GRRM has given an update on the current state of A Dance with Dragons (US, UK), noting he’s finished two more short chapters (with more on the way), and that the book has now grown to just over 1600 manuscript pages. By my estimate, this means the book would—with standard font and gutters—be over 1,000 pages in length, easily making it the longest book in the series. How many more chapters left? We’re not sure, but given that he hears the biplanes approaching “Kong”, it’s looking good.
In comments, he notes a few other things, such as emphasizing the fact that most of the chapters of the manuscript are already fully edited, so it’s only the new chapters that will need work from his editors, and that the fact is that publishers can turn around a book very quickly indeed if they a mind to do it (and in this case, they do), so the July 12 date remains quite firm. Until then, here’s a blog post at Suvudu from his U.S. editor, Anne Groell, holding the completed-to-date manuscript. Now, Anne’s not tall, by any means, but that should give a pretty good idea of just how many pages there are in the book.