George R. R. Martin seems to exceed our expectations more often than we expect- expectations to kill our favorite characters? Exceeded. Expectations regarding how many books he could possibly sell? Exceeded. Number of fans? Massively exceeded. So what do we expect regarding the release of The Winds of Winter?
It’s been seven years since A Dance with Dragons came out, the same year the first season of Game of Thrones was released.
The Winds of Winter was originally supposed to be released to coincide with the TV show’s sixth season which came out in 2016. But it didn’t happen. Yet another report in the Washington Post stated that the book would be out sometime in 2017. But it’s 2018 and there isn’t so much as a solid rumor regarding the book’s release, forget about an official date!
Moreover, Game of Thrones’ official Twitter account has confirmed that the eighth season of the show will be on screens in 2019.
We can’t wait much longer to learn when The Winds of Winter will come out!
Image Via Vanity Fair
There are a couple of possibilities that one might consider.
The first and the unlikely one- the book will come out before the next season of the show does, which implies that the book will be out within twelve months from now. But that probably won’t happen, given that if it were going to be ready for publication within the next year, surely it would have been announced, or at least vaguely hinted at, by now.
The second and more likely possibility is that Martin will let the producers of the show go along with their own storyline for the eighth season, and then release the book when he is ready to do so. If you think about it, the show didn’t really follow the books as closely in the later seasons as it did in the first three seasons.
So in the end, we might end up with two conclusions- one for the books and the other for the show. On one hand, Daenerys might end up on the Iron Throne and on the other hand, Jon Snow might take over.
Whatever the conclusion, one thing we can always be certain of with Martin is death. Gruesome deaths. Deaths of our favorite characters, because it’s Game of Thrones, what else do you expect?
Featured Image Via Sick Chirpse