Winds of Winter should be out in the near future... we hope

The novel has been a long time in the making, with the TV series it inspired - Game of Thrones - having long overtaken it in narrative terms.

Now, as fans continue to wait for confirmation of when exactly TWOW will hit shelves, Martin has at least made one thing official: it will be out after companion book Fire and Blood.

Replying to a comment on his blog, Martin said: “The first volume [of Fire and Blood] should be completed soon. The second is hardly begun.”

And when a reply to that read: “Just out of curiosity: will Fire and Blood be released before or after Winds?”, he responded: “F&B will be in two volumes. Vol 1 before, vol 2 after.”