Game of Thrones Books: Why Winds of Winter Isn't Coming Soon | Fortune

Unfortunately for devoted readers of the A Song of Ice and Fire novels, the reality is that the book publishing world isn't built to accommodate the equivalent of a surprise album drop or Netflix documentary about Beyoncé. And even though it's been eight years since Martin released A Dance with Dragons, there's no real reason for his publisher to hurry up.

The only real urgency lies with the fans. Book purists fret about the 70-year-old Martin dying before finishing his story ("I find that question pretty offensive, frankly, when people start speculating about my death and my health, so fuck you to those people," the author said in 2014). But Martin has also started feeling the pressure, recently telling Entertainment Weekly, "I better live a long time because I have a lot of work left to do."