Excited for The Winds of Winter? Us too – but we probably have a bit of a wait ahead of us...George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire is a monumental work of fantasy, and the foundation for the world-conquering TV phenomenon that was Game of Thrones. But the novel series is not yet complete: Martin has promised two more books to come, starting with the sixth volume, The Winds of Winter.
Unfortunately, fans have been waiting for The Winds of Winter for quite some time now. The book does not have an official release date, with Martin himself admitted that it is now late. Very late. 13 years late at this point, in fact. Still, Martin is adamant that he will finish the novel one day, and a fair bit of information about the penultimate instalment in the series has been released over the years.
Below, we've compiled everything we know so far about The Winds of Winter, including its point of view characters, plot threads that will be addressed, and whether it will follow the Game of Thrones TV show or not. Let's get into it...
The Winds of Winter release date speculation
This is the big question – and one that has a very simple answer: we currently don't know The Winds of Winter release date.
Originally, The Winds of Winter was intended to be published relatively soon after the fifth volume of A Song of Ice and Fire, A Dance with Dragons, and while the Game of Thrones TV show was still in production. In 2011, he told The Guardian that the novel would take at least another three years to complete, fatefully adding, "I hope it doesn't take me six years like this last one has." Ulp...
Since then, progress on the novel has been slow. Martin has provided sporadic updates and even shared chapters from the novel with fans, but there is no sign of when – or even if – the book will be completed and released.
What is The Winds of Winter plot?
We do at least have a stronger idea of what The Winds of Winter will be about. A Dance with Dragons ended with several major cliffhangers – not least the apparent death of Jon Snow – and the setup of two major conflicts.
Martin told SmarterTravel.com that the cliffhangers "will be resolved very early" in the book, and that the book will "open with the two big battles that I was building up to, the battle in the ice and the battle at Meereen – the battle of Slaver's Bay. And then take it from there."
The battle of Slaver's Bay will see the army of Daenerys Targaryen (led by Barristan Selmy) fight a coalition of slavers who want to seize back control of Meereen (which Daenerys took in A Storm of Swords). The battle in the ice, meanwhile, sees the forces of Stannis Baratheon take on Roose Bolton's army.
On his blog, Martin has said that he originally intended for both these big battles to be the climax of A Dance with Dragons, "intercutting between the two of them, each told through several different points of view." He wasn't fully satisfied with these scenes, however, so nudged the chapters into the planned next book, The Winds of Winter.
Other elements that we know will feature in the next book include:
The resolution to the betrayal of Jon Snow: Jon is murdered by his fellow members of the Night Watch in the mutiny at Castle Black. Something similar happens in the show, but Snow was resurrected relatively quickly. That doesn't mean the same will happen in the books, which lean towards a bleaker tone. Although it seems likely he will return, it's far from guaranteed.
Tyrion Lannister at the siege of Meereen: Although Tyrion has become an increasingly vital part of the story he's still yet to actually meet Daenerys. Presumably that will happen in The Winds of Winter.
Winter is here: Martin has said that The Winds of Winter will venture further North than the previous novels, revealing in the SmarterTravel interview that, "What lies really north in my books – we haven't explored that yet, but we will in the last two books" as well as adding that we are "definitely going to see more of the Others" – the sinister force known as the White Walkers in the TV show.
Really, though, there are countless plot threads at this point that need addressing, thanks to the huge number of characters at play. Speaking of which...
Which characters will get point of view chapters?
The A Song of Ice and Fire novels are told from the point of view of many different characters, with Martin swapping between them in each book.
The following characters are all known to have point-of-view chapters in The Winds of Winter. These were confirmed by Martin himself via preview chapters, public readings, and blog posts – though of course, everything is subject to change and we won't know for sure until/if the book is ever completed and published.
- Areo Hotah
- Aeron Greyjoy
- Arianne Martell.
- Arya Stark.
- Asha Greyjoy
- Barristan Selmy
- Cersei Lannister
- Sansa Stark
- Theon Greyjoy
- Tyrion Lannister
- Victarion Greyjoy
It's also highly likely – though unconfirmed – that Daenerys Targaryen will be a POV character, as in previous books and Martin has previously said that Robb Stark's wife, Jeyne Westerling will feature in the prologue, though that doesn't mean it will be told from her point of view.
Will The Winds of Winter be the same as the TV show?
This is another case where we have to admit that we simply don't know – though there are some elements that will definitely be different as the Game of Thrones TV show veered in a different direction towards the end of season 4.
Martin, on his blog, has stated that "WINDS will be different in some ways, but will parallel the show in others. At this point, there are probably a dozen characters who are dead on the show but alive in the books, so it would be impossible for the two to remain the same. (Also, of course, there are characters in the books who have never even existed on the show, like Victarion Greyjoy, Jon Connington, Penny, Arianne Martell... )"
Is The Winds of Winter the final book in the series?
Despite the many years it's taken to write The Winds of Winter, George R.R. Martin has long maintained that it's only the penultimate book in the A Song of Ice and Fire sequence. The final book, which will be the series' seventh volume, is titled A Dream of Spring.
This was not the book's original title: initially, it had the more ominous working title of A Time For Wolves, with Martin revealing the title change in 2006. Very little is known as yet about A Dream of Spring. Martin has, however, hinted at the tone of the final book.
In a 2015 interview with Observer, he revealed, "I've said before that the tone of the ending that I'm going for is bittersweet. I mean, it's no secret that Tolkien has been a huge influence on me, and I love the way he ended Lord of the Rings. It ends with victory, but it's a bittersweet victory … All I can say is that's the kind of tone I will be aiming for. Whether I achieve it or not, that will be up to people like you and my readers to judge."
What else is George R.R. Martin working on?
The last decade-and-a-bit has seen a dramatic change in Martin's fortunes as a writer. In that time, Game of Thrones grew from being a promising new TV series to one of the most popular shows in the world, and Martin went from being a popular fantasy author to one of the best-known living writers in the world.
While The Winds of Winter is still unfinished, Martin has continued to publish numerous other books, including Fire & Blood, which provided the source material for Game of Thrones' TV spin-off House of the Dragon, three The Rogue Prince & The Princess novellas, and four companion A Song of Ice and Fire books.
Why has The Winds of Winter taken so long to write?
At the time of writing The Winds of Winter is 13 years late. Ultimately, only George R.R. Martin can truly know why that is.
In a long post on his blog back in 2016, he broke down some of the reasons for the delays, saying, "You can blame my travels or my blog posts or the distractions of other projects... you can blame my age, and maybe that had an impact too... but if truth be told, sometimes the writing goes well and sometimes it doesn't, and that was true for me even when I was in my 20s."
So, for now, all we can do is sit back, reread the books we have, look forward to House of the Dragon season 3, and hope that The Winds of Winter really is coming.
For more Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon, check out our House of the Dragon timeline, our breakdown of the Targaryen family tree, and our list of the best Max shows.
