Game of Thrones author George RR Martin says HBO show was 'not good' for him
Author says end of wildly popular programme was 'freeing'
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Your support makes all the difference.Novelist George RR Martin has said he is happy Game of Thrones, the TV series based on his fantasy books, has come to an end.
The author admitted the HBO programme had slowed down his progress writing the final two volumes of his A Song of Ice and Fire saga, which provided the source material for the show.
In a rare interview with The Observer, he said: “I don’t think [the TV series] was very good for me.
“The very thing that should have speeded me up actually slowed me down. Every day I sat down to write and even if I had a good day … I’d feel terrible because I’d be thinking: ‘My God, I have to finish the book. I’ve only written four pages when I should have written 40.’”
The eighth and final season of Game of Thrones aired in May.
The last few episodes attracted a large amount of criticism, with many fans and some of the programme’s actors feeling showrunners David Benioff and DB Weiss rushed the conclusion.
Martin, however, said he paid little attention to the controversy and preferred to “let fans have their theories”.
“I took myself out of all that,” he said. “Some of [fans’ theories] are right and some of [the theories] are wrong. They’ll find out when I finish.”
The most recent book in the A Song of Ice and Fire series, A Dance With Dragons, came out in 2011. He is yet to complete work on the sixth and seventh novels, titled The Winds of Winter and A Dream of Spring.
The author has also helped to develop a prequel TV series, starring Naomi Watts, which recently completed filming.
Read more about the prequel project here.
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