George R. R. Martin just can’t catch a break, huh?
The author of the A Song of Ice and Fire series, which adapted into the HBO show Game of Thrones, is suffering from perhaps the worst case of writer’s block in recorded history; Martin published A Dance with Dragons, the fifth ASOIAF book, in 2011 and hasn’t completed the planned seven-book series since. He receives plenty of flak from fans for not finishing the books yet, and now a contemporary in Andrzej Sapkowski, the author of The Witcher book series, is throwing shade too.
“I will write something else. Relax. No need to fear. And unlike George R. R. Martin — whom, by the way, I know personally — when I say I’ll write something, I will,” Sapkowski said to start a panel at Opole book festival (via Redanian Intelligence) in comments originally made in Polish.
Sapkowski meant no ill will, and empathized with the position Martin is in. “I totally understand him. Because if someone had pulled a stunt like that on me, filming a series based on my books, and then getting ahead of what I intended to write, I’d also be wondering whether there’s any point in writing anymore,” Sapkowski said, touching on how HBO’s Game of Thrones lapped the ASOIAF novels and provided an unsatisfactory conclusion for the series’ story. “If it’s already been done, right? Makes no sense. It’s nice when they adapt your work, that’s the author’s bloody right, but to adapt what doesn’t exist yet, to extrapolate like that? That’s just indecent.”
He echoed the theory that Martin isn’t continuing the series because the idea of it has lost its luster after Game of Thrones’ disappointed with its final seasons. “So Martin still isn’t writing, probably because he got offended that they filmed the continuation [of Game of Thrones], but I bet he didn’t give the money back, knowing how life goes. I wouldn’t have given it back.”
Sapkowski himself is no stranger to adaptations; The Witcher was adapted into a Polish film in 2001 and a TV series that lasted one season the following year. The Witcher gained mainstream popularity once CD Projekt Red got a hold of the license, culminating in 2015’s The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. Netflix is currently in the throes of adapting it for TV; the third season in 2023 saw the exit of star (and huge fan) Henry Cavill, leading to Liam Hemsworth wearing the medallion for the final two yet-to-be-released seasons. Sapkowski opts not to comment on the quality of the Netflix adaptations, which include two animated Witcher films, saying, “I appear in the end credits. Which means: if I say something positive, you’ll say, ‘Well of course, the magpie praises its own tail.’ And if I say something negative, you’ll say, ‘Idiot.’ So I won’t say anything.”
The Witcher ended as a seven-book series in 1999 with The Lady of the Lake, but Sapkowski returned to it in 2013 with Season of Storms, set sometime before the events of the first novel. He’s returned to it again with Crossroads of Ravens, which released in Poland last year before a wider international release later in 2025. It’s a prequel that follows a young Geralt, fresh off of completing his Witcher training at Kaer Morhen.