A Dream of Spring: will George R.R. Martin ever finish last Game of Thrones book, how many pages will it be?

When George R.R. Martin first began writing A Game of Thrones back in 1991, he envisioned it to be the first instalment of a three novel series to be titled A Song of Ice and Fire (ASOIAF).

If that had been the case then the series would have been completed when A Storm of Swords was published in 2000, but instead, the author is still writing the sixth instalment of the series.

Martin officially began working on Winds of Winter after finishing A Dance with Dragons in 2011, though he had reportedly written four chapters before then. In the more than a decade since, he is still yet to finish Winds of Winter, and has even given up on guessing when it could be ready for publication.

This means that there still could be several more years to go before Winds of Winter hits the shelves, and then the work on A Dream of Spring will really begin.

Will George R.R. Martin ever finish A Dream of Spring?

Some fans have suggested that Martin has lost enthusiasm for the series, or that he has created such a huge world in his novels that he doesn’t know how to bring it all together in the final books in a satisfying way.

Some have also theorised that after seeing the poor response to the final season of HBO series Game of Thrones, adapted from his novels but surpassing them after season five, that he has second guessed himself and is in the middle of a monumental rewrite.

There has been a gap of a few years at least between all the novels in his ASOIAF series - A Clash of Kings landed two years after A Game of Thrones, then it was a further two years for A Storm of Swords, five years for A Feast for Crows, and six years for the latest book, A Dance with Dragons.

Now though, it has been more than 12 years between books - even if Winds of Winter were to be released tomorrow, if Martin takes as long to write A Dream of Spring, it will not be published until late 2035, when the author will be 86.

How many pages will A Dream of Spring be?

Martin previously announced that Winds of Winter and A Dream of Spring will total 3,000 manuscript pages between them, though he added the caveat that if he feels he needs to write more he will.

This may not translate to both novels being published at 1,500 pages each, as A Storm of Swords was around 1,500 manuscript pages but came out at just under 1,000 pages when it was published in two volumes. 

Martin also said that the last two novels are likely to be the longest in the series, so expect each to be more than 1,000 pages long when (and if) they are published. It’s not known which of the two books will be longest, but both will probably be published in two volumes. 

What will happen if George R.R. Martin dies?

Obviously, the fate of two unreleased books pales in significance to the death of their beloved author. However, many fans are getting nervous that Martin may not finish the sprawling ASOIAF series because of how long he has spent on the sixth novel.

If Martin does die before completing his series, could someone else step in to finish his work, his blogger wife Parris McBride perhaps?

These situations do happen - The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo author, Stieg larsson, tragically died in 2004, aged 50, after submitting the manuscript for the first three novels in what was supposed to be a 10 instalment series called Millennium.

11 years after Larsson’s death David Lagercrantz picked up his mantle and published the fourth novel in the series, The Girl in the Spider's Web. He published two more novels before handing over to Karin Smirnoff, who wrote the seventh Millennium book in 2022.  

Unfortunately it doesn’t seem that this will be the case with ASOIAF. Martin previously said in 2013 that he was against other people writing sequels to his books, and that his wife would hold the same view if she were to outlive him. 

Martin did once suggest that if he was diagnosed with a terminal illness and had a year or so to live, he would consider making a detailed set of notes and offering the opportunity to use them to complete the book to a fellow writer.

Because Martin has already sunk so much of his life into Winds of Winter, and reportedly has more than 1,000 pages written, it’s likely that if he were to pass on before completing the penultimate novel that it would be wrapped up by his publishers and released posthumously. 

But when it comes to  A Dream of Spring, which is presumably much further away from completion, it doesn’t look like it will be published in the event of Martin’s death.