I am a big fan of George R. R. Martin. When I went to the Amazon.com home page recently, it listed as recommended for me the next book in GRRM’s Song of Ice and Fire series: A Dance With Dragons.

Amazon says the book will be released on September 29, 2009. I’m not absolutely sure of this, but I seem to recall that about a year ago Amazon had listed this book as being released in September of 2008. What are the odds it will actually be released on September 29, 2009? I’d say that the odds are not very good, as this book has repeatedly been delayed. Mr. Martin has even indicated on his website that he has not yet finished writing the book.

I’m not one of these fans who begrudge the author for delays in completing the book. What I do think is that Amazon should not publish a release date before the book is even completed. This only serves to set fan expectations for a release when no one really knows if that is a realistic release date or not.