To say the series has been gestating for a while is an understatement: the first book, A Cavern of Black Ice (1999) was published last century. It was succeeded by A Fortress of Grey Ice (2002), A Sword from Red Ice (2007) and Watcher of the Dead (2010), all very fine novels cumulatively building one of the greatest epic fantasy series of the last generation, with superb writing, characterisation and worldbuilding. But after Watcher's publication in 2010, Jones dropped off the radar and many years of radio silence followed. She finally resurfaced in late 2017 via Patreon, confirming that her writing career had been thrown off-track by a succession of personal crises (including bereavements and cross-country moves).
Since then, Jones has been working on a stand-alone urban fantasy novel called Sorry Jones to get back into the swing of things, and then Endlords, the fifth book in The Sword of Shadows. The book's writing process has been slow, due to Jones having a day job and other time commitments, but progress has been steady. Progress exploded in the last few months as she was freed up from those other time commitments and was able to work full-time on the novel to deliver it over the finish line.
The book consists of 62 chapters, which is more than any other in the series, although she notes this may come down in the edit. The full size of the book is unclear, except it is longer than Watcher of the Dead.
ETA: The book is about 250,000 words, compared to A Cavern of Black Ice's 293,000 words. This would make Endlords the second or third-longest book in the series, by a whisker either way.
When the book will be published is unclear. The previous four books were published by Tor Books in the US and Orbit in the UK, but the fifteen-year-wait for Endlords has exceeded all the timelines in her contracts. The prior books in the series have also become harder to find in recent years, and Jones' profile is lower than it was back in the late 1990s and 2000s. There'll likely be contract re-negotiations and extended publication timelines to consider. Tor may also be looking at how fast the sixth and final book in the series could come out, so they're not left hanging again for a long period of time.
Jones does have an interesting additional carrot in any such dealing though, as the rights to her earlier (and still very fine) Book of Words trilogy, set in the same world as Sword of Shadows, has recently reverted to her. This would give any new publisher an impressive eight books with a lot of critical acclaim (and Robert Jordan cover quotes) to relaunch the series.
Hopefully the publishers will be able to confirm a publication plan soon, though I think late 2026 to early 2027 might be the earliest we could realistically expect to see the book.
Jones is also the first (albeit least-known) of four fantasy authors who have left us hanging for over a decade for their next books to actually deliver the next one. Hopefully a good sign that George, Patrick and Scott can follow up soon.
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