Author George R.R. Martin has released a new chapter from his upcoming book The Winds of Winter with an update from Dorne…
Book readers who have been anticipating the long awaited release of George R.R. Martin’s upcoming sixth book in the “Song of Ice and Fire” series were greeted with some welcome news on Wednesday when the author released another excerpt from The Winds of Winter.
“You want to know what the Sand Snakes, Prince Doran, Areo Hotah, Ellaria Sand, Darkstar, and the rest will be up to in Winds of Winter? Quite a lot, actually,” Martin wrote on Wednesday. “The sample will give you a taste. For the rest, you will need to wait.”
The Winds of Winter excerpt chapter — Arianne Martell
Now unfortunately, Martin still isn’t any closer to finishing the book, which was originally supposed to be released at some point last year and still remains undetermined when it will actually land in bookstores.
Still, Martin decided to treat his readers with a sample excerpt as he travels to Dorne with a point-of-view chapter surrounding Arianne Martell.
Now if that name doesn’t sound familiar if you’re a Game of Thrones viewer and haven’t caught up on the books, Arianne Martell actually has never appeared in the popular HBO series.
As a matter of continuity and stream lining the story, Game of Thrones has taken many liberties with Martin’s source material and while some have complained about how little the show actually did with Dorne in the long run, book readers know there’s a lot more going on down there than what we’ve seen on TV.
Unlike the television show, which did away with Prince Doran and his son Trystane at the opening of Game of Thrones season 6, the books not only have both of those characters still alive but a huge list of additional characters who also play major parts as well.
The point-of-view chapter for instance follows Arianne Martell, who is the eldest daughter of Prince Doran and the rightful heir to Dorne (in Dorne, women get to be queen versus all of Westeros, which is a bit more sexist in only allowing men to sit on the Iron Throne).
The chapter follows Arianne as she goes to meet with another character also not in the show named Jon Connington as he continues his attempt to usurp the throne for his chosen appointee — Aegon Targaryen.
Yes, in the book Rhaegar Targaryen and Elia Martell’s supposedly murdered son (one of the two killed by “The Mountain” when they sacked King’s Landing and kicked the Targaryens out of power), is still alive and he has co-conspirators who mean to put him back in his rightful place as the king of the Seven Kingdoms. Of course, no one has any actual proof that this is Aegon Targaryen so book readers have wondered ever since his introduction if he was just a decoy or distraction that will eventually be exposed as a fraud.
Arianne is traveling towards the Stormlands — the home of House Baratheon — to meet with Connington as he continues to plot to put Aegon back on the Iron Throne where he belongs.
Considering he still hasn’t shown up in the television series, Aegon Targaryen’s role is either not that crucial to the finale or Game of Thrones really is taking things in a very different direction than the source material.
Either way this sample chapter gives a much deeper look into some of the characters from Dorne, who don’t appear in Game of Thrones, but for book readers it’s a nice addition to the other sample chapters that Martin has released thus far.
Despite the latest excerpt being unveiled, Martin says there’s still no new date or time expected for The Winds of Winter to be released.
