Just Finished Re-Reading First Five Books in George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire Series

I know, I know, I wrote earlier on this blog that I was so frustrated at A Song of Ice and Fire (i.e., Game of Thrones) series author George R.R. Martin's slowness at finishing and finally publishing his sixth volume in the series...titled The Winds of Winter...that I had given up on him and his series: maybe I'll write my own ending to it.  Besides, with the gap between books 5 and 6 now going on a full decade, in the meantime the television adaptation presented the series' conclusion, with many viewers not respecting the desires of readers to avoid spoiling the ending for them.  But although I'm inclined to think that when (if ever) Martin finishes writing it all out he'll generally adhere to the TV version, I still greatly enjoyed his writing and characterizations and thought I'd patiently await that next book...and read a whole lot of books by other writers in the vast meantime.  I recently read on Wikipedia that Martin had expressed that he wanted to get The Winds of Winter out by some time in 2021, so in anticipation I went on a breakneck rereading spree of his first five volumes, making use of audiobooks I checked out from my public library and playing them on high speed...now if the next volume can just come out before I forget everything again...

As I mentioned last week, I also read his pretty dry 2018 prequel novel Fire and Blood: dude, you should have been working on the main body of your series instead.  Now let's see, I've been 64 since last October and George R.R. Martin has already stated that his last two books in the series are each around 1,500 pages long...and it has taken him at least ten years to write just one of them (and he's apparently still not finished).  Even if The Winds of Winter is released this year, does that mean I should expect to wait another ten years...until I'm 74...to get to read the concluding book, titled A Dream of Spring?  Martin is eight years older than me...I hope his health holds up.  There is another author whose readership became frustrated at his progress with an ongoing series.  You may be familiar with his name: Stephen King, and the series was The Dark Tower.  Folks back then were getting ticked off at having to wait four-to-six years between successive installments...until in 2003-04 King stunned everyone by producing all three very thick final volumes.  Maybe, just maybe, Martin can perform a similar feat with his A Song of Ice and Fire conclusion...I can entertain hope, can't I...