Winds of Winter release date ?!

googled eyes

So I saw this on twitter and went to Amazon.fr to check for myself

Digital Solitude

March 9th 2017, just in time for summer

KonFusion

It'll be released along with Half Life 3

Nody

KonFusion wrote: »

It'll be released along with Half Life 3

Cross over confirmed; WoW will come with a free steam code of HL3 as Freeman travels to the north to deal with those white bastards...

KonFusion

Freeman is Syrio is Jaqen H'Ghar confirmed

G-Man is Night King

Kunkka

Digital Solitude wrote: »

March 9th 2017, just in time for summer

If only

Sleepy

Every time this thread gets resurrected I get sadder...

Kunkka

Sleepy wrote: »

Every time this thread gets resurrected I get sadder...

I'm sorry!

I've started GoT again, such a good book. Enjoying the Bran chapters a lot more than on previous reads. I reckon that is down to what we know happens to him from the show as there are so many indicators I've spotted now on this read.

Poor Ned still makes me very upset

googled eyes

The really sad thing is that whether the book comes out this year ( I'm doubtful at this point ) or next, we'll have to wait who knows how long on the final book.

Considering how many pies George has his finger in. We may never see the end of the story.

xper

The unbelievably over-optimistic option: He's writing both The Winds of Winter and the final book in one go to stop getting himself in a Meereenese Knot again and the latter will come out shortly (a.k.a. commerically optimally) after the former.


... which could still be 2031.

5starpool

xper wrote: »

The unbelievably over-optimistic option: He's writing both The Winds of Winter and the final book in one go to stop getting himself in a Meereenese Knot again and the latter will come out shortly (a.k.a. commerically optimally) after the former.


... which could still be 2031.

Just like A Dance With Dragons came out a year after A Feast For Crows like he promised.

I'll believe any release only when I see it.

A Neurotic

*Apologies for resurrecting thread if it gives anyone false hope of imminent release*

http://grrm.livejournal.com/544709.html

Just had to share this. GRRM blog post from July 2017 talking about various stories and volumes of the history of Westeros he's working on, including a history of the Targaryen kings he's hoping to have released in "late 2018/2019", and then goes on to mention that he's working away on WoW it's hard to estimate which will be published first.

For f*ck sake. He really doesn't give a sh*t about finishing this series.

Geimhreadh

He really seems to be perfectionist with this saga. Every name a hidden meaning every sentence spoke a foreboding for the next book.

With added pressure of how big the TV has popularised it even further I imagine it's harder and harder to get everything just right.

Just give up hope like me

Sarn

A Neurotic wrote: »

...various stories and volumes of the history of Westeros he's working on, including a history of the Targaryen kings...

He needs to sort out his priorities. No one gives a damn about the stories and history of Westeros at this stage. I expect he'll pass away before he finishes.

ZeroThreat

Sarn wrote: »

He needs to sort out his priorities. No one gives a damn about the stories and history of Westeros at this stage. I expect he'll pass away before he finishes.

From the pictures I've seen of him, it's a miracle he didn't keel over years ago.

Looks like captain Birdseyes obese pervy brother.

Duckworth_Luas

At least I'll have Half Life 3 to keep me entertained while waiting for the next book.

TITANIUM.

Jesus lads will ye give the man a break. He has a life to lead outside of dedicating his every waking moment to churn out more and more books.
He must be under immense pressure. But as he says himself "Itll be finished when its finished".
Be thankful for what he's already given us and hope that when he's ready he'll be kind enough to give a little more.

Sarn

In fairness, no one expects him to spend every waking moment writing the next book. He got three out over the space of nine years, it's now six years since the last one and took six to write the previous one.

I've seen other authors delay like this and pass away before they finish. It is preferable that the original author finishes their story. At least with the tv show we'll get an ending soon. The problem with series like this is that they tend to become full of unnecessary waffle (e.g. Wheel of Time) that seems to stretch out the writing time.

KaiserGunner

Started reading these books back in July '13 after I started watching the show. Think it took me a year and a half to read all the books. I'm going to start re reading them now and maybe by the time I've finished re reading them all, Winds of Winter may have been released.....

RobbingBandit

Won't be released until TV show is over IMO probably another two years.

EagererBeaver

Sarn wrote: »

A Neurotic wrote: »

...various stories and volumes of the history of Westeros he's working on, including a history of the Targaryen kings...

He needs to sort out his priorities. No one gives a damn about the stories and history of Westeros at this stage. I expect he'll pass away before he finishes.

That's rubbish. The extent of the history and the lore of the entire saga beyond the "present day" story are what make the whole thing so compelling. For example, Aegon/Young Griff is a Blackfyre as I expect, then you can't properly understand the significance of it without understanding the history of the Blackfyre rebellions. It just as greater depth to it all.

That said, I do of course wish he'd hurry up a bit.

Sarn

Perhaps I should have been clearer. I would love to read the histories, after he's finished the series. After twenty or so years of reading them it would be nice to have a conclusion.

RobbingBandit

Won't be a conclusion but rather an origin, a blackfyre twist to the tv show now would be as mad as adding the golden company to the mix.

RobbingBandit

A good history of Blackfyre found here.

http://gameofthrones.wikia.com/wiki/House_Blackfyre

Sleepy

I don't have much to base it on but I have a feeling we'll be seeing WoW in the bookshops before the next series is out.

OneOfThem Stumbled

TITANIUM. wrote: »

Jesus lads will ye give the man a break. He has a life to lead outside of dedicating his every waking moment to churn out more and more books.

He has writers block and has grown tired of the narrative he's created. In order to get around his boredom he created new characters instead of finishing off the ones he already had. But mostly he writes other books, which even if they are set in Westeros, don't go anywhere towards finishing a Song of Ice and Fire. He spends lots of time going to conferences and distracting himself from Winds of Winter. It is reasonable to say that he has become rich off of the success of A song Of Ice and Fire, but people wouldn't have invested in the series in the first place if they felt that it wasn't actually going to have a conclusion.

TheIrishGrover

I keep hearing the whole "He doesn't owe you anything" line. I don't believe this is 100% true. Of course, he shouldn't be working on this 24/7 and that he's entitled to write as he sees fit.
However, there are people who have been reading these books since they started coming out (I started just before book 3 came out. Was announced so I caught up with the others. Then I/we had to wait years for the next book and are waiting years for each subsequent book. ASOIAF's dedicated and vocal fanbase certainly helped greenlight a series. However would we have committed to a series with no end in sight? Fantasy fans have too often been burned by never-ending book series which peter out as the authors move on to other projects or die, only to be replaced by jobsworth writers just filling in the blanks based on very vague synopsis left behind by a disinterested author.
Of course he is pissed off with people questioning his health and commitment to the series but we've been here before. Is it a distasteful thought? Of course. Is it a VALID concern? Of course.

Respect - and this IS a matter of respect - goes both ways. His initial audience who paid for his books, often many times over, respected his ability to write an intriguing story. Respected his space to write that story and respected his decisions about that story. It is his story.
However where is GRRM's respect for his core audience? Every year or 18 months or so he cut-and-pastes an apology to the readers stating that the book is not done. (Bear in mind there are AT LEAST two more to come out. Probably three). His constant pursuit of tangential projects are frustrating to all. It seems that he has grown tired of the storylines and lost interest in completing the story. At this stage so are many of us. Do I think that the lightning-fast nature of the last season has much bearing on the (planned?) forthcoming books? No. They are extremely thin in comparison with the previous seasons of the show. Do I think he is interested in giving us the definitive version? No. Fine, either abandon it or pass it over to someone who can continue it with his supervision instead of his publisher giving it to some hack a year after he passes.

TLDR: He doesn't OWE us. But he should treat us with the respect that dedicated followers deserve. With the respect that these dedicated followers have given him. Simply saying "Sorry, aint done yet. try next year." is simply not a decent way to treat dedicated and (very) long term reader base. Even if that means saying "I'm done. I've made my money and I'm tired of Westeros"

Son0vagun

We deserve a great book, and that is what he is working on. I'm completely convinced he is working on the final book too and they will be released together and before the Show ends.

Liam O

Would people rather a bad book came out sooner or they had to wait longer for a good book? Genuine question.

I don't read spoiler chapters but other friends have been raving about them. It is something I'm obviously looking forward to but with podcasts and the old/other books there is plenty to be occupied with in the universe if you are so inclined. That and the show is there to show what a rushed version would be like...

pinkypinky

Of course, I'd love the next book to be a great, unputtable down read, but I just don't think that's likely. The last one was plodding and could have been more tightly edited. He's into a similar time frame now (5-6 years between the release of the last 2 and the last 1). He also claimed he had chunks of WoW written when ADWD came out in 2011. In no universe could we describe something at least 6 years in the making as "rushed".

Blut2

He should just leave writing to a ghost writer, and adopt a hands-on-editor approach to it at this stage. He clearly doesn't want to do the writing for the last books himself with all the newfound distractions in real life. But if he was a hands-on-editor at least it would keep them fairly in-tone.

Otherwise someone else will likely have to finish the series at this rate anyway, so this way he'd at least have a decent level of input.

Grudaire

Every single time I see an update on this thread I get my hopes up

pinkypinky

No release this year either. FFS!

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/apr/25/george-rr-martin-winds-winter-not-coming-2018-sixth-volume-game-thrones-targaryen

stampydmonkey

pinkypinky wrote: »

No release this year either. FFS!

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/apr/25/george-rr-martin-winds-winter-not-coming-2018-sixth-volume-game-thrones-targaryen

Clear as mud... As usual : (

xper

Aaaaagggggghhhh! Gets me every ****ing time.

*unsubscribes*

HandsomeBob

Starting to think he's not bothered anymore.

flazio

At this rate he's going to croak and they'll just have to adapt the TV series script into the final novel.

RobbingBandit

Book is finished I'd say so it the next one after it a dream of spring but with the show not being finished yet and now being so different to the books it would be sensible to let the show finish then release the books under the guise of the ending to a song of ice and fire.

Paddy Cow

RobbingBandit wrote: »

Book is finished I'd say so it the next one after it a dream of spring but with the show not being finished yet and now being so different to the books it would be sensible to let the show finish then release the books under the guise of the ending to a song of ice and fire.

I don't think so. I think he wrote himself into an awful mess with too many characters and storylines and doesn't know where to go. The show was good while it was following the books but the last season was poor. They tied up a lot of stories but it seemed rushed and disjointed. They will have been going on what George told them but the drop in quality of the show indicates to me that George himself hadn't planned the end through. If he had a fantastic book ready to go, then I personally think that would have been reflected in the show.

I feel sorry for book readers. I only read the books after seeing the first series and wanted to know what was happening. It must be super frustrating to follow a story for so many years and then get nothing. Fair enough George doesn't owe fans anything, but the book readers before the show were the ones who were lining his pocket. Morally he could reward them by getting the finger out and producing TWOW. Instead he's too busy writing side books that no one really gives a sh!t about.

The first few books/series were great because they had a lot of politics and plot twists that no one saw coming so George was hailed as this great writer. As the series nears it's end, it's basically become the average fantasy story of good vs evil. As the best characters have been killed off, there's little room to shock. I'd be surprised if he ever releases another book. Better to go out on a high were people will forever be arguing over whether or not the new book would've been better than the show, than to release a new book and confirm that he lost his mojo. Even the most ardent book reader fans have to admit that the quality of the books dipped as they went on.

Even if WOW gets released, what about the final book?

Given where all the characters where when we last left them, I don't see how he'd wrap this up sufficiently in two more books anyway.

He's lost his excitement for writing this series IMO.

Paddy Cow

Deleted User wrote: »

Even if WOW gets released, what about the final book?

Given where all the characters where when we last left them, I don't see how he'd wrap this up sufficiently in two more books anyway.

He's lost his excitement for writing this series IMO.

I agree with this. There was so much happening where he left off, there is no way he could finish into two normal sized books.

pinkypinky

I actually wish he would just admit there's a problem. People would be far more tolerant then.

Duckworth_Luas

Like many others I only started reading ASOIAF after getting in to the show. I was encountering too many spoilers between seasons 2 and 3 so I decided it was best that I spoil the show for myself by reading the books.

I don't feel any great connection to them and don't really care if the series is ever finished. In fact I really doubt that he will ever complete the next volume.

I do feel sorry for the original book readers and fantasy fans who have been left high and dry by Martin. It's obvious that the guy has no idea of how to tie everything together and doesn't want to deal with the pressure.

The music writer Johnny Rogan, who is noted for his attention to detail, once spent a whole year in isolation, without talking to another human being, so he could focus on getting a book completed.

While you can't expect that from Martin, you would hope that he would leave all these side projects aside for a period so he could concentrate on the book that most people actually want.

By procrastinating and diverting attention to other projects Martin can let the show producers tie up the story in a manner that will be satisfactory for casual fans like myself. The zealots and "GRRM is not your bitch" fans will remain as supportive of his inaction as they are now.

People complain that the show's quality sunk once it had exhausted the source material. Of course it did. They had to deal with the labyrinth of storylines that Martin himself is now unable to navigate through.

By pairing it down and dropping half of the nonsense characters included in the books they will be able to close the story out in a somewhat satisfactory manner.

Martin can then say that the show has already shown how ASOIAF will end and he's done with it. Casual fans will no longer care and will move on. The zealots will be satisfied with Martin's next tome, "The Complete Anatomy of Grumpkins and Snarks: Volume 1 of 3" .

padraig.od

Duckworth_Luas wrote: »

Like many others I only started reading ASOIAF after getting in to the show. I was encountering too many spoilers between seasons 2 and 3 so I decided it was best that I spoil the show for myself by reading the books.

I don't feel any great connection to them and don't really care if the series is ever finished. In fact I really doubt that he will ever complete the next volume.

I do feel sorry for the original book readers and fantasy fans who have been left high and dry by Martin. It's obvious that the guy has no idea of how to tie everything together and doesn't want to deal with the pressure.

The music writer Johnny Rogan, who is noted for his attention to detail, once spent a whole year in isolation, without talking to another human being, so he could focus on getting a book completed.

While you can't expect that from Martin, you would hope that he would leave all these side projects aside for a period so he could concentrate on the book that most people actually want.

By procrastinating and diverting attention to other projects Martin can let the show producers tie up the story in a manner that will be satisfactory for casual fans like myself. The zealots and "GRRM is not your bitch" fans will remain as supportive of his inaction as they are now.

People complain that the show's quality sunk once it had exhausted the source material. Of course it did. They had to deal with the labyrinth of storylines that Martin himself is now unable to navigate through.

By pairing it down and dropping half of the nonsense characters included in the books they will be able to close the story out in a somewhat satisfactory manner.

Martin can then say that the show has already shown how ASOIAF will end and he's done with it. Casual fans will no longer care and will move on. The zealots will be satisfied with Martin's next tome, "The Complete Anatomy of Grumpkins and Snarks: Volume 1 of 3" .

I'D READ IT!

awec

He doesn't know how to finish the books. The TV writers did a great job cutting out the crap.

Paddy Cow

awec wrote: »

He doesn't know how to finish the books. The TV writers did a great job cutting out the crap.

I think the writers did the best they could with what they had and George took a cop out when he didn't release the next book before the last season. I do think the quality of the show took a massive dive but that's not a criticism I direct at the show writers - it's one I lay firmly at George's feet. He wrote himself into a conundrum and left it to the show writers to solve. They get to take the flak from ardent book readers who will hear no bad word against George and claim that the show ruined the story.

They cut the crap but now we're left with (in my opinion) some uninspiring characters. Jon has really grown on me. He's gone from a moody angst ridden teen, to someone I can get behind. Same with Sansa. Tyrion on the other hand seems to have lost his wit and mojo and I don't find him as interesting. Dany just annoys me. As one of the main characters, I couldn't care less about her. Actually I take that back, I'd be delighted if she was killed off. Early on I loved her resilience and the fact that she seemed to really care about the people of the lands she conquered. Now though she just comes across as the typical Targaryen who sees the Iron Throne as a right and fcuk all the regular people living in Westeros. Even Varys has lost a lot of his allure and Arya, one of my all time favourites, came across as a brat last season.

Hopefully with the extra time they have taken to produce the last season they will iron out these problems and it will be worth the wait.

Liam O

The writers messed up the show long before they ran out of material. Character motivations after the first season were so inconsistent at times and the way they treated characters like Stannis, Doran and others was absolute nonsense. They actually manage to have filler like Missandei and Grey Worm while leaving out

the Blackfyres and killing off nearly every major family in a nonsensical way

Of course some things had to be taken out but the manner in which they did was so rushed and i couldn't get behind it in any way. Went for big moments rather than building any kind of story. While there was great acting and casting of characters and some genuinely great moments, there was just too much that didn't fit in with my idea of the universe.

Brief_Lives

Winds of Winter is gonna take a looooong time to come out....