Your souls are Martin's playthings as he drinks your tears from his patented mug.

@ShadowakaTankD right now the show is on at least the first half of both books 4 and 5 so george has at least another year to get book 6 out

This old man is working my nerves. I was really looking forward to reading the book this year. Oh well, I'm just going to stick with the show.

The only reason I'm not reading these books is that I didn't really know them before tv-series began and now I don't want to spoil the show for myself because it's freaking awesome.

He's taking his time isn't he.

I wonder if the book will ever get released because the author is not getting younger and he doesn't look healthy too. Eventually the show is going to go past the books.

I recently finished catching up on all five books so far and I have to say that the show actually improved on the books in numerous instances. Some quick examples.

1. John Snow's reason for joining the wildings. Book: I was butt hurt because of my second class status in my family. Show: I realized that the wildlings are fighting against the real enemy to us all: The white walkers.

2. The books had not one scene showing just what a bad ass Kal Drogo was but the show at least gave us the scene where he killed Mago.

3. Characters like Robb Stark, Lady Olena Tyrell and Bronn were expanded on in the show versus the book.

4. The scene where Danerys escapes the house of the undying was much better done.

5. The scene where Danerys kills the masters in Yunkai was much better done.

Those are just a few examples off the top of my head but I really think that the show (while having a few misses here and there) has really done George RR Martin a real service. The book series does some things really well in terms of story telling and making the genre more grounded and realistic but the show actually builds on that by mostly taking the strengths of the book and making them better while covering up some of the book's weaknesses.

Having said all that this is disappointing news BUT by my recollection the show is pretty much caught up to the end of book three going into season 5. Books four and five is basically one story timeline in two volumes so that should give the show's producers two seasons of material to pull from. And there's lots there to be expanded and improved on. The latter books are kind of bloated with tedious back stories of irrelevant characters while just abandoning the story lines of characters more relevant to the story and that readers are invested in.

I have a hunch that Martin is making a deal to have the finale told on the big screen. I think he's getting this one last book out for the show to complete their seven season package and saving the climax for a final book or two followed by a movie.