Game Of Thrones TV Series Will End Before The Sixth Novel Is Released

If you thought waiting for the final season of Game of Thrones to air in 2019 was hard, waiting for the next book in the series is even harder. George R.R. Martin announced yesterday that the latest book in the series, Winds of Winter, won’t be released this year, and it’s looking more likely that the TV series will end before the novels do.

It’s been long known that the sixth installment of the book series will be called Winds of Winter, and although it’s been speculated many times over the last few years that it would be arriving soon, it’s not very likely to do so. Martin stated on his blog yesterday that “No, winter is not coming… not in 2018, at least. You’re going to have to keep waiting for ‘THE WINDS OF WINTER.’” He did go on however to reveal that there is a new book taking place in the Game of Thrones world that will be released. Fire Blood is set to be released on November 20th, and not only is it the first of a two-part volume on the Targaryen kings of Westeros, but it also features 75 pages of illustrations.

“It’s a hefty book, almost a thousand manuscript pages (okay, 989, if you want to be precise),” Martin wrote. “That’s not quite as long as ‘A GAME OF THRONES’ or any of the later volumes in ‘A SONG FOR ICE AND FIRE,’ but there’s a lot of reading there, and I hope you’ll enjoy it. This first volume covers all the Targaryen kings from Aegon I (the Conquerer) to the regency of Aegon III (the Dragonbane), along with their wives, wars, siblings, children, friends, rivals, laws, travels, and sundry other matters. For those not up on your Westerosi history, that’s Aegon I, Aenys, Maegor the Cruel, Jaehaerys I (the Conciliator), Viserys I, Aegon II (and Rhaenyra), and Aegon III (the regency). Oh, and there are dragons too.”

As for whether or not the new series will be turned into one of the prequels of Game of Thrones that HBO has announced they are currently developing, Martin just said “The only answer I can give is… ah, well, no one is sure yet, and anyway, I am not allowed to say. So let’s move that to the side.”

The last novel Martin published in the Game of Thrones series was A Dance with Dragons in 2011. It’s the longest gap in the series publication, and it will be interesting to see if the books follow the TV series now, or if Martin goes in an entirely different direction. 

Photo: Henry Söderlund on Wikipedia