George RR Martin Won’t Begin Writing 6th ICE & FIRE Book Until January

Fans of George RR Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire books (adapted for HBO as Game of Thrones), don't get too excited about reading the sixth book, The Winds of Winter, anytime soon. Talking to Vulture, Martin revealed that while he has a hundred pages of the novel (consisting of stuff he held back from bo0k five, A Dance With Dragons), he won't get to really writing until January.

In the meantime he's written an episode of season two of Game of Thrones, Blackwater, which sees a massive military engagement. He is also working on a coffee table book called The World of Ice and Fire, which will be maps and genealogies and history and stuff.

The interview gets into some interesting spoiler territory, especially about the thematic meanings of some events in the last two books. Most interesting to me, though, are Martin's thoughts on how to write magic:

I can tell you generally that when treating with magic in fantasy, you have to keep it magical. Many fantasy writers work out these detailed systems, and rules, and I think that's a mistake.

For magic to be effective in a literary sense, it has to be unknowable and strange and dangerous, with forces that can't be predicted or controlled. That makes it, I think, much more interesting and evocative. It functions as a symbol or metaphor of all the forces in the universe we don't understand and maybe never will.

I couldn't agree more, and I assume this means that the little magic there is in the Ice & Fire books will remain mysterious and hard to control - and thus fascinating.