Giving George R.R. Martin One Last Chance

I've written on this blog a number of times how I have been disappointed in fantasy fiction writer George R.R. Martin's decade-long delay in finishing his sixth book, The Winds of Winter, in the A Song of Ice and Fire series.  I had ambitiously set out to read the first five volumes of the series, starting with A Game of Thrones, finished up several years ago, and eagerly awaited the next installment...and waited...and waited.  Instead, Martin collaborated with HBO on an eight-season adaptation of the series, even going into yet-to-be published material from the final two books during the last three seasons and completely closing out the series on TV with a very controversial ending.  Meanwhile, Martin has let himself be distracted by other projects, including an unsolicited prequel novel to this series while all his loyal readers have been clamoring for Winds of Winter.  Well, I've reread good fiction before and I don't really know for sure how he plans to end his written version of the series...assuming he gets around to finish writing it, that is.  Still, foolish as I may be, I've decided to reread the first five rather lengthy books in hopes that Martin is true to his word about expecting the next book to be out sometime in 2021.  I'm currently a little more than halfway through A Game of Thrones, listening to it through a speeded up unabridged audio version I checked out from my public library...I plan to go through all the volumes in this manner.  After all, it's more a review for me than ingesting new information, so this strategy is working quite well so far.  Now all George R.R. Martin has to do to finish and publish the promised next book, which he has reportedly said is some 1,500 pages long.  But if the dude passes on before ever delivering the last two long-awaited volumes I reserve the right to create my own ending, screw HBO...