Author George R.R. Martin takes time and delicacy to write his novels for the ‘Song of Ice and Fire’ series so as it turns out ‘The Winds of Winter’ won’t be out this year…
The highly anticipated sixth novel in the ‘Song of Ice and Fire’ series — the basis for HBO’s hit show ‘Game of Thrones — has been pushed back from an expected release date in 2015.
Martin has been working on the novel ever since the release of the last book in the series, ‘A Dance with Dragons’, was released in July 2011.
While the author has been releasing excerpts from ‘The Winds of Winter’ over the last couple of years with certain details about the book already released, the actual finished product will not land on book shelves in 2015.
“I have no information on likely delivery,” Jane Johnson, Martin’s publisher at Harper-Collins told The Guardian. “These are increasingly complex books and require immense amounts of concentration to write. Fans really ought to appreciate that the length of these monsters is equivalent to two or three novels by other writers.”
With that statement, Johnson confirmed that there is no release date for ‘The Winds of Winter’ in 2015.
Fans have expressed immense frustration with the increasing time between books since the first in the series was released in 1996. There was a six-year gap between the fourth book, ‘A Feast for Crows’ and the fifth book, ‘A Dance with Dragons’.
Martin has stated that he will get the books done when the time suits him, but with each novel getting longer in length as the end of the story looms overhead with book seven expected to be the series, he’s that much more meticulous to ensure his story is told the right way. Martin has promised the books will be released when he’s finished writing, but there won’t be any rushing with this series considering the anticipation both he and the audiene have for the material.
“I’ve said before, and I will say again, I don’t play games with news about the books,” Martin wrote last year. “I know how many people are waiting, how long they have been waiting, how anxious they are. I am still working on Winds. When it’s done, I will announce it here. There won’t be any clues to decipher, any codes or hidden meanings, the announcement will be straightforward and to the point. I won’t time it to coincide with Xmas or Valentine’s Day or Lincoln’s Birthday, the book will not rise from the dead with Jesus on Easter Sunday. When it is done, I will say that’s it is done , on whatever day I happen to finish. I don’t know how I can make it any clearer.”
With the current schedule, Martin won’t likely release ‘The Winds of Winter’ until sometime in 2016, which means the proposed final book in the series ‘A Dream of Spring’ could be pushed as far as 2020 or beyond.
The television show based on Martin’s books have already caught up to some of his storylines with certain characters and even more will happen this season, which debuts on HBO on April 12. White has already discussed in detail with ‘Game of Thrones’ executive producers David Benioff and Dan Weiss his vision for how the series ends and the journey for each particular character.
‘Game of Thrones’ has been rumored to last for a total of seven seasons with season five set to debut this year. In other words, when ‘Game of Thrones’ season six debuts in 2016, it’s likely the majority of the material will be brand new and separate from Martin’s books all together.
