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  ====''A Dream of Spring''====
  Martin is only firm about ending the series with the seventh novel "until I decide not to be firm". With his stated goal of telling the story from beginning to end, he will not truncate the story to fit into an arbitrary number of volumes. He knows the ending in broad strokes as well as the future of the main characters, and will finish the series with bittersweet elements where not everyone will live happily ever after. Martin hopes to write an ending similar to ''The Lord of the Rings'' that he felt gave the story a satisfying depth and resonance. On the other hand, Martin noted the challenge to avoid a situation like the finale of the TV series ''Lost'', which left some fans disappointed by deviating too far from their own theories and desires. In 2012, Martin had acknowledged his concerns about ''A Dream of Spring'' not being completed by the time the TV series ''Game of Thrones'' catches up in its storyline to the novels.
  In 2015, Martin said that he was not writing ''A Dream of Spring'' together with ''The Winds of Winter'', and in early 2016, he said he did not believe ''A Dream of Spring'' would be published before the last season of the HBO show. In April 2018, Martin commented he had not started working on the book, and in November he said that after ''The Winds of Winter'' he would decide what to do next: ''A Dream of Spring'' or the second volume of ''Fire & Blood'' or one or two stories for the ''Tales of Dunk and Egg''. In May 2019 he reiterated he had not started writing ''A Dream of Spring'' and would not do so before finishing ''The Winds of Winter''.
  Martin offered the following hint as to how the series would conclude during a Q&A at the Guadalajara International Book Fair. "I'm not going to tell you how I'm going to end my book, but I suspect the overall flavor is going to be as much bittersweet as it is happy."