If you are sitting around wondering when you are going to learn more about the upcoming Winds of Winter, you will not have to wait much longer. The Winds of Winter is supposed to be released before Game of Thrones season 6 starts, but that does not look like it is going to happen if the speculation is true. HBO is sending out plenty of notifications to fans about Game of Thrones and the next season, but the odds are slim the book is going to be released by the end of April.
Game of Thrones has caught up to the novels that George R. R. Martin has been writing and according to some reports, the plot for Winds of Winter is going to have to be different than Game of Thrones in order to keep the interest high from fans of the television show. HBO confirmed that in April, next month, Game of Thrones will premiere the sixth season.
That does not leave a lot of space for Winds of Winter to be released if George R. R. Martin wants it to be before that. In a recent interview, Martin claimed that he is not writing anything else until Winds of Winter is complete. So that could mean he has his head down with a finish in sight, or it might not. Martin claims that even though his prediction might be overly optimistic, he has cancelled many engagements to clear the “decks and get this done.”
Even if Martin has this turbo writing skills in check and gets that book done, the odds are better that viewers are going to see the end of the sixth season before they read the end of the novel. Publisher websites speculate they will not see the Winds of Winter published before the end of this year with some suggesting 2017. The overlap in release times might not be that big of deal, unless you want to read the book and watch the show on HBO. Martin has not confirmed how much of Winds of Winter is complete at this time.
That is why speculation is not that easy, however, knowing the book is not done right now leaves way too much of a gap in information to make an informed decision. Martin said in an interview with IGN that the book does include “a dead character.” That is a character from the show that is dead, but is not dead in the books. That means the plot would have to be different, which should not be a big deal for those that complete both the book and the sixth season of Game of Thrones. The Winds of Winter is going to pick up where A Dance With Dragons left off.