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George R.R. Martin encountered another angry fan on August 17, 2025, at the Seattle WorldCon panel. The fan in question asked Martin when he would complete The Winds of Winter and A Dream of Spring. Moreover, the said fan further asked if Martin was considering handing over the writing duties of the last two novels to another writer like Brandon Sanderson, who was also present in the panel.
Hearing this rude question, the other authors came to Martin's defence, and the hosts took control of the situation. George R.R. Martin was also supposedly hurt by this question, especially because the fan asked him if he was considering handing over writing duties to Sanderson because he wasn't going to be here for long. This event shines a light on the toxic side of a small section of fandom.
After this question, the panel was abruptly ended, and Martin proceeded to sign fans' books.
Game of Thrones author George R.R. Martin addressed his mortality a few months ago in his blog:
George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series comprises seven books; the fifth installment, which is also the last one published, was released in July 2011. Since then, fans have been waiting for the sixth book, The Winds of Winter. Online chatter regarding this delay is divided between Martin having The Winds of Winter and publishing it simultaneously with A Dream of Spring, or that he is still working on the sixth book.
Thus, on May 28, 2025, the author posted an entry on his blog in which he referred to the sixth book. The blog post started with the announcement that he was producing A Dozen Tough Jobs, which is an adaptation of Howard Waldrop's April 1989 book. Then the post went on to speculate about what fans would think about George R.R. Martin producing the movie:
"I know, I know. Some of you will just be pissed off by this, as you are by everything I announce here that is not about Westeros or THE WINDS OF WINTER. You have given up on me, or on the book. I will never finish WINDS, If I do, I will never finish A DREAM OF SPRING. If I do, it won’t be any good. I ought to get some other writer to pinch hit for me… I am going to die soon anyway, because I am so old. I lost all interest in A Song of Ice and Fire decades ago. I don’t give a shit about writing any longer, I just sit around and spend my money. I edit the Wild Cards books too, but you hate Wild Cards. You may hate everything else I have ever written, the Hugo-winners and Hugo-losers, “A Song for Lya” and DYING OF THE LIGHT, “Sandkings” and BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, “This Tower of Ashes” and “The Stone City,” OLD MARS and OLD VENUS and ROGUES and WARRIORS and DANGEROUS WOMEN and all the other anthologies I edited with my friend Gardner Dozois, You don’t care about any of those, I know. You don’t care about anything but WINDS OF WINTER. You’ve told me so often enough"
But after this speculation-filled rant, through the post, Martin went on to reveal that he did care for the series, though:
"Thing is, I do care about them. And I care about Westeros and WINDS as well. The Starks and Lannisters and Targaryens, Tyrion and Asha, Dany and Daenerys, the dragons and the direwolves, I care about them all. More than you can ever imagine."
This makes it clear that Martin still cares deeply about his creation and is taking painstaking care with the series.
Our take on The Winds of Winter delay:
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Honestly, the A Song of Ice and Fire series is more detailed than the HBO series. The hit HBO series excluded several characters and plotlines throughout its eight seasons. Moreover, the seventh and, more importantly, the eighth seasons of the show are regarded as the weakest seasons.
Martin is clearly under immense pressure to deliver a more satisfying plot for the final two books. Thus, it makes sense that he needs to navigate a labyrinthine plot to win over fans who were burnt out by the last two seasons of Game of Thrones. Even in his blog post, he brought up his mortality and the idea of another writer.
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