Will George R.R. Martin ever finish his epic fantasy series A Song of Ice and Fire? It's the question that has long dogged the author, spawning a splinter faction of devotees-turned-enemies who claim that he is cruelly dragging his feet and who openly fear that he will die before his magnum opus is complete.
The latest from Martin's editor, then, should really get their blood up. Anne Groell recently told fans that ASOIAF could feasibly turn into an eight-book series, one more than the seven already planned, because the ASOIAF universe technically includes eight kingdoms.
Here is what Martin's British publisher, Jane Johnson, had to say: "[I]n all honesty only George knows how many books there will be in the series and he's not saying: indeed at this stage of the writing, with the many branching pathways of the characters' stories still to intersect, he may not know."
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Seven (or eight?) hells.
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