77-year-old Game of Thrones author George R.R. Martin has shared a candid update on his health, and discussed “falling further and further behind.”
Penning his first entry in six months on his personal blog, Martin acknowledged the lack of recent updates and described the year so far as having been “stressful, to say the least.”
“So much has been happening, it’s been overwhelming,” Martin wrote in a post titled ‘Better Late Than Never.’ “Some great things, exciting things. Dreams coming true. But there have been nightmares too. I have lost friends. Battled sadness and depression. The worst may be yet to come.
“I turned 77 last September, and I tell you, getting old is no fun,” Martin continued. “But there have been amazing times as well.”
Ending the blog on a more positive note, Martin celebrated the nine Emmy nominations recently secured by Game of Thrones spinoff A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms and said he “will try and catch up some” on posting in future.
No mention was made in the post on what Martin has been working on recently, and there was (perhaps unsurprisingly) also no mention of House of the Dragon, after Martin previously described his working relationship with showrunner Ryan Condal as “abysmal.”
Martin has previously discussed losing fellow authors and peers, as well as his friend, Hollywood legend Robert Redford, who came out of retirement last year for a brief cameo with Martin in his AMC series Dark Winds. Speaking earlier this year, Martin also said that if he never completes Game of Thrones sequel Winds of Winter (or the book after that), there’s no plan for anyone else to step in. Instead, his Song of Ice and Fire series simply “won’t be finished.”
Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter about his lack of progress on his next novel, Martin said he would “hate” to give up on the series — though admitted he had made little progress in recent years. At the same time, Martin has served as a producer on Game of Thrones’ various TV spinoffs and Dark Winds, and continued publishing of various A Song of Ice and Fire companion novels — with at least two new Dunk and Egg adventures also currently left part-finished.
The Game of Thrones franchise shows no sign of slowing down, however, with a new stage play set to begin soon in the U.K., and early plans for a potential HBO Game of Thrones sequel series starring Arya Stark.
Image credit: Christoph Soeder/dpa (Photo by Christoph Soeder/picture alliance via Getty Images
Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
