Speaking at the Opole book festival, before a single question could be asked, Andrzej Sapkowski declared that he will write moreWitcherbooks, and that “unlike George R. R. Martin — whom, by the way, I know personally — when I say I’ll write something, I will.”
Sapkowski already returned to the series after a brief hiatus last year when he released the prequel Crossroads of Ravens,which finally revealed how old Geralt is. Meanwhile, on the other side of the fantasy pond, we’ve been waiting for The Winds of Winter since 2011, the same year that the Game of Thrones series first aired.
Given how often he’s asked by fans and interviewers about the novel’s progress, it’s safe to say that George R. R. Martin is keenly aware of just how frustrated people are getting with the lengthy delays. He evenwrote on his blog that we have “given up” on him. But in the same breath, he assured readers that he does care about Westeros, “More than you can ever imagine”.
It’s hard to blame Martin for struggling with The Winds of Winter. Thanks to the final season of the HBO show, we know how the story ends, even if we don’t know how it all comes together. And that ending was incredibly controversial, wiping away the hard-earned reputation of one of the most prestigious TV shows to ever grace the small screen.
Martin is faced not only with writing an epic fantasy novel spread across several disparate characters, each with their own intricate subplots, who he must bring together in one satisfying conclusion, but also with the decade of anticipation that has built up, as well as the show’s contentious ending. As he himself put it, echoing what so many fans have said to him, “I will never finish Winds, if I do, I will never finish A Dream of Spring. If I do, it won’t be any good”. Despite his playful jab, Sapkowski is more than sympathetic to Martin’s plight.
“Between Us, I Totally Understand Him”
“If someone had pulled a stunt like that on me, filming a series based on my books, and then getting ahead of what I intended to write, I’d also be wondering whether there’s any point in writing anymore,” Sapkowski said (viaRedanian Intelligence). “If it’s already been done, right? Makes no sense. It’s nice when they adapt your work, that’s the author’s bloody right, but to adapt what doesn’t exist yet, to extrapolate like that? That’s just indecent.”
He continued with an anecdote about a time he spoke at a convention with the late sci-fi author Harry Harrison, who asked Sapkowski if he had seen the movie Soylent Green. Sapkowski said, “Yes, I’ve seen it”, and so Harrison asked if he knew that it was based on his novel, Make Room! Make Room!? Sapkowski said, “Of course I realise that, because I’ve read the novel too”. Harrison asked Sapkowski, “What do you think of the movie?” It’s “total crap”, he replied, and Harrison agreed. Sapkowski asked in turn, “Well, Harry, did you give the money back?” Of course, he didn’t.
“Martin still isn’t writing,” Sapkowski continued. “Probably because he got offended that they filmed the continuation [of Game of Thrones], but I bet he didn’t give the money back, knowing how life goes. I wouldn’t have given it back.”
The Witcher
Cast
Starring Henry Cavill as Geralt of Rivia, this adaptation of Andrzej Sapkowski’s ‘Wiedźmin’ series of fantasy novels debuted on Netflix in 2019. The first season adapts The Last Wish and Sword of Destiny, while the second season focuses on Blood of Elves. Geralt’s destiny is entwined with that of a young princess, Ciri of Cintra, and they must navigate a dangerous world to see it through.
