'The Winds of Winter' release date, spoilers: George R.R. Martin teases things will get worse; Late 2017 launch possible?
Fans are entering the sixth year of the waiting game for "The Winds of Winter." Thankfully, author George R.R. Martin tides fans over with teases for the much-awaited novel.
The award-winning author recently sat down for a question-and-answer session at the Guadalajara International Book Fair where he previewed a reckoning in Westeros.
"There are a lot of dark chapters right now in the book that I'm writing," the 67-year-old novelist told the audience at the event.
"It is called The Winds of Winter, and I've been telling you for 20 years that winter was coming. Winter is the time when things die, and cold and ice and darkness fill the world, so this is not going to be the happy feel-good that people may be hoping for. Some of the characters [are] in very dark places," he went on to say.
He teased that "The Winds of Winter" will follow the belief that things get worse before they get better, which means that "a lot of people" will be in for some very trying times in the book.
Last year, he teased that the sixth installment of his mega-popular "A Song of Ice and Fire" book series will feature a mind-blowing twist and will see a character dead in the HBO adaptation "Game of Thrones," but very much alive in "The Winds of Winter."
There were also speculations that Daenerys Targaryen and Jon Snow will be in for serious trouble although there is no way of knowing what the book entails with little official information available.
Martin's statements suggest that he is still writing "The Winds of Winter," which means that it is not with the publishers yet. Preparing a book for publishing could take months.
This means that for "The Winds of Winter" to come out in the following months, Martin should already be sending the manuscript to the publishers.
This suggests that an early 2017 or even mid-2017 release might not be possible. After all, the author also has rewriting to do. He explicitly said in the past that this will consume a considerable amount of time, too.
With all that said, "The Winds of Winter" could still be a long way off, but a 2017 launch might still be on the table.
