'The Winds of Winter' release date, latest news: Will George R.R. Martin ever finish writing his upcoming book?

The sixth book of George R.R. Martin's "A Song of Ice and Fire" series is taking too long to be released, and most fans of the high fantasy novels are about to completely lose hope that "The Winds of Winter" will ever see the light of day.

In fact, as reported by Insider, the coming summer will mark two major milestones for the fans of Martin's book series as well as its cable TV series adaptation. Not only will the seventh and penultimate season of "Game Thrones" air this summer, but around the same time, this coming July will also mark the sixth year anniversary of Martin's last published book in the franchise titled "A Dance With Dragons."

The last time that Martin gave a direct response as well as an extensive public update about the progress of his upcoming book "The Winds of Winter" was just after New Year's Day back in 2016. Through a post in his official Livejournal account, George directly admitted that the sixth installment to the "A Song of Ice and Fire" saga was not yet finished, and he honestly said that he does not know when he would be able to finish it.

"You wanted an update. Here's the update. You won't like it. THE WINDS OF WINDTER IS NOT FINISHED," he wrote in his blog post.

Martin's 2000-word Livejournal blog post also detailed the fact that he had missed two deadlines from his publishers to complete and submit "The Winds of Winter." Had he met either of these deadlines, it would have been possible for the sixth book in his "A Song of Ice and Fire" series to be published before "Game of Thrones" season 6 aired on cable TV.

In the year that passed since Martin's detailed update, "Game of Thrones" season 6 aired on HBO and officially surpassed the storyline of the book series. Hence, many in the "A Song of Ice and Fire" fandom have begun to look at the author as well as the novel series itself in a very negative light.

Until now, Martin has remained evasive in responding when exactly "The Winds of Winter" would be released. However, it was previously reported that there are speculations suggesting the sixth book to his high fantasy series might hit bookshelves at the end of 2017 or sometime in 2018.