It is the question that has defined a decade of fantasy fandom. You've probably seen the memes. You've definitely seen the frustrated Reddit threads. People are constantly asking: are the Game of Thrones books finished? No. They aren't. Honestly, it’s more complicated than a simple "yes" or "no" because of how George R.R. Martin writes, but the short answer remains a frustrating stalemate. We are currently waiting on The Winds of Winter, the sixth planned novel in the A Song of Ice and Fire (ASOIAF) saga. It has been over thirteen years since the last installment, A Dance with Dragons, hit shelves in July 2011. To put that in perspective, the entire HBO show started and ended in the time we've been waiting for this one book.
The Massive Gap Between Page and Screen
A lot of people who came to the franchise through the TV show assume the story is done because they saw Bran Stark become King. But for book readers, the story is in a completely different place. In the books, Jon Snow is still dead in the snow at Castle Black. Stannis Baratheon is alive and preparing for a massive battle in the ice outside Winterfell. Young Griff—a character completely cut from the show who claims to be Aegon Targaryen—is currently invading the Stormlands.
The narrative is a sprawling, chaotic mess of threads that Martin has to tie together. It’s why the books aren't finished. The "Meereenese Knot" was a term Martin used to describe the difficulty of getting all his characters to converge in Essos in the fifth book. Now, he’s dealing with several "knots" simultaneously.
The show ran out of source material around Season 5. From that point on, David Benioff and D.B. Weiss were working off a rough outline provided by Martin. They hit the "big beats"—like Hodor’s origin or the identity of Jon’s parents—but the path to get there in the books will be fundamentally different. Because the show ended poorly in the eyes of many fans, the pressure on Martin to deliver a "superior" ending has only intensified.
Why The Winds of Winter is Taking Forever
Martin isn't just sitting around. He’s written hundreds of pages. He’s also deleted hundreds of pages. He is a "gardener" style writer, meaning he lets the story grow organically rather than following a strict blueprint. Sometimes the garden grows into a wall.
In his various Not A Blog posts over the years, Martin has admitted that he struggles with the sheer scale of the POV (Point of View) characters. Every time he moves one character, it affects ten others. If he decides Character A shouldn't be at a certain battle, he has to rewrite five chapters from the perspectives of Characters B, C, and D. It’s a geometric nightmare.
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There’s also the "distraction" factor, though calling it that feels a bit dismissive. Martin is an executive producer on House of the Dragon. He’s involved in various other Dunk and Egg prequels and Wild Cards anthologies. He’s a celebrity now in a way he wasn't in the 90s. When A Game of Thrones was released in 1996, he could write in relative obscurity. Now, every time he goes to a convention or a football game, the internet tracks his movements to see if he’s at his computer.
The 75% Completion Update
In late 2022, Martin gave one of his most specific updates ever. He stated he had about 1,100 to 1,200 pages of the book written. He estimated he had maybe 400 or 500 pages left to go. That sounds great, right? Almost there.
Well, not exactly.
In late 2023, he admitted he hadn't made much progress on the page count since the previous year. He was struggling. Writing is hard. Writing the most anticipated fantasy novel of the century while the world watches your every move is probably paralyzing.
Are the Game of Thrones books finished in terms of a planned ending?
Martin knows the ending. He has famously told the "major" plot points to the showrunners and likely to his publishers. If—and this is the dark thought every fan has—he were to pass away before finishing, there is no clear plan for someone else to finish it. Martin has historically been against "posthumous collaborations" in the vein of Christopher Tolkien or Brandon Sanderson finishing The Wheel of Time.
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However, we do have a lot of content from The Winds of Winter already. Martin has released several "sample chapters" over the years. We’ve seen chapters from the perspectives of:
- Theon Greyjoy (at Stannis’s camp)
- Arianne Martell (traveling to meet Aegon)
- Victarion Greyjoy (arriving at Meereen)
- Tyrion Lannister
- Mercy (Arya Stark in Braavos)
- Alayne (Sansa Stark in the Vale)
These chapters prove the book exists in some form. It’s not vaporware. It’s just... slow.
The Problem of A Dream of Spring
Even if The Winds of Winter comes out tomorrow, the series isn't done. The final planned book is titled A Dream of Spring.
If it takes fifteen years to write Book 6, the math for Book 7 looks grim. Martin is in his mid-70s. This is why some fans have moved from frustration to a sort of quiet radical acceptance. They’ve accepted that the TV show might be the only ending they ever get, however flawed it was.
But there is a silver lining. Martin’s world-building hasn't stopped. Fire & Blood, the history of the Targaryen kings, was a massive success and serves as the basis for House of the Dragon. He is still deeply immersed in Westeros. The "books" as a collective universe are thriving, even if the "books" as a central narrative are stalled.
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How to Stay Sane While Waiting
If you’re checking the news every morning to see if are the Game of Thrones books finished, you’re going to burn out. The fandom has moved toward "deep dives" into existing lore.
Honestly, the best way to handle the wait is to engage with the theories. The ASOIAF community on platforms like YouTube and Westeros.org has produced analysis that is arguably as entertaining as the books themselves. Theories like "R+L=J" (which was confirmed by the show) started in these forums decades ago. Now, fans are dissecting the "Grand Northern Conspiracy" or the "Euron Greyjoy Eldritch Apocalypse" theory.
Actionable Steps for Fans
If you’ve finished the existing five books and are craving more, don't just wait. There is a specific order of operations to get the most out of Martin’s world while the main series is in limbo:
- Read the Dunk and Egg Novellas: Collected in A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. These are lighter, shorter, and arguably contain some of Martin’s best character work. They take place about 90 years before the main series.
- Pick up Fire & Blood: It’s written as a history book by an Archmaester. It’s dense, but if you like the political maneuvering of the main series, you’ll love the chaos of the Dance of the Dragons.
- Explore The World of Ice & Fire: This is a massive coffee table book with incredible art and lore about the distant lands like Yi Ti and Asshai that we may never see in the main novels.
- Follow the Not A Blog: This is George R.R. Martin’s only official communication channel. If the book is finished, it will be announced there first. Avoid the "leak" sites; they are almost always wrong.
- Diversify your reading: There are incredible authors who have finished their series in the time Martin has been writing. Try Joe Abercrombie’s First Law trilogy for that same grimdark political feel, or Steven Erikson’s Malazan Book of the Fallen for epic scale.
The wait for The Winds of Winter has become a cultural phenomenon in its own right. It represents the tension between a creator’s desire for perfection and a consumer’s desire for closure. We aren't there yet. The books are not finished. But the story—in all its messy, bloody, brilliant glory—is still very much alive in Martin's mind. For now, that has to be enough.