Anyone expecting George RR Martin to finish the last two installments in his A Song of Ice and Fire series in the near future have seriously been mislead. The new rumor which claimed the acclaimed author was way farther in the books than we believed has been debunked by Martin himself.


Martin is slamming the reports after actor Ian McElhinney, who played Ser Barristan Selmy on Game of Thrones, told an audience at a fan convention that the two next books in the series, The Winds of Winter and A Dream of Spring, were completed. The actor even went as far as to claim that Martin made a deal with Thrones showrunners Dan Weiss and David Benioff to hold off with releasing the books until the end of the TV series.


According to Entertainment Weekly, McElhinney said:


“George has already written Books 6 and 7, and as far as he’s concerned there only are seven books. But he struck an agreement with David and Dan, the showrunners on the series, that he would not publish the final two books until the series has completed. So if all goes well, in another month or two we might get Books 6 and 7, and I’m intrigued to know how Barristan, for instance, ends up going through those final two books. George, I talked to him during Season 1 and he did say to me that Barristan had a very interesting journey. But unfortunately I didn’t get to play all of that, so we’ll have to wait and see.”


The Winds of Winter alone has taken Martin about six years now (and counting) to write, so if this was true, the author would've been lying to fans for a while.


Here is what Martin had to say about the rumors, which he posted on his blog:


“No, THE WINDS OF WINTER and A DREAM OF SPRING are not finished. DREAM is not even begun; I am not going to start writing volume seven until I finish volume six. It seems absurd to me that I need to state this. The world is round, the Earth revolves around the sun, water is wet… do I need to say that too? It boggles me that anyone would believe this story, even for an instant. It makes not a whit of sense. Why would I sit for years on completed novels? Why would my publishers — not just here in the US, but all around the world — ever consent to this? They make millions and millions of dollars every time a new Ice & Fire book comes out, as do I. Delaying makes no sense. Why would HBO want the books delayed? The books help create interest in the show, just as the show creates interest in the books. So… no, the books are not done. HBO did not ask me to delay them. Nor did David & Dan. There is no ‘deal’ to hold back on the books. I assure you, HBO and David & Dan would both have been thrilled and delighted if THE WINDS OF WINTER had been delivered and published four or five years ago… and NO ONE would have been more delighted than me.”


There you have it, straight from the horse's mouth.


[h/t: Entertainment Weekly]