MANILA, Philippines — It has been over a decade since George R.R. Martin has published a book in his "A Song of Ice and Fire" (ASOIAF) series, with the HBO show "Game of Thrones" (GoT) wrapping up in 2019. Martin surprised fans with a rare update on his next book in the series.
Writing in his blog last July 8, Martin addressed inquiries about "The Winds of Winter," the sixth book in ASOIAF and long-awaited sequel to "A Dance with Dragons." He assured fans by revealing that he has been working on the book alongside other projects.
"I love nothing more than to surprise my readers with twists and turns they did not see coming, and I risk losing those moments if I go into too much detail," Martin explained, realizing that even giving out bits could become a spoiler.
The author said that in the past few years he has been writing, making changes, and adding new ideas, all of which were seen as distantly related to the narrative set in the HBO show.
"Some of the things you saw on HBO in 'Game of Thrones,' you will also see in 'The Winds of Winter' (though maybe not in quite the same ways)… but much of the rest will be quite different," Martin said.
He explained that the ASOIAF novels are more detailed and more complex than the TV show by featuring viewpoints of characters like Victarion Greyjoy, Arianne Martell, Areo Hotah, and Jon Connington.
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Martin went on to reiterate that Yara Greyjoy is not like Asha Greyjoy and Euron Greyjoy is very different in the books. Characters like Rickon Stark, Jeyne Poole, and Quiathe will still have parts to play in the book which is why he is finding it hard to write it.
The author also said while there will be new characters that will be introduced, there will not be any new viewpoints.
"All these journeys and battles and scheming to come, inevitably our major players will be encountering new people in lands far and near," he said.
The biggest spoiler Martin could give was by revealing that not all of the characters who survived until the end or died in GoT may survive or die in ASOIAF.
"One thing I can say, in general enough terms that I will not be spoiling anything: Not all of the characters who survived until the end of Game of Thrones will survive until the end of A Song of Ice And Fire, and not all of the characters who died on Game of Thrones will die in A Song of Ice And Fire. (Some will, sure. Of course. Maybe most. But definitely not all)," the author shared.
He added that there will be no doubt that once he is done, there will be a huge debate about which version of the story is better. Martin also acknowledged that many fans are angry that "The Winds of Winter" is taking too long to be published.
He also recently confirmed that a show on Jon Snow is in development, and Kit Harington is involved in it.
The ending of GoT saw Jon Snow (Harington) exiled to the north of the Wall with the wildlings and his direwolf Ghost. In the book "A Dance with Dragons," Snow was presumably stabbed to death at Castle Black via mutiny — which became the finale of GoT Season 5.
GoT prequel series "House of the Dragon" about the Targaryen dynasty premieres on August 21 on HBO.
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