Though his editor hinted at the possibility that there could end out to be eight books in the A Song of Fire and Ice series, George R.R. Martin says he's still aiming to finish out at seven books.

As previously reported, his editor, Anne Groell, had a Q & A session on Suvudu and said that since there are technically eight kingdoms in the book series, "maybe eight books for Seven Kingdoms would be okay."

She noted that the series was originally meant to only be a trilogy, but ballooned into seven as Martin continued to write. Since the Q & A session, some fans have expressed worry about adding on another book to the series due to the already long wait time between each novel, Martin's age, 65, and the fact that the sixth book still hasn't come out yet.

Well, Entertainment Weekly managed to catch up with the author and he insisted that he is still aiming for only seven books. "My plan is to finish in seven," Martin said, though of course that could change.

"But my original plan was to finish in three. I write the stories and they grow. I deal with certain things and sometimes I find myself not at the end of a story. ... Get back to me when I'm half-way through Book Seven and then maybe I'll tell you something more meaningful."

HBO announced on Thursday that Game of Thrones is now the premium cable network's most popular show, managing to surpass even The Sopranos. The fourth season is averaging 18.4 million viewers per episode, spread across all the platforms.

image courtesy of Roger Wong/INFphoto.com