A 2016 release for “The Winds of Winter,” the sixth book in the fantasy novel series, “A Song of Ice and Fire,” by critically-acclaimed author George R.R. Martin, no longer seems possible at this time.
With three months left in the calendar year, it is almost sure that the book would not come out anytime soon.
If the publishers were planning to unveil it soon to capitalize on the Holiday shopping frenzy of book lovers, it is already too late at this point to make a promotional pitch for “The Winds of Winter“ despite being a much-anticipated book for nearly two years already.
While a 2017 release date for the book seems plausible already, that remains to be confirmed still. But many critics believe that the release of “The Winds of Winter” shall depend on the airing date of “Game of Thrones” Season 7 on HBO, notes Game & Guide.
Over the past six seasons, “Game of Thrones” normally premieres in April and ends in June. But for Season 7, the TV series will intentionally air late, which fans speculate to be in June or July and the show could end by summer since it only has seven episodes, which means only seven weeks of airing on HBO.
There could be a discussion going on between George Martin and the showrunners of “Game of Thrones,” David Benoit and D.B. Weiss, on what is the best timing for the release of “The Winds of Winter” where it would not be spoiled by the TV series and vice versa.
But one thing that fans should be assured of is the confirmation from Martin that “The Winds of Winter” is going to be an epic novel and he is bound to deliver on his promise, the way he did with the past five books of his fantasy novel series.
Enhanced editions in iBooks
“Game of Thrones” is now in its 20th year and Apple is joining the celebration of the franchise by launching the enhanced editions of the George Martin’s best-selling novels exclusively on iBooks, reports The Verge.
The enhanced edition shall enable die-hard “Game of Thrones” fans and book readers of “A Song of Ice and Fire” to have an interactive experience which would make the notoriously complex stories of the fantasy novel series a little easier to track and follow.
When users click on a name in the digital version of the novels, readers will be able to track the character’s journey or they can also dig deeper into his or her connections and house lineage.
And more importantly, users shall be able to get an excerpt from the upcoming “The Winds of Winter” which was briefly published on George Martin’s website a few months ago but is taken down now. The excerpt can only be found on the enhanced edition of the novels on iBooks.
Martin said that the digital version of his novels is an amazing next step in the world of books because anything that confuses the reader or anything that he or she wants to know more about, it is already there at his or her fingertips.
Book One of the enhanced edition of “Game of Thrones” is available for purchase for $8.99 in English. Books Two through Five will be released in subsequent months, and those who are eager to get their hands on it as soon as possible can make a preorder on iBooks for $11.99.
Not delayed at all
“The Winds of Winter,” has been widely anticipated by fans as early as October last year. So when it did not come out before the Season 6 premiere of “Game of Thrones,” everyone was referring to it as a major delay. That’s in addition to the fact that “Game of Thrones” has already overtaken the book series for the first time last year, so fans and readers are actually right to say that “The Winds of Winter” is already delayed in its release date.
However, the publisher of the books recently came out to say that the release date of “The Winds of Winter” is not delayed because five years and counting is just about the right gap between the fifth and sixth book of the fantasy novel series.
Apparently, the publisher has been basing its timeline on the slow writing pace of George Martin. It said that if ever that there would be delays in the release date of “The Winds of Winter,” it would just be a matter of days.
The publisher also guaranteed that the delay would take another five years. However, it did not say exactly when the book shall come out to the market.