'The Winds of Winter' release date news: Novel will not be released in 2017?
"The Winds of Winter" probably will not be published next year. The long-awaited novel is the upcoming sixth installment in bestselling author George R.R. Martin's epic fantasy series "A Song of Ice and Fire."
According to new reports, "The Winds of Winter," which has already been delayed twice, could be further delayed and will probably not be released in 2017. N4BB says that Martin is currently "restricted" by his work on other projects. The outlet also notes that the scribe's recent string of successful projects is keeping him from working on the highly anticipated sixth installment.
Martin has been working on "The Winds of Winter" since at least 2010. The upcoming novel follows 2011's "A Dance with Dragons," the fifth installment in "A Song of Ice and Fire." Since 2010, Martin has either publicly read or published more than 10 chapters from "The Winds of Winter."
In January 2016, the author announced via his LiveJournal blog that he failed to meet an end-of -year deadline that would have allowed his publishers to release "The Winds of Winter" before the premiere of the sixth season of HBO's "Game of Thrones." Because this did not happen, "Game of Thrones" season 6 was the first season of the Emmy-winning fantasy drama series to overtake the novel series on which it is based.
While Martin preferred not to give another estimated release date for "The Winds of Winter," merely saying "It will be done when it's done." Initial reports indicated that the novel could be out as early as 2017.
Meanwhile, as fans await "The Winds of Winter," they can consider purchasing the recently launched "A Game of Thrones: Enhanced Edition," which reportedly contains an excerpt from the upcoming novel.
The new Apple-exclusive digital edition of "A Game of Thrones" was launched to celebrate the novel's 20th anniversary. It offers readers an interactive experience, with character maps, great house lineages, annotations, and an all-new appendix all available with a single tap or click.
"We're now entering a new period in the history of publishing," Martin said about the enhanced digital edition of his novel. "The digital book gives readers the ability to experience all this rich secondary material that had not been possible before. These enhanced editions, available only on iBooks, include sigils and family trees and glossaries. Anything that confuses you, anything you want to know more about, it's right there at your fingertips. It's an amazing next step in the world of books, he added."
Book 1 of the "A Game of Thrones: Enhanced Edition" retails for $8.99 on iBooks. The next four books will be released in the following months.
