George R.R. Martin gives a sad update to fans while praising A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms

Zero acknowledgement for one particular TV adaptation and talk of depression lead to fans' concern

Whenever prolific fantasy author George R.R. Martin updates his blog — aptly titled "Not A Blog" — fans around the world often wait with bated breath. Could this be the time Martin finally announces progress on the next chapter of A Song of Ice and Fire, the eagerly anticipated The Winds of Winter? Or will the author be spilling the hot goss once more on all the things that have gone wrong with his TV adaptations, as he once did with House of the Dragon?

A TV adaptation is mentioned in Martin's latest blog post (written on August 3), but it's not the one you might be thinking of. In fact, the reality of this particular blog post is not all that exciting. The latest post has Martin writing that, while his blog has been updated throughout 2026, the last post he wrote himself was on February 19, and the others that came after were made by his "mighty minions." The author laments, however, that even with his assistants, he can't help but fall further behind.

The rest of Martin's blog post is a mixture of the author speaking candidly about the year he's had and taking small joys whenever he can. He writes about turning 77 and how being old comes with its own challenges. He also writes about how he has lost friends, "battled sadness and depression," and, sadly, laments that "the worst may be yet to come" — worrying news to hear for his fans.

Martin had no official news to share on the blog, but he did give a shout-out to one of his adaptations during the ending paragraphs of the post.

"One highlight you may already know," Martin writes. "Emmy finalists for 2026 have been announced, and A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms nabbed nine nominations — yes, 9, not damn [sic] — including the big one, Best Drama. The awards ceremony will be Monday, September 14 at the Peacock Theatre in Los Angeles. I hope to attend… but that depends on… well, on a lot of things."

Martin praising A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is no surprise. He worked closely with the showrunner Ira Parker as an executive producer and writer. We speculate that Martin's positivity about the show is down to both how damned good it is and the fact that, outside a few minor changes, the TV adaptation sticks very closely to the narrative woven into the Dunk and Egg stories.

The one adaptation that Martin didn't mention, despite its final episode airing this Sunday on HBO Max, was House of the Dragon. As mentioned above, Martin has previously lambasted the TV adaptation of his Fire & Blood pseudo-historical book for not adapting material the way he believes best suited the story. The original post, titled "Beware the Butterflies" where Martin promised to write about "everything that's gone wrong" with the adaptation, has since been deleted. Yet even years later, it's hard for fans to forget such heated criticism being leveled at House of the Dragon's showrunner, Ryan Condal, nor is it too surprising that Martin didn't mention the adaptation at all in his latest post.

In other Game of Thrones news, The Royal Shakespeare Company has unveiled the cast for George R. R. Martin's Game of Thrones: The Mad King, a new stage play that is set to open next week.