Fans of the Game of Thrones books will have to wait even longer than expected for the series’ next installment, “The Winds of Winter”, to hit store shelves. Over the weekend, author George R.R. Martin said that he unfortunately failed to meet his deadline to finish the upcoming book by December 31.
As a result, the upcoming sixth season of HBO’s Game of Thrones will begin airing before the new book is available. In turn, the upcoming season of GOT will cover material that’s still being written; an odd turn of events, to say the least.
DON’T MISS: The 5 most disastrous smartphones ever released
In a blogpost published on Martin’s Livejournal (yes, you read that correctly), the famed author explains that while he’s already written quite a bit, more work remains.
THE WINDS OF WINTER is not finished.
Believe me, it gave me no pleasure to type those words. You’re disappointed, and you’re not alone. My editors and publishers are disappointed, HBO is disappointed, my agents and foreign publishers and translators are disappointed… but no one could possibly be more disappointed than me. For months now I have wanted nothing so much as to be able to say, “I have completed and delivered THE WINDS OF WINTER” on or before the last day of 2015.
But the book’s not done.
Nor is it likely to be finished tomorrow, or next week. Yes, there’s a lot written. Hundreds of pages. Dozens of chapters. (Those ‘no pages done’ reports were insane, the usual garbage internet journalism that I have learned to despise). But there’s also a lot still left to write. I am months away still… and that’s if the writing goes well. (Sometimes it does. Sometimes it doesn’t.) Chapters still to write, of course… but also rewriting. I always do a lot of rewriting, sometimes just polishing, sometimes pretty major restructures.
While some fans may be worried about the new season airing before the upcoming book is completed, Martin indicated that he’s working closely with HBO to ensure that events on the TV show align with what will eventually appear in “The Winds of Winter.” Indeed, Martin in the past has said that he’s even told series creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss how the entire series ends, in the rare likelihood that Martin might pass away beforehand.
Now as for whether or not the upcoming sixth season of HBO’s award-winning franchise will spoil the upcoming book, Martin concedes that this may very well be the case.
“For years my readers have been ahead of the viewers,” Martin explains. “This year, for some things, the reverse will be true. How you want to handle that… hey, that’s up to you.”
Though a season 6 premiere date hasn’t yet been made official, it’s believed that the next installment of Game of Thrones will begin airing on HBO sometime in mid-April of 2016.
