Dept. of Tempis Fugit

Should fantasy author George R.R. Martin (or any writer) have to finish his next book on your timetable? Have the pre-publication reviews (from fans) already sunk the book's chances? (About Last Night)

Yesterday I happened to think about Martin's series and decided to check Dance With Dragons' Amazon page to see if it had a release date. No, but somehow the book had accrued 49 reviews and a two-and-a-half star rating. Had I missed the book's coming out? Was there some foreign edition that people had gotten a hold of? No. The majority of the "reviews" are fans expressing their disappointment with the delay in publication and asking variations of the question: "Why isn't it done yet?"