It is getting less likely that the sixth book in the "A Song of Ice and Fire" saga — "The Winds of Winter" — will be released within the year as fans have hoped.

According to a report by Deadline, author George R.R. Martin is still hard at work to complete the installment even as HBO's "Game of Thrones" aired its sixth season and surpassed the events of the book early this year.

The book was supposed to come out before the season was premiered but due to delays, Martin is still left to complete the sixth and the seventh installments. The two books are expected to conclude the epic fantasy book series.

"I do have thousands of pages of fake history of everything that led up to 'Game of Thrones,' so there's a lot of material there and I'm writing more. At the moment we still have this show to finish and I still have two books to finish so that's all speculation," said Martin.

While there has been no official release date set for "The Winds of Winter," Martin's statement comes as a positive sign as it means that he is making great progress in completing the much-awaited installment. Fans are curious to know whether there will be differences in the events of the book and the television series.

It can be recalled that Martin's U.S. publisher Random House recently debunked the March 2017 placeholder date posted by Amazon France as the release of the book.

"As his publisher, we support George RR Martin as he works hard to finish The Winds of Winter. Any on-sale dates currently listed online for the novel are incorrect. Once we have a publication date for The Winds of Winter, the world will know," Random House reps said in a press release.

Meanwhile, the sixth season of "Game of Thrones" recently won big at the Emmy Awards, bagging the coveted Outstanding Drama Series award for the second year in a row and adding 11 other awards to this year's haul.

"It will be bigger and it will be better, but it will also be worse but mostly better," said co-showrunner D.B. Weiss about the show's final seasons.