15 Years Later, the Greatest Modern Fantasy Series Still Doesn’t Have an Ending

Fantasy fans have been waiting fifteen years for the genre’s greatest modern series to conclude, but there is seemingly still no timetable for its completion. We must be talking about George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire, right? The seven-volume series stuck at volume five, which was notoriously outpaced by its own adaptation?

Actually, that’s not it. Devoted fantasy readers know there is another stalled saga that left off on a cliffhanger back in 2011, the same year The Winds of Winter, the last Ice and Fire book, came out. Patrick Rothfuss’ Kingkiller Chronicles, which currently comprises two books out of a planned trilogy.

It is a toss-up which might come first, Winds of Winter, or The Doors of Stone. (That’s the reported title of Kingkiller book 3.) Or whether either fantasy epic might complete its final act.

But, if the Kingkiller trilogy is ever completed, it should be expected to stand up there among the greats with the titans of genre literature.

Patrick Rothfuss’ “Kingkiller Chronicles” Remains Unfinished As Of 2026

Patrick Rothfuss published the second book in his Kingkiller Chronicles, The Wise Man’s Fear, four months before George R.R. Martin put out A Dance With Dragons, the fifth Song of Ice and Fire novel. Oh, and in between the two books coming out, Game of Thrones debuted on HBO. Fantasy fans were eating very well that year. Unfortunately, they had no way of knowing that both book series would remain unfinished by 2026.

Thrones became a phenomenon on TV, putting a permanent spotlight on Martin’s lack of progress on Dance’s follow-up, The Winds of Winter. Which, as fans of the franchise know all too well, is only supposed to be the penultimate installment of Ice and Fire. With the Kingkiller Chronicles, which is intended to be a trilogy, the end is seemingly in sight. Or is it?

After all, A Song of Ice and Fire was originally conceived of as a trilogy too. That may very well be part of the problem keeping The Doors of Stone from coming out. The Kingkiller Chronicles might have outgrown its original scope. Without giving too much of the story away, Kingkiller promises a tale-within-a-tale, told over three nights, with each night corresponding to one book. But what if three nights and three volumes isn’t enough for the Chronicles to be truly complete?

“Kingkiller Chronicles” Is Nearly Two Decades Old, But A Final Chapter Is TBD

The first Kingkiller book, The Name of the Wind, was released in 2007. That means it has been nearly 20 years since the Chronicles began, with no end in sight. That’s 2/3s of the 30 years A Song of Ice and Fire fans have been in the same boat. One big difference, though, is that while there has been a great deal of supplemental Westerosi material since A Dance With Dragons came out, fans have gotten very little chance to spend more time in the world of Kingkiller since 2011.

Another way to put it: a lot more franchise opportunities are being left on the table by Kingkiller than Ice and Fire. An adaptation from Lin Manuel-Miranda was in development years ago, but it was seemingly killed in 2019, the same year Game of Thrones’ TV run ended. Perhaps because network executives were worried it would run into the same problem as Thrones.

Though not as extensively as George R.R. Martin, Patrick Rothfuss has apologized for the lack of Kingkiller book 3 over the years. It is an astonishingly difficult task to deliver a satisfying conclusion to an epic story like this. (Just as Game of Thrones’ showrunners.) But the potential remains for The Kingkiller Chronicles to one day be complete, and be regarded as one of the greatest fantasy trilogies of all time.