Song of Ice and Fire and want to be able to read more of it sooner rather than later. On the other hand, as Neil Gaiman has famously said "George R.R. Martin is not your bitch". Martin gets to decide how he will spend his time, and he has chosen to spend a fair chunk of it enjoying being the author of the most popular fantasy series currently being published. He is also enjoying being a consultant on the very popular HBO television series made out of his books. And Martin hasn't exactly been sitting around doing nothing else. He's published numerous novellas, edited a couple of anthologies, and completed a fair number of other projects in the years between 1996 and now.
On the gripping hand, beyond the fact that Martin doesn't owe readers anything, and hasn't exactly been resting on his laurels anyway, there is the reality that there is more fiction available for fantasy readers to consume than anyone could ever possibly keep up with. Authors such as N.K. Jemisin, Zen Cho, Naomi Novik, and others turn out excellent fiction on a regular basis. There are literally hundreds of works of fantasy available to read while waiting for Martin to complete his next book. I personally own several thousand volumes of genre fiction that I can read in the interim. While I understand that there is a desire to read more of this particular series, there is so much else available to read that waiting for a bit more before The Winds of Winter hits the book stores should pose no real hardship. One could, for example, look to the wide selection of books contained in Appendix E of the most recent edition of the Dungeons & Dragons Player's Handbook to find a large number of alternative fantasy books to choose from.
In any event, Paul & Storm's song is still hilarious.
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