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He's never going to finish these books. I've only read the first two and that was enough to convince me that he is incapable of finishing an overall plot. There are just countless, unending, side characters and (most likely) pointless plots cluttering up the the story.
His idea of worldbuiding is a lot like the map in Steven Wright's standup bit:
'I have a map of the United States... Actual size. It says, 'Scale: 1 mile = 1 mile.'
Not every character needs a biography, or even a name for that matter. You don't need to recap the history of the Hittite's for a story about Vietnam. He's not going to stop until there is a life story for every character and a history for every neighborhood.
I had read 1,500 pages or so, and was 20 pages from the end of the second book and he was still introducing minor characters with half page biographies. "Oh, is that Sir Dumb**** I see?" Followed by 2 pages of Dumb**** family tree analysis . Capped off by Sir D dying from the clap in the middle of the street. This may lead to a lengthy but pointless tale about the whore he caught the clap from, or about his second cousin once removed (who may be that very same whore!) or it might be that it was just a pointless inchoate scene that Martin couldn't bear to throw away.
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