The news of author George R. R. Martin announcing that the long-awaited, penultimate book in the massively-popular A Song of Ice and Fire series, The Winds of Winter, won't be released in 2018 really makes you think. We've now waited so long for this book, which we once thought would be the final novel in the saga, that... does it even matter if it comes out after HBO wraps up its Game of Thrones TV show in 2019?
In fact, might it be better if it was purposefully held off until the show ended? For the sake of both the books and the series?
Naturally, superfans of the novels, the purists, will want nothing to do with this opinion. For them, understandably, The Winds of Winter can't come fast enough. They may be even a bit perturbed at how long it's taken Martin to write it given that he himself once admitted that the notoriety he gained from show created numerous distractions, side projects, opportunities, and activities that kept him from concentrating on the book. And this was on top of his already-lengthy writing process (there were five and six year gaps between his last two books, respectively).
Anyhow, this is just a humble opinion meant to appease those of us who are fans of both the novels and the TV series, who understand that both operate as totally different mediums which require different methods of storytelling and execution. Let the HBO series come to a close, whenever it's planned to end in 2019, before releasing TWOW. Don't put the penultimate chapter, which would mostly correlate with last year's Season 7, on shelves, for people to parse and dissect, compare and contrast, right before the ultimate endgame plays out on television.
Here's the laziest argument for holding off on TWOW, for sure, but it still holds some water. We've already waited seven years. Jokes about Martin's projected lifespan (and whether he'll actually finish the final book, A Dream of Spring) aside, what's two more years? Or a year and a half more? We're already not getting the book this year, so why not just aim to release it in - say - Summer or Fall of 2019, after Season 8 has concluded?
It's honestly not that much longer, and it'll be the perfect way for fans of the show to come to terms with the way everything landed. They can then just hop into the book and re-envelop themselves in that world. Sure, because of the show they'll have some idea of how most everything will play out, given that showrunners D. B. Weiss and David Benioff were told the major beats ahead of time, back when they had to start writing the series with no direct source material, but there's something nicely "full circle" about the show ending before the final two books. Martin was always going to have the final word, but this way he'd have two books with some ample elbow room.
On the flip side of the previous paragraph, let's allow the TV show to wrap things up on its own terms. Not that it wouldn't, necessarily, be doing that anyway to a certain extent, but in some ways it would be better for its huge final season to end with nothing to compare it to, book-wise. Even though TWOW isn't the final novel in Martin's series, there's a possibility it could contain elements that might bleed into whatever Season 8's story is - or introduce themes and arcs that will strongly affect major endgame scenarios.
Whatever the case, it's become a curious test to see if Weiss and Benioff can bring the curtain down in proper, satisfying fashion. Season 7 was a mostly a success, but the accelerated pacing posed a few problems as it felt like there was a rush to shut the saga down. It's all made for a one-of-a-kind creative scenario where you want to see the show ride out the rest of the journey with no books for fans to compare it to. It's a fun "sink or swim" situation now to see if the series can come correct with the true burden of delivering the goods.
Not that there isn't a GoT spin-off show, or shows, planned for the future, to keep HBO's lifeblood flowing, but it's clear that this main show, the big Ice and Fire TV series, momentarily took Martin's eyes off TWOW prize. At this point, just allowing the show to be a thing of the past might work best for him creatively. For years now, we've wanted him to buckle down and get it done, but maybe it's just not possible for him to focus properly with the TV show being the global sensation that it is.
Martin said that TWOW won't be out this year, but that doesn't necessarily mean it'll be out next year either. Honestly, we don't know how much more time he needs, so maybe it'll take the show wrapping up for him to twist in those final screws. A Dream of Spring? That's... a whole different topic that can easily lead to dark spiraling thoughts about possible non-closure. But perhaps it's something Martin can invest in more fully, and manifest more quickly, in the full wake of the TV show.
What do you all think? Would you like The Winds of Winter to come out in early 2019? Before HBO airs Season 8? Or would you rather, at this point, wait until Weiss and Benioff have fully unspooled their version of the story?
Matt Fowler is a writer for IGN and a member of the Television Critics Association (TCA). Follow him on Twitter at @TheMattFowler and Facebook at Facebook.com/MattBFowler.
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