After George R.R. Martin’s publisher Anne Groell revealed that an eighth book in the “A Song of Ice and Fire” may be in the future, GRRM spoke to EW about what his actual plan for the series entails.
Martin confirms that he currently plans to finish the series in seven books, but that it was not always the case.
“My plan is to finish in seven,” Martin said. “But my original plan was to finish in three. I write the stories and they grow. I deal with certain things and sometimes I find myself not at the end of a story. My plan right now is still seven. But first I have to finish Book Six. Get back to me when I’m half-way through Book Seven and then maybe I’ll tell you something more meaningful.”
Based on the comment, it seems that the series will continue to go on as plan with seven books.
Martin went on to talk about the current season of the HBO series, more importantly about the changes from the book to the show.
“It’s been a great season,” he said. “Though by and large we are seeing more differences from the books and I’ve been predicting that from the beginning. There’s a certain snowball effect of making changes and I think that will continue. I like many of the new scenes they’ve inserted along the way, though I miss the things they leave out. Obviously I put those scenes in the books for a reason, I felt they added to the story. As I’ve been saying for years, I wish they had more hours — every time I see another HBO show I wonder why we only have 10 and they have 13.”
Martin went on to say,
“But we’ve done some major stuff this year. The Purple Wedding and Tyrion’s trial — with incredible performances by Peter Dinklage and Sibel Kekilli. And the trial by combat was amazing, too.”
Currently, there is no word on when the 6th book will be released. Martin says he is still working on it and given it took 5 years to finish the last book, it might not be anytime soon.
