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this post was submitted on 06 May 2025
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I've gone back and forth. Of course if you are selling a book series, there is some kind of expectation, promise and social contract between author and reader that there will be some kind of ending and payoff. The fact is GRRM still makes money off book sales, selling IP rights and franchises, making royalties out of expectation that one day he will finish the series. So I have the same reaction as most ASOAIF fan everytime we hear GRRM in the news that is not related to TWOW.
However, on the other hand, it is also a funny bit, and the insane fan theories and communities that sprung out of ASOAIF lore are great. In some ways, this is the best kind of conspiracy theory to be invested in, (1) it has no social consequences, (2) there is no such thing as coincidence in a world of fiction (everything is author's intent), and finally (3) you can make predictions to your heart's content and will never be wrong because GRRM will never finish the series.
I mostly read serial web fiction, unfinished books are a very familiar agony to me.
If he never writes the book, the hypothetical book he might write can always shine in fans' minds as better than the show ending, if he ever actually writes the damn thing that wavefunction collapses and a lot of people will be very upset.
Especially considering the fact that GRRM actually never had a good track record of writing decent ending, even in short stories and novellas - a medium where it is arguably easier to write a strong ending. Think about Edgar Allan Poe's 2 page Red Death story "and the red death held illimitable dominion over all" or other famous short stories (Chekov, Hemingway, etc.) with not a whole lot of buildup, but zinger endings where the authors utterly drive the message and theme home. GRRM is the reverse, tons of buildups but even his 100-page short story always sputters at the end. The best part about ASOAIF these days is unironically to finish the books, play victim and complain about TWOW never coming out (complaining is fun).
I don't actually like GRRM('s writing), I tried the first ASOIAF book and it just seemed like edgy misery porn to me.
If he wrote it with a timeframe of 2-3 years which is mostly reasonable for this kind of books, mostly nobody would bat an eye because it would be before the show that truly made him famous and rustled a lot of jimmies. But now? It would be like kick in the sleepy and angry hornets nest. Also the sequels written after many years for some reason always suck.