Read the First Excerpt from Game of Thrones Sequel ‘The Winds of Winter’ by George R.R. Martin

When it comes to Game of Thrones, nobody is more enthusiastic about new information than the book fans. The fans who have read through thousands of pages and still not been satisfied with an ending in over two decades. It has been three years since we have heard anything about when The Winds of Winter will be released. While we still don’t have that information (SORRY!) but we do have an excerpt from this writer’s personal favourite character – Tyrion!

Check it out below:

TYRION

Somewhere off in the far distance, a dying man was screaming for his mother. “To horse!” a man was yelling in Ghiscari, in the next camp to the north of the Second Sons. “To horse! To horse!” High and shrill, his voice carried a long way in the morning air, far beyond his own encampment. Tyrion knew just enough Ghiscari to understand the words, but the fear in his voice would have been plain in any tongue. I know how he feels.

Many thanks to Entertainment Weekly who shared the quotes. They also report that the whole chapter will be available in March through Random House’s A World of Ice and Fire app.The chapter will feature Tyrion and be available even in the free version of the app, along with new location descriptions and character profiles.

The release date for Winds of Winter has yet to be determined but I’m willing to be that 2015 will be the year. Martin likes to take his time writing the books but he has a new motivation to complete the books faster now that the TV series is already up to Book 3. The last Game of Thrones book,  A Dance with Dragons, the fifth in the series, was published in 2011. While we eagerly await a release date you can be sure that the exclusive chapter in March will be a big tease!

Game of Thrones Season 4 will premiere on Sunday, April 6, at 9:00 p.m. EST/PST on HBO.

‘The Winds of Winter’: Potential Release Date, POV Characters and Plot

With HBO’s Game of Thrones Season 3 rounding up for another year, George R.R Martin has been doing quite a few interviews and while he has vowed never to speculate exactly on a release date for The Winds of Winter, he has hinted at a time frame when we might expect it to be published.

A few notes first: I’ve included links to all the sources so that you can decide on your own whether these conclusions are accurate or farfetched. Please be warned that the following may contain spoilers, particularly when revealing which characters appear in The Winds of Winter and thus also revealing those who have survived the previous books.

In an interview with O Globo, a Portuguese publication, Martin was asked whether he could speak on how much longer until the release of The Winds of Winter and this is how he responded:

“I will not make any predictions. I’m working on it, I’m making progress, but it is a great book. Definitely will not be ready this year, maybe next. But for me it’s one step at a time, I try to focus on small things, like finishing a chapter or a page. The book will be ready when it’s ready.” O Globo

He was tight lipped about answering any specific questions about his progress such as how many pages he’s written so far, but he did give a little clue about what character he was writing at the moment. “Arya.”

In an interview with Conan, George R.R. Martin said, “My great fear is that David [Benioff] and Dan [Weiss] will catch up with me,” referring to the Game of Thrones television writers. It seems likely that they will catch up with Martin, given the time between publication. It took Martin 6 years to publish A Dance with Dragons after the release of A Feast for Crows.

But how long will we have to wait for The Winds of Winter? According to an interview with The Guardian in 2011, Martin said that he predicted, “it’s going to take me three years to finish the next one at a good pace.” So say he was right in his estimation, and together what he told O Globo, we may be looking at a late 2014/2015 release of The Winds of Winter. Who knows when A Dream of Spring, the final book, will be published.

What can we expect when The Winds of Winter is finally released? Some information has been revealed:

In 2012 Martin told SmartTraveler that A Dance with Dragons covered less story than he had intended, omitting at least one planned large battle sequence and leaving several character threads ending in cliff-hangers. Martin intended to resolve these cliffhangers “very early” in The Winds of Winter, saying “I’m going to open [The Winds of Winter] with the two big battles that I was building up to, the battle in the ice and the battle of Slaver’s Bay. And then take it from there.”

Obviously because there may be people reading this article who have not finished reading A Dance with Dragons, I won’t reveal some of hints for the plot because it would reveal some of the events that occurred in the previous books. There’s a few more details on the AWOIAF wiki page for The Winds of Winter.

But here are the character that Martin has said will have chapters written from their POV in The Winds of Winter:

• Aeron Greyjoy , one chapter, was removed from A Dance with Dragons in June 2010. (GRRM Blog)
  
• Sansa Stark, one chapter, was removed from A Dance with Dragons in June 2010. (GRRM Blog)
  
• Arya Stark, one chapter, was removed from A Dance with Dragons in June 2010. (GRRM Blog)
  
• Arianne Martell, two chapters, were removed from A Dance with Dragons in June 2010. One of them was published in Martin’s website in January 2013 (GRRM Website)
• Theon Greyjoy, one chapter, appeared on Martin’s website in December 2011 (GRRM Website)
• Victarion Greyjoy, one chapter, portions of one chapter were read at TIFF Bell Lightbox in March 2012. (A Wiki of Ice and Fire)
  
• Barristan Selmy, two chapters were read at Boskone in February 2013. (A Wiki of Ice and Fire)
  
• Tyrion Lannister, one chapter, read at Miscon 2012 (A Wiki of Ice and Fire)

George R.R. Martin Delays ‘A Song of Ice and Fire Encyclopedia’ Because He Can’t Stop Writing

Many fans of the A Song of Ice and Fire series visit Young Adult Book Reviewer for updates on George R.R. Martin’s book writing progress. Unfortunately fans, more bad news on the writing front – George can’t stop writing The World of Ice and Fire Encyclopedia and so its release date is going to be delayed. The companion book is now set for a 2014 release but the good news is that it will now be  a multi-volume “lushly illustrated retelling” of Westerosi history.

According to Martin’s publisher, HarperCollins UK, Martin was given a 50,000 word limit for the encyclopedia that will also have contributions from Westeros.org creators Linda Antonsson and Elio M. García. However, Martin reportedly ended up writing five times as much as he was supposed to, including some information not previously detailed in the books. They have since decided to shift the focus of the book away from its original encyclopedia format and commissioned more artwork for the final product, which accounts for the delay.

The trilogy Martin originally planned in the early ’90s is now a seven-volume behemoth, and that number grows larger with every second that Martin writes. In fact, the reason that A Feast For Crows and A Dance with Dragons took so long to complete is because they were originally conceived of as one book, but the size of the original manuscript proved difficult for publishers to work with. The books were split into two so that they were more manageable to read as a physical copy. (Can you imagine the ebook for the book if it had been published together?)

I think it’s so incredible that Martin has been so detailed and meticulous in creating this world – exactly the kind of stuff we’d love to see from J.K. Rowling – but something does have to give because we’re all eagerly after The Winds of Winter but Martin is allegedly spending more time than he should on the encyclopedia. But who are we to complain about more material!

We love you Martin, but please send your babies out into the world for us to enjoy!