With the release date of George R.R. Martin's "The Winds of Winter" is still up in the air, fans continue to speculate when it will come out.
The book was originally due for release before the airing of "Game of Thrones" season 6, but the series has since surpassed the events of the source material and there is still no official news about it, except that it will arrive as soon as its finished.
The sixth book in the "A Song of Ice and Fire" series has been in progress for five years already, which George R.R. Martin chalked up to being a slow writer.
Fresh reports are hinting that the book has been completed and is now in the proofreading stage. Should this rumor prove true, the book could come out as early as January 2017, iTechPost reported.
However, there are also reports that the book will not be released until the release of the seventh season of "Game of Thrones."
There are also reports that "Winds of Winter" will be the last book in the franchise to address fans who are dismayed over the long wait between intervals of the books. It has been reported that the last book — "A Dream of Spring" — has been scrapped altogether.
However, no official statement has been released, but Martin has reportedly said that he is committed to complete seven books in the series.
"I do have thousands of pages of fake history of everything that led up to Game of Thrones. So there's a wealth of material there and I'm still writing more. But at the moment, we still have this show to finish, and I still have two books to finish, so that's all speculation," he said.
The final season of "Game of Thrones" — which will be based on Martin's "A Dream of Spring" — will be split into two seasons and will air in 2017 and 2018, respectively.
