It’s a fight now between Game of Thrones Season 6 and Winds of Winter. HBO had caught up with Martin’s novel series and not being able to wait any further for the author to finish Winds of Winter, went ahead and shot Season 6, based on the sixth novel of A Song of Ice and Fire series on their own.
Initially there had been a huge uproar from the fans, who urged George R. R Martin to finish the novel fast, but now the fans seem to have given up on it. They had waited for five years for Winds of Winter and hence waiting for a few more months doesn’t really make a difference.
The die-hard fans of the book were afraid that the story would be spoilt since now it will end up having two very different endings. Martin himself was a little skeptical about HBO going ahead before him to complete the series, but then he has been telling fans not to worry since HBO has always kept things a little different from what they were in the novels.
International Business Times reported that Martin had intended for Shireen to be sacrificed by Melisandre to the Red God, but it doesn’t happen in the fifth novel as shown in Season 5 of Game of Thrones. While Shireen and Stannis were both killed in the end of Season 5, Martin has informed that Shireen will lose her life in Winds of Winter, but hasn’t mentioned anything about Stannis.
HBO had started working on the novel series for Game of Thrones in the very same year that Martin had released the fifth novel A Dance with Dragons. Now five years into the process, Game of Thrones has finished filming the sixth season and Martin is still working on the sixth novel.
Screen Rant has reported that fans are very angry with Martin and now fear that the 67-year-old author might reach the end of his own life before he can complete the series. There were rumors that Winds of Winter will be released by the end of 2015, but that never happened and after five long years, Martin is still not forthcoming about the release date of the novel.
Australian Network News has reported that Martin has come out to address the fans and have said that they are really disappointed at him, but then they are not alone. Martin’s editors and publishers are equally disappointed with him.
HBO too is not very happy since they had to base the television series on the novel and not work out an entire plot on their own. Martin’s delay has put on hold the whole schedule and this has caused a lot of problems.
Martin has gone on record to pacify the fans of his novel. He has been repeatedly telling them that the HBO series, which is going to be released in April, will not affect the readers when they read Winds of Winter since the way the story plays out is going to be very different.
Martin knows that the fans of his novel are very loyal and no matter what they will pick up Winds of Winter to see how he has dealt with the story, since it is the original one.
David J. Peterson, the language expert roped in for Game of Thrones by HBO, way back in 2009, has now joined hands with George R. R. Martin to incorporate Dothraki and Valyrian in Winds of Winter.