Over the past year, George RR Martin has been giving his fans updates on the upcoming Game of Thrones book The Winds of Winter. While a release date is still eluding him and his readers, he has been quite open with how it is coming along. Most recently he assured his fans: “The woods were lovely, dark and deep, but I have promises to keep, and books to write before I sleep.”

Martin is taking a very long time to finish his highly-anticipated novel and it may be because of the number of pages in the book.

The page count for The Winds of Winter has not yet been revealed just yet but it is presumed to be around 1,500 pages long.

Back in 2018, Martin was asked on his website by one of his fans: “This question might be painful, but I’ll ask it anyways: has there been any thought of publishing WINDS [of Winter] in similar fashion as FIRE AND BLOOD: in two volumes? And if you do end up posting a new sample chapter, might I suggest the Prologue?” (sic)

Martin replied: “Some of my publishers have suggested breaking up WINDS as we did with FEAST [A Feast For Crows] and DANCE [A Dance with Dragons].”

READ MORE: Winds of Winter: Stephen King feared George RR Martin ‘would die’

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Martin went on to add: “I am resisting that notion.”

It is important to note that in the UK A Feast For Crows was not split into two books, but A Dance With Dragons and A Storm of Swords were.

Both of these books were around the 1,000-page mark.

Martin also recently appeared on a radio show where he compared the end of the HBO Game of Thrones show to his own book ending.

He said: “Looking back, I wish I’d stayed ahead of the books.

“My biggest issue there was when they began the [TV] series, I had four books already in print, and the fifth one came out just as the series was starting in 2011.

“I had a five-book head-start, and these are gigantic books, as you know.”

Martin continued: “I never thought they would catch up with me, but they did.

“They caught up with me and passed me. That made it a little strange.”

He then revealed: “Now the show was ahead of me, and the show was going in somewhat different directions.

“I’m still working on the book, but you’ll see my ending when that comes out.”

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