American fantasy author George R. R. Martin has sold millions of books worldwide and his fame has heightened with Game of Thrones, the glossy United States TV series starring Sean Bean, based on his mythical creations.
But for the past six years Martin has kept his fans waiting with batedbreath over his mammoth book, A Dance with Dragons, the latest installment in his A Song of Ice and Fire series of warring aristocratic families in a medieval fantasy universe.
In 2005, he said the 1600-page novel would arrive within a year. It never came.
He has constantly rescheduled its release since then, angering his many fans. Now, it seems, the wait is over.
Yesterday, Jane Johnson, publishing director of Martin's British publisher Harper Voyager, says the novel is finally finished and will be released worldwide on July 12.
"This book's taken on something of legendary status and had a mythical existence until Thursday," she said.
"But I can now reveal that it was worth the six-year wait."
Martin put his delay down to his close relationship to his fans, who he corresponds with regularly.
"The more readers you have the harder it is to keep up and then you can't get any writing done," he said.
In recent months, fans have responded with increasing ire over their wait, posting negative comments on the writer's website and on discussion boards.
On Amazon.com, one fan wrote: "George R. R. Martin, you suck ... Pull your typewriter out of your ass."
Martin first alerted fans to his book's completion this week, when he posted a picture of King Kong lying defeated at the base of New York's World Trade Centre on his website. "Kong" is his nickname for A Dance with Dragons, in reference to its size.
"It is true," said Anne Groell, an editor at Random House US subsidiary Bantam Dell Publishing.
"There were a few moments of George in a spare office yesterday, cleaning up the last bits and inserting a few new bits in longhand, while I typed the changes into the electronic files, but we are honestly and officially done. And there is much rejoicing."
