A Song of Ice and Fire Book 6 — the most anticipated fantasy novel of the 21st century, now in its 14th year of waiting. Here's everything we know about its status as of 2025.
⏳ Status: In Progress — No Release DateA Dance with Dragons, the fifth book in A Song of Ice and Fire, was published on 12 July 2011 — to enormous relief after a six-year wait following A Feast for Crows (2005). It has now been over 14 years since that release.
George R.R. Martin has continued working on The Winds of Winter throughout this period. He maintains a personal blog called "Not a Blog" where he posts periodically about his progress and other projects. He has confirmed many times that the book is his priority, that he is writing it, and that it is not finished.
No publication date has been announced. No publisher has set one. The book will be announced when it is done.
Martin has released several preview chapters at conventions, readings, and on his website. These are not final versions but give a sense of where the story picks up:
Confirmed preview chapters (publicly read or released):
A Dance with Dragons publishes. GRRM says he hopes The Winds of Winter won't take as long as the six-year gap before it.
GRRM releases the Arianne chapter publicly. First major preview chapter confirmed.
HBO's Game of Thrones overtakes the books. GRRM issues a lengthy blog post explaining the delay — he had hoped to deliver the manuscript before the show filmed, and he failed to do so. He apologises publicly.
Game of Thrones ends controversially in Season 8. Audience interest in ASOIAF books spikes again as fans hope for a better ending in prose form.
GRRM confirms he isolated during the COVID pandemic to write, and that the isolation gave him extended work time. Optimism rises.
House of the Dragon premieres on HBO and becomes a hit, reinvigorating the IP and public interest in the world of Westeros.
GRRM continues periodic blog updates. No release date announced. The wait continues.
Absolutely — with eyes open. A Game of Thrones through A Dance with Dragons are five of the greatest fantasy novels ever written. The wait for Book 6 is real, but the first five books are complete and wholly satisfying as an experience in themselves.
The show has given us an ending of sorts. It's a disputed one, but it exists. If you want the story GRRM intended, the books are where you'll find it — and two of those books have been done for decades.
Start with A Game of Thrones. You can decide how to feel about the wait once you've read it. Most readers find the choice was easy.