George rr martin new game of thrones book

A Song of Ice and Fire fans rejoice George RR Martin finally has an update on the long-long awaited Winds of Winter book. The renowned author recently appeared on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert to promote his new book The Rise of the Dragon: An Illustrated History of the Targaryen Dynasty, Volume One where he shared the progress on the upcoming book among other things.

During their conversation, Colbert joked that he’s “legally required” to ask Martin about the status of Winds of Winter to which Martin revealed that the book isn’t finished yet as the book is even longer than a Storm of Swords and A Dance with Dragons. On further probing by the host he revealed, “I think it’s going to be a very big book [more than 1500 pages] and I think I’m about three-quarters of the way done.” Further adding, “The characters all interweave and I’m actually finished with a couple of the characters, but not others. I have to finish all that weaving.”

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Upon getting the response Colbert quickly did the math asking, “So [it’s taken] 10 years to go 75 percent of the way through … which means about … three more years?” To which Martin jokingly replied, “That’s depressing,” though he further jabbed saying that once Winds of Winter is published, he’ll get the first tweet the next day asking, “where’s A Dream of Spring?” Fans have been long waiting for Winds of Winter as Martin’s last book A Dance with Dragons came out in 2011, the year Game of Thrones original series launched. The HBO series finished in almost a span of a decade, in 2019, moving past the original material.

Bantam A Dance with Dragons (A Song of Ice and Fire)

A Dance with Dragons, Martin's fifth Game of Thrones novel, came out in July 2011. In the ensuing decade, Martin has provided updates on his blog about the status of the sixth novel and updates in various interviews and panels. In October 2022, he told Stephen Colbert, "I think it’s going to be a very big book [more than 1500 pages] and I think I’m about three-quarters of the way done. The characters all interweave and I’m actually finished with a couple of the characters, but not others. I have to finish all that weaving."

This is not his first status update of 2022. "Most of you know by now that I do not like to give detailed updates on WINDS. I am working on it, I have been working on it, I will continue to work on it. (Yes, I work on other things as well)," he shared in August 2022 in a blog post. " 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. Spoilers, you know."

So while he didn't want to prove a "detailed report" on Winds of Winter, Martin did write: "I will say this. I have been at work in my winter garden. Things are growing… and changing, as does happen with us gardeners. Things twist, things change, new ideas come to me (thank you, muse), old ideas prove unworkable, I write, I rewrite, I restructure, I rip everything apart and rewrite again, I go through doors that lead nowhere, and doors that open on marvels. Sounds mad, I know. But it’s how I write. Always has been. Always will be. For good or ill."

Yet, he specified that "of late" his writing is taking him "further and further away from the television series." Though there may be some elements from the final seasons in the books, Martin writes, it will be "quite different."

Martin does admit that he fears readers will hate the book—based only on how long it's taken him to complete. As he writes, "I do fear that a certain proportion of fans are so angry about how long WINDS has taken me that they are prepared to hate the book, unread. That saddens me, but there nothing I can do about it, but write the best book that I can, and hope that when it comes out most fans will read it with clean hands and an open mind."

In an interview in the New York Times, Martin further clarified that his "ending will be very different" from the show, and that he was "out of the loop" on the show's ending.

We'll update this as soon as we learn more about The Winds of Winter by George R. R. Martin.

Emily Burack (she/her) is the news writer for Town & Country, where she covers entertainment, culture, the royals, and a range of other subjects. Before joining T&C, she was the deputy managing editor at Hey Alma, a Jewish culture site. Follow her @emburack on Twitter and Instagram. 

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