Fans of the highly-acclaimed TV series “Game of Thrones” will welcome 2016 with a bang. Not only will the sixth season of the HBO series return on April next year, the latest novel “The Winds of Winter” from the epic fantasy series “A Song of Ice and Fire” is bound to hit bookshelves before the show’s season premiere.
The information came out after a Polish website claimed that Michael Jakuszewski was tapped to do the translation of the sixth installment from English to Polish by the end of the year.
According to The Independent, the report said that Jakuszweski was skeptical when he was asked by Zysk Publishing to do the translation of the manuscript of “The Winds of Winter.”
According to the website, if publishers are already preparing “The Winds of Winter” to be translated to different languages, it only means that author George R.R. Martin has already finished writing the book. If this is so, fans can expect an early 2016 release for “The Winds of Winter.”
It’s been five years since the last installment of the book series was released and it would be a great treat to fans if the new addition to the book series finally sees the light of day soon.
Martin previously stated that the latest novel will resolve some storylines from the previous one titled “A Dance with Dragons” which was released in 2011. Martin revealed that the series will comprise seven books in total.
The 67-year-old author admitted that “A Dance with Dragons” covered less story than he intended. To compensate, he reveals that he’s going to open “The Winds of Winter” with two big battles – the battle in the ice and the battle at Meereen — and then take it from there.
The novelist himself already stated that he hopes that the book be released just in time for the latest season of “Game of Thrones” as the book has taken a lot of time before its completion. Martin once mentioned that he would have wanted to finish the whole saga by 1998.
“Game of Thrones” showrunners David Benioff and D.B Weiss have also said that the latest novel could be released in time for the latest season of the TV show as some events of Season 6 will be taken from “The Winds of Winter.”
However, without an official word from the writer himself, it’s best to take all information with a pinch of salt. Winter Is Coming, a fan site dedicated to the “Game of Thrones” franchise, points out that Martin promised fans that once he writes the last sentence in his best-selling saga’s latest installment, he will immediately inform fans about it via his blog.
Fans seemingly held on to Martin’s words as they believe that certain blog posts contradict the notion that “The Winds of Winter” is already complete. Venture Capital Post also notes that the author has said a thousand times that he worships no deadlines when it comes to writing.
The author has skipped conferences, appearances, and guestings just to finish writing the book. The announcement of the book’s publication date will eventually be made through Martin’s LiveJournal site.
In the meantime, Martin has a new book out in bookstores today titled “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms.” It is an anthology of the first official prequel novels to “A Song of Ice and Fire.”
Vanity Fair recently pointed out two key information that allowed diehard fans to believe that “The Winds of Winter” may be coming out really soon.
First, George was in New York from July 30 through August 10 for a wedding according to his blog, but he also met with his editors and publishers while in the city.
Second, Martin’s editor, Anne Groell, was barely active on Twitter for nearly the whole month of September. In April, she tweeted about editors’ absences from social media being a significant indicator that they’re hard at work with their craft.