Author George R.R. Martin offers an update on his long awaited novel “The Winds of Winter,” which is the sixth book in the series that inspired “Game of Thrones”…
Author George R.R. Martin had plenty of personal triumphs and tragedies to deal with thanks to the coronavirus pandemic in 2020.
The writer behind the “Song of Ice and Fire” series, which was the basis for the popular HBO series “Game of Thrones,” lamented the loss of some good friends over the past year while he also put forth a lot of work as he was isolated away from the rest of the world.
Perhaps the most interesting project that Martin worked on during the past year was his long awaited novel “The Winds of Winter,” which is the sixth book in the “Song of Ice and Fire” series. There hasn’t been a new book released in that series since “A Dance with Dragons” in 2011.
According to Martin, he wrote quite a bit during the pandemic but that doesn’t necessarily mean “The Winds of Winter” is any closer to a verified release date.
“I wrote hundreds and hundreds of pages of THE WINDS OF WINTER in 2020,” Martin wrote on his personal blog. “The best year I’ve had on WOW since I began it. Why? I don’t know. Maybe the isolation. Or maybe I just got on a roll. Sometimes I do get on a roll. I need to keep rolling, though. I still have hundreds of more pages to write to bring the novel to a satisfactory conclusion.
“That’s what 2021 is for, I hope. I will make no predictions on when I will finish. Every time I do, assholes on the internet take that as a “promise,” and then wait eagerly to crucify me when I miss the deadline. All I will say is that I am hopeful.”
Martin has previously released excerpts from “The Winds of Winter” but he’s also said publicly that he has gone back and reworked some chapters and completely changed others while trying to put together the best possible version of this novel.
“A Dance with Dragons” was already the longest book in the series with 414,788 words and it’s expected that “The Winds of Winter” will be an even bigger novel once it’s finished.
Again, Martin reiterated that he’s not setting a deadline or announcing a release date just yet but it appears he’s beginning to chisel away at the final draft.
Meanwhile, one of Martin’s other books — “Fire and Blood” — will serve as the basis for the next “Game of Thrones” series on HBO called “House of the Dragon.” That series will chronicle the epic Targaryen civil war that Martin wrote about in “Fire and Blood,” which details the majority of the history of House Targaryen.
That series is expected to land on HBO in 2022.
