George RR Martin's 'A Dance with Dragons' Gets a Release Date

*Originally published on 3/4/11



A surprisingly short time after I commented on the Martin fiasco, the author makes an official announcement on his blog that the book, A Dance With Dragons, will be coming out on July 12 of this year.

Readers who have been waiting since 2005 for the next entry may roll their eyes at this, as they've been down this road before. Martin himself points this out and says that those were never hard dates, but more like optimistic, self imposed goals. The author makes a point to say that this is legit and that this is the final date.

Martin says in his blog that unless some catastrophe like a world war or asteroid strike occurs, the book is coming out on this said date.

Of course, he also says that he's not quite done with the book yet (but he's close). This may dampen some hopes, but both author and the publishers are sure that this is the date that sticks. so for those who have been waiting years, you will finally get your desired book.

If you are an e-book reader, you may have to wait a little longer, though it is possible that the Kindle/Nook edition is released with the hardcover. If it isn't, you may have to wait another couple of weeks. I know I fall into that category as I bought the first three books on my Kindle and have the Kindle edition of A Feast for Crows sitting on my Amazon wish list.

Speaking of Amazon, the book's page clocks the hardcover edition in at 1,008 pages. This lives up to Martin's claim that the book is a monster. While the wait was long, at least the book will give you quite a bit of material to go through.

I mentioned before how there was a chance that the book will come out after Duke Nukem Forever, a video game that suffered similar delays. Sadly for Martin, he lost this particular race, though he did come rather close. Still, that just makes 2011 all the more impressive as we're seeing products come to light that many had pretty much given up on.

Many fans had gotten to the point where they didn't believe that Martin would ever finish the series. Hopefully, the close release date, coupled with a claim made in a comment on my previous article that this section of the saga was a rough patch and that things should flow much smoother from here, will help alleviate that sentiment and give readers the sense of excitement they had when they first started the series.