If GRRM hadn't promised us seven books, how many books would you think are left?

[Ser Greg of House House]

I'd think 8 as well. But since Martin's storytelling is very fluid, 7 will work if the two last books are long enough. And in several editions, in the end, it will be more than 7 or 8 books. They will split the books a lot in the future.

[ninewinter]

I would say 8 or 9, there has been a buildup of 5 books to the Others storyline, no way it could be finished in just 2 books. We still need to learn loads about the Others, about the Doom, Dany has a lot of stuff to do. Supposedly there are other (lost) dragon eggs in the world, he could include that as well, lost valyrian artifacts to be found, and then the Westerosi GoT conflict. He has enough stuff for 6 more books lol

I doubt if the reasons for the Doom would be expounded in the series. the doom, I think, will just remains as it is, a mystery. mayhaps some future books will explain it, but not in this one. its not rhat critical in the plot.

O dont wish Dany to stay more in Essos that she have to. Many people are already complaining at the boring Dany chapters in dance that has nothing to do with the game of thrones, or the war against the Others.

[Feliciano69]

I would find that ending supremely disappointing. :(

I like what Benioff once said about this series, that if not this one, then perhaps another one could be the very first story where............evil wins.

[Toshio.Keepiru]

I share the same opinion of what looks like a sizable sample of the posters here.

I think it will be probably 8

Unless he really gets things moving I don't see a resolution in two more books, unless they are massive.

the Paperback editions will definitely be more than 7 even if they are book seven parts 1&2 or some such.

If GRRM continues at the pace of the last two books I could see a book 9 or even 10 in hardback editions.

[Ours if the Fury]

GRRM could do WoW in one book then DoS in two parts both around 800-900 pages….

But i think two 1500 page books should do it...

[Yukle]

I like what Benioff once said about this series, that if not this one, then perhaps another one could be the very first story where............evil wins.

There's a reason for that, though. It feels like a complete waste of time having read it. There's probably still ten years of waiting for this series to finish. If I've read each book lots of times, and pondered and theorised a lot, but if it turns out that it was all to see the Others sweep through and win, I'll feel like I've completely wasted the entire experience.

It's not about the ending, it's about the journey. An ending where evil wins makes the entire journey futile because it means that it was all pointless and evil won anyway.

[Whitering]

I will add my voice and say 3 as well.

I say this because despite the volume of the books I don't see how a true battle and any threat of a long night can build over 2 books.

It's possible that the Others siege or breach the Wall early in the next book. Wouldn't that be throwing some major oil onto the fire going at the Wall right now, but somehow I don't see that as likely.

There are too many story lines to wrap up. I don't see any evidence that the threat will descend on Essos, so we need to get everyone back to Westeros. In Danny's case that may just be in the nick of time, but are we going to be flipping between a titanic battle in Westeros and some travelogues in Essos every few chapters? Please, NO.

The majority of the battle versus the Others happening in one book will not work. Frankly two books will make it seem a bit trite to me, but I guess GRRM could pull it off. Basically I don't want the Others defeated at the Wall, or even at King's Landing, I want them to die in the mountains of Dorne. I won't get that, but if this threat only really affects the North...well...that's not really good from my perspective. This has to be the result of the War of the Five Kings, a huge army of wights lays in wait in the Riverlands, and a bunch in the Westerlands and another large army around KL and a few more where Renly and Stannis met. Surely Aegon will create a few more corpses.

The dead must have their vengeance. I want a Wildling wight to kill Bowen Marsh, one from Hardhome.

[Victarion Chainbreaker]

If it's 8 books, as people think, then in what order?

Does A Time for Wolves come before or after A Dream of Spring?

[Mr Fixit]

If it's 8 books, as people think, then in what order?

Does A Time for Wolves come before or after A Dream of Spring?

Between A Dream and Of Spring, of course. Why, what do you think?

Anyway, if there are 8 books, I doubt one of them would be called A Time for Wolves. If I'm not mistaken, Martin expressed his dislike for that provisional title.

[Bright Blue Eyes]

I will add my voice and say 3 as well.

I say this because despite the volume of the books I don't see how a true battle and any threat of a long night can build over 2 books.

It's possible that the Others siege or breach the Wall early in the next book. Wouldn't that be throwing some major oil onto the fire going at the Wall right now, but somehow I don't see that as likely.

There are too many story lines to wrap up. I don't see any evidence that the threat will descend on Essos, so we need to get everyone back to Westeros. In Danny's case that may just be in the nick of time, but are we going to be flipping between a titanic battle in Westeros and some travelogues in Essos every few chapters? Please, NO.

The majority of the battle versus the Others happening in one book will not work. Frankly two books will make it seem a bit trite to me, but I guess GRRM could pull it off. Basically I don't want the Others defeated at the Wall, or even at King's Landing, I want them to die in the mountains of Dorne. I won't get that, but if this threat only really affects the North...well...that's not really good from my perspective. This has to be the result of the War of the Five Kings, a huge army of wights lays in wait in the Riverlands, and a bunch in the Westerlands and another large army around KL and a few more where Renly and Stannis met. Surely Aegon will create a few more corpses.

The dead must have their vengeance. I want a Wildling wight to kill Bowen Marsh, one from Hardhome.

It's very likely that the Others cross the Wall right now.

Jon is incapacitated right now, thanks to Bowen Marsh. That's pretty much the only time when the Wall can fall without Jon being the one to be blamed, preserving his capability to be a leader of any sort. The one to be blamed for the fall of the Wall would be burned as a leader, no one would ever follow him. And that would invalidate the entire arc of Jon being built up to be a leader.

That's probably the main reason Jon got shanked at all.

[The Iron Banker]

I doubt if the reasons for the Doom would be expounded in the series. the doom, I think, will just remains as it is, a mystery. mayhaps some future books will explain it, but not in this one. its not rhat critical in the plot.

O dont wish Dany to stay more in Essos that she have to. Many people are already complaining at the boring Dany chapters in dance that has nothing to do with the game of thrones, or the war against the Others.

I'd like to read more about the Doom, but I agree that will probably a stand-alone thing.

About Dany, I mean I dont want to see any more Mereen politics, just the journey to Westeros, which isnt a piece of cake

[Stan the Man Baratheon]

It's very likely that the Others cross the Wall right now.

Jon is incapacitated right now, thanks to Bowen Marsh. That's pretty much the only time when the Wall can fall without Jon being the one to be blamed, preserving his capability to be a leader of any sort. The one to be blamed for the fall of the Wall would be burned as a leader, no one would ever follow him. And that would invalidate the entire arc of Jon being built up to be a leader.

That's probably the main reason Jon got shanked at all.

Exactly, Bowen Marsh is a scapegoat.

[Wagshell]

Some people being very over optimistic.

GRRM is currently in his mid sixties. He currently manages a new book every five to six years and his books are getting longer, while he is telling people not to hurry him.

Anyone thinking there will more than two more books is crazy. You have to hope that he can complete what he's already aiming for. I think his next book could be the last that he finishes alone.

[Rahgh Neqaj]

This depends very much on what we expect from the next couple of books. If the Great Other prevails it's probably going to be short but if the Humans prevail then I do expect that peace can only be achieved once more of the war mongers have died and once someone has a reasonably large coalition assembled to discourage new contenders. I also expect that GRRM doesn't show much after the final crowning or peace treaty signing ceremony but that he shows a reasonable argument why peace is going to work now before that final big scene happens.

• 2 more books / 7 total if Either the Great Other wins fast & for good or if there's multiple massive army collapses happening within very short time. Something like "Roose [or whoever happens to be the great Other] dies and all white walkers & wights collapse into dusty heaps of ice shards while further south the golden company and one or two other armies rot away with the grey scale. In swoops Danaerys with her three dragons and everyone starts dancing happily." Not the most likely option in my opinion but possible.
  
• 3 more books / 8 total if the long winter is only moderately long (only very few years or seasons get set straight with 4 seasons per year after Great Other is defeated), if there is a gap "and the next two/three/four years they froze their a**es off" before finally something happens again or if ADoS is actually "dreaming of spring while it's still winter". Most likely option, me thinks.
  
• GRRM will never finish if he's really keeping it close to the war of the roses which lasted approximately 30 years if I remember my history correctly. Don't think that's what he plans though.
  

[Nictarion]

Its crazy to think how the story has grown from the originally intended trilogy. I still think he can do it in 7. I highly doubt anymore than 8.

[Mikkel]

Could be any number - because we know there's going to be seven(ish) books, we know the story isn't going to continue as long as it has already. If we didn't know that, there's no way to tell how far the story could go.

We've seen from storylines cut short already (notably Ned and Robb), or picked up again (Catelyn). The same could happen to any of the current characters - though we know it most likely won't.

[Myrddin]

If it's more than two more books, the last one should be called: A Time for Others

[Orbulas B. Harding]

I think if George had his druthers his 'Song' would be seven books long, and to me seven does sound like the perfect number; it frames the narrative in a thematically perfect package.

But I'm becoming more and more certain it's going to have to be 8 and I have 2 reasons why.

The first reason is simply the way the print industry currently works forces authors to work with page/word count limits that set limits on how much content can be in a single volume: Say he really does only have two books left, but those two books are 4,000 manuscript pages total instead of 3,000, the publisher will still have to publish it as more than 2 volumes. Of course he can just call 2 of the books TWOW pt.1 and TWOW pt. 2 or what have you, at the end of the day it will take up 8 spaces on your bookshelf even if it only intended to take 7.

The second reason is far more specific to where Martin is in his story (reason 1 being a mostly arbitrary matter of what an author considers a book to be and what a publisher considers a book to be)

It seems pretty damn clear to me that George just did not get as far as he wanted in 'Dance' as he was hoping to, in fact, it seems to me that the titular 'Dance with Dragons' (the myriad assortment of major conflicts set-up to kick off the next book) that he was hoping to depict in book 5 was only ramping up when he put the breaks on the story and called it a day.

I'm pretty damn sure there is one more book of political (IE Human v. Human) conflict to get through before he'll have his board set for the all-or-nothing end-of-days endgame that the story has been building toward since the prologue of GoT... and both believe and hope that that cosmic conflict will take more than just a single book to to tell.

[Mr Fixit]

It seems pretty damn clear to me that George just did not get as far as he wanted in 'Dance' as he was hoping to, in fact, it seems to me that the titular 'Dance with Dragons' (the myriad assortment of major conflicts set-up to kick off the next book) that he was hoping to depict in book 5 was only ramping up when he put the breaks on the story and called it a day.

Martin originally intended the chapter where Dany flies away on Drogon to be her first ADwD chapter. As it turned out, it was her NINTH! Since many other characters are linked to her storywise -- Tyrion, Victarion, (f)Aegon, etc. -- I'd say we are still a long, long way off the "real" conclusion of Dance. If I had to guess, I would say that at least half of TWoW will be comprised of leftover ADwD material.

So, either we'll have two gargantuan books with a weakened sense of elegance in storytelling and no natural beginnings and endings or there will be three normal-sized books.

[RoamingRonin]

9 or 10. Considering how he likes long set ups for pay offs and doesn't want anything to happen too "easy" for his protagonists.