In an interview with EW, George R.R Martin has finally revealed that he will end Winds of Winter, the sixth book in the ‘A Song of Ice and Fire’ series in 2016. This is the first semi-official news from the writer, but it hasn’t pleased the fans.
Ever since the fans closed the last page of A Dance of Dragons, they have been waiting for the next book. The wait has been very long. It’s been four years since A Dance of Dragons came out, and fans are running out of patience now.
Martin has realised the importance of keeping to a deadline, given the growing impatience among his fans and he has decided to cancel his visits to conventions and premieres to make sure that he can stick to the 2016 deadline.
Martin tried to pacify the fans by publishing an excerpt from Winds of Winter in his blog. The 6,700 word excerpt seems to have been written from Sansa Stark’s perspective. Sansa, the eldest daughter of the House of Stark, is pretending to be Alayne Stone while she is stationed at Eyrie along with Petyr Baelish and the ailing Lord Robert.
The excerpt opens with Sansa (Alayne) reading a story to the little Lord when, Mya Stone walks in with a scowl on her face. Alayne knew that the scowl on Mya’s face appeared only when Mychel Redfort is near.
Martin is desperate to get Winds of Winters out before the season 6 premiere of Game of Thrones. The HBO series is quickly catching up, and he wants his seven book series to be out before the television series has its finale.
Martin has some exciting surprises waiting for his readers. He talks about how Lord Robert Arryn in desperate to marry Sansa, who is pretending to be Alayne Stone. He said that a lot of readers have asked for this bizarre twist, and he is contemplating whether to include it.