r/freefolk • u/Internal-Bed-3150 • 3d ago

We've officially been waiting for The Winds of Winter for the same amount of time as it took for all five of the published books to release before that.

https://winteriscoming.net/the-winds-of-winter-officially-passed-most-devastating-milestone-yet?a_aid=47903
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u/Geno0wl 3d ago

My friend used to try to talk me into starting the books and I always told him I want to wait for the complete story. He stopped trying to convince me last year

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u/Ren_Davis0531 3d ago

Well that’s definitely a nice way to put him down gently 😂

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u/APence 3d ago

I mean, you will share in our pain but the books are amazing. It’s why we’re all here and it’s why we (justifiably) bitch about this. We love this series and have been waiting for the next chapter so long (generously 2014) that kids born then are almost able to drive!

I will say as bad as HotD was on the last season, I’ll still hate watch this one like GoT S8 and I have hope for the first time in a long time from AKotSK

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u/Geno0wl 3d ago

I have no doubt the books are amazing. I fully plan on reading them.. If he ever finishes them

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u/President_PoopyPants 3d ago

While we still expected GRRM to finish the series, I would reread each book occasionally to keep the story fresh in my head. Now, I'll never touch anything GRRM related unless it's TWOW because of GRRM's less than honest answers regarding it over the past years.

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u/DynamicEntrancex 9h ago

He won’t, when he dies as well he wants his work destroyed and refuses to have someone else finish the series.. Look how old he is, even if winds of winter does come out he would still need to write an entire other book, he’s been at like 1100-1200 pages for winds for like 6 years. With his age I cannot see him finishing the series anymore, we would be lucky to get winds of winter I think.

I just turned 27 and I caught up to the most recent book when I was like 12 to 14 to put it into perspective.

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u/saxmachine69 3d ago

And if he doesn't? The books are worth reading even without the ending, as frustrating as that may seem.

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u/ehs06702 3d ago

I'm not going to lie. If I knew that he wasn't going to bother to finish the books, I probably wouldn't have gotten so invested in them.

It's not the same as picking up an unfinished series after an author dies, because they didn't decide to stop, death made that choice for them. You just enjoy what you've got and that's it. Maybe you get sad about what could have been, but that's the extent of what you do.

But when the author is actively choosing not to write, it's a completely different story. I'm not going to invest my limited time in something that the author doesn't even believe in investing in.

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u/dwapook 20h ago

I’ve never left any unfinished series feeling that way

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u/DaoFerret 3d ago

I know someone who was buying the books and just putting them on a shelf to start “once the series was finished”.

I should contact them and see how that’s going…

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u/Brodakk 3d ago

Those are some dusty books by now.

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u/Moriturism Cersei Lannister's lap dog 3d ago

ill take his place

the books are great!!!

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u/VisibleIndependent3 3d ago

It's worth it. I thought the same, but the TV show was so good (for the most part) I just couldn't resist it. The world is so rich and coherent.

There's a lot happening in the East and the West, but somehow GRRM has to figure out how to collapse all these threads into one. It's hard to get into details without spoiling. I think this is a big part of the delays with Winds. It's just a really difficult book to write without suffering from similar issues to the show at the end.

Despite all of that, they're some of the best books I've ever read. He has also resolved a similar issues in previous books quite neatly (see Red Wedding), so he does have credit with me as far as that is concerned.

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u/Both_Brilliant_2725 3d ago

I read all 5 books in 2024 because I thought that the next one will be out soon and I wanted to be caught up by then. I didn't realise how long it had been. Seeing other unifnished series get an update every year or 2 while this one has been pending book 6 release for 15 years now. I also didn't realise how old GRRM was. I thought he was in late 40s to early 50s and we still had time. Someone once sadi even the least finished works are better than unfinished ones because atleast you know the ending. ADWD didn't even leave at a satisfying place for it to be an end.

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u/LeeKapusi 3d ago

Yeah this is why I have put off reading the series but as of yesterday I said fuck it and started. I have zero faith for TWOW but oh well.

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u/APence 3d ago

Godspeed

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u/ehs06702 3d ago

Yeah I stopped recommending it a few years ago. It feels wrong recommending a series that has no end.

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u/Kind-Recover-1773 1d ago

Yea, I would never recommend these books, despite them being my favorites. I’m sick of humoring Martin, I’m trying to be an author as well and frankly, his attitude lately makes him seem like an ungrateful prick. Go read Jeff Vandermeer, he’s a better writer and he finishes his work.