This series? Drop in the bucket!
Since the previous A Song of Ice and Fire book was released...
...humanity first acquired dust from a comet.
...the Human Genome Project was finished.
...Israel waged a brief war with Lebanon.
...Pluto lost its planethood.
...Thailand's military ousted its Prime Minister in a coup.
...Saddam Hussein was executed.
...the Writers Guild of America went on strike.
...petroleum surpassed $100 per barrel.
...Iran launched a rocket into space.
...Fidel Castro resigned his presidency.
...Bill Gates stopped taking daily part in Microsoft's operations.
...the Large Hadron Collider came online.
...the economy went boom.
...Facebook went from a fairly tiny thing to the monster it is today.
...'tweet' entered the public vocabulary.
...the Green Revolution rocked Iran and the world news.
...Eyjafjallajökull entered the public vocabulary... as 'yeah, that name. man those Icelandic folk have crazy names'.
...Deepwater Horizon, Haiti has a terrible time of things, Wikileaks, and other misc recentish things (ok I'm tired at this point of listmaking! :p)
...Mr. Miyagi died.
...Coretta Scott King died.
...Don Knotts died.
...Steve Irwin died.
...Gerald Ford died.
...Robert Jordan died. Also, his wife chose another author to continue the series. This author then wrote and published two Wheel of Tiem books. The third and final book will likely beat the next A Song of Ice and Fire novel to print.
...Evel Knievel died.
...Arthur C. Clarke died.
...George Carlin died.
...Michael Jackson died.
...Water Cronkite died.
And while the future is not certain, it appears that, for real this time, Duke Nukem Forever will be released.
...also in this time, George R. R. Martin published one novel, one novella, edited 8 anthologies (many of which he also contributed to), and, yes, wrote I believe one of the episodes of this HBO show... :p
From New York Comic Con this past October:
Quote:
We're hoping to have a finished manuscript by Christmas. [Martin has] told me he has five chapters left and bits of each chapter are done. He really wants it done by the end of the year. We really—I mean really—want to announce the pub date in January.
On the plus side, Martin himself has said he has about 100 pages of the next NEXT book already written... . . .