George R.R. Martin’s sixth Game of Thrones novel has been a long time coming for 14 years now. Does that mean the end is nigh? Not necessarily, if we look at these late book sequels.
For some, it’s agony, for others it’s a kind of running gag: we’re talking about the 14-year wait for The Winds of Winter, the sixth part of George R.R. Martin’s successful fantasy novel series A Song of Ice and Fire. While the series adaptation Game of Thrones is long since finished, fans thirsting for the literary sequel continue to look into the void and are even pitied by the creator himself.
Some fans have no doubt already come up with theories about what might be stopping the bestselling author Martin: writer’s block? A busy schedule? Or is he possibly in a Misery-like situation, with every word he types being checked for suitability by a crazed ex-nurse?
Whatever it is, the past shows that hope for The Winds of Winter is not necessarily lost. After all, there have been a few book sequels that took even longer to complete than the sixth Game of Thrones novel. We’ve listed a few examples here:
These literary sequels took even longer to complete than The Winds of Winter
- The Moon of Gomrath (1963) and Boneland (2012) by Alan Garner: 49 years to wait
- The Shining (1977) and Doctor Sleep (2013) by Stephen King: 36 years to wait
- The Handmaid’s Tale (1985) and Testaments (2019) by Margaret Atwood: 34 years to wait
- Catch-22 (1961) and Time for Letting Go (1994) by Joseph Heller: 33 years to wait
- The Naked Sun (1957) and The Road to the Stars (1983) by Isaac Asimov: 26 years to wait
- The Witches of Eastwick (1984) and The Widows of Eastwick (2008) by John Updike: 24 years to wait
- The Talisman (1984) and The Black House (2001) by Stephen King and Peter Straub: 17 years of waiting
So anyone who had already resigned themselves to probably never being able to hold the long-awaited novel sequel by George R.R. Martin in their hands should perhaps not give up yet. After all, few people had expected the sequels mentioned above, some of which only appeared after several decades. In that respect, a waiting time of 14 years seems downright ridiculous.
To be fair, however, it must also be said that the outcry for all these sequels was probably not nearly as loud as the one for Game of Thrones, Part 6. But maybe Martin will soon answer his fans, after all, he hasn’t stopped writing altogether. And when winter approaches, why not The Winds of Winter too?
