George R. R. Martin hasn’t finished the sixth book in A Song of Ice and Fire and it looks like fans might not be able to get their hands on the book before the beginning of the next year. The fifth book, A Dance with Dragons had been published in 2011 and it has been a long wait for the fans of the book.
HBO couldn’t wait for Martin to finish the book before they could start the sixth season of their Game of Thrones and hence went ahead to make their own independent plot, which may or not match the one that is being written by George R. R. Martin.
The avid fans of the books are not happy with the news since this would spoil the suspense that they have so long been waiting for. Plus, the story will now end up having two endings and this isn’t an ideal place to be in.
There were fans who were of the opinion that the sale of the books is going to go down since now the fans would have an idea about the story thanks to HBO’s Game of Thrones, but Martin has come out to defend his books.
He has said that even though HBO has gone ahead with their own story, the fans are still going to want to know what happens at the end of the book since the television series had been improvising the plot since the first plot for the sake of more suspense and drama.
Martin said that Shireen will be sacrificed by Melisandre in Winds of Winter and this might or might not cause Stannis to get a victory, but HBO had already incorporated this in the fifth season.
The fifth book had both Stannis and Shireen alive and this means that the readers will get to know their fate in Winds of Winter. This is one of the many instances that Martin is using to prove that Game of Thrones Season 6 will not spoil Winds of Winter for the fans.
Fans have been asking Martin about the date of Winds of Winter’s publishing date and all the writer has come out with is that the book is going to be well written when it is finally published. There were rumors stating that Martin will be able to push the book out right before the premiere of Game of Thrones Season 6, but with Season 6 set to premiere on 10th April, this looks like a far off dream.
Master Herald has come out to report that Winds of Winter will not come out before Season 6 neither will it be released during the course of the sixth season. There are chances that the sixth novel might be out before the seventh season of Game of Thrones.
This places the projected release date of Winds of Winter in between early 2017 and late 2016. The fans will then have to wait for almost five more years to finally lay their hand on the seventh book.
HBO has plans of continuing with Game of Thrones till the seventh or the eighth season, but that depends on how the story pans out in the series and the book that Martin is writing.
David J. Peterson, the language expert of Game of Thrones, has revealed that Martin is going to incorporate some Dothraki and Valyrian into the writing of the novel. The novel has already dealt with the two languages, but hasn’t used them in their original tongue. This time round, Martin has worked with Peterson to incorporate these in Winds of Winter to make it more authentic.