When is “Winds of Winter” going to come out? This is the big question for many fans of the iconic book franchise by George R.R. Martin, which is supposed to be continued by this book – but still, we haven’t seen any concrete information about its release date or the author’s possible plans on the matter. Some fans have been quite annoyed at the situation, claiming that while it’s typical of Martin to delay his work, it’s no less annoying when it happens and the situation is particularly bad now due to the popularity of the book.
And it should be no surprise that fans are ready to jump at any small straw that’s extended to them and are looking for hints in all the possible places. Recently, George R.R. Martin appeared in “Z Nation”, a segment on SyFy where he showed up in zombie make-up. The show was received well by those who tuned in, but something caught the attention of fans very quickly.
In the episode of the show, the author had to play the role of a famous person who signs an autographed copy of a book he has released with the name “A Promise of Spring”. And needless to say, after the episode concluded, the main rumor in the community of Martin’s fans was that the next book is coming in the spring and the author has given us an obvious hint about it.
And while it’s nice to think that and to consider the possibility that Martin could be trying to communicate about his plans in coded messages, it might be just wishful thinking from fans. After all, the author keeps getting questioned about his progress on the next book and there is so much interest towards that release date that he obviously knows that he should address his fans directly if he has any concrete information instead of being vague.
He actually refused to commit to any specific release date previously, when he made a statement about a rumor going around regarding his schedule with his publisher. Back then, it sounded like the author isn’t very fond of the idea of making promises about release dates, so it wouldn’t make sense that he would do that now, especially in such a codified way.
But on the other hand, there is also the argument that this could actually be Martin’s way of “promising” the book’s release to his fans without actually explicitly saying it. That way, if the book does not in fact arrive in the spring season, he can safely deny having made any commitments to a release date in that period and his fans should not get disappointed. Of course, whether or not that would actually work for calming down his followers is a different story, but the author probably knows his community better than the average person and he knows how to communicate with them in an effective way.
In other related news, there might be a serious plot twist coming in the book in question that could catch fans off guard, even those who are following “Game of Thrones”. The TV show is based on the book series and has been following the main plot line for the most part, but it also makes some deviations from the original story here and there and just because something happened in the books is no guarantee that fans will see it on screen – and vice versa.