George R.R. Martin has shared the latest on the next installment in his A Song of Ice and Fire series, The Winds of Winter. The latest news comes from Martin’s Not A Blog website, where he said that the ending he sees for his books is very different from the ending of the HBO series Game of Thrones.
Martin has said in the past that the ending of his book series is likely to be very different from the ending of the show, but he has never been as specific and clear about it as he is in this new post.
Throughout the post, he describes his writing process as a kind of gardening, nurturing history and watching it grow. This also leads him to explain where he thinks she is now growing:
However, lately I have noticed more and more that gardening takes me further and further away from the TV series. Yes, some of what you’ve seen on HBO on Game of Thrones you’ll also see on The Winds of Winter (though maybe not exactly)…but most of the rest will be very different.
He goes on to call this change inevitable, in large part because the books are bigger and more complex than the series could ever be. A Song of Ice and Fire has dozens and dozens more characters than the HBO series, along with many and many characters who have very different portrayals in the novels, including fan-favorite Euron Greyjoy, who, according to Martin, is “quite , very, very different” in his version of the story.
To put it even more clearly, Martin explains:
One thing I can say in general terms, so as not to spoil anything: not all characters who lived to the end of Game of Thrones will live to see the end of A Song of Ice and Fire, and not all characters who died in Game of Thrones will die in ” A song of ice and fire.” (Of course, some will die. Of course. Maybe most. But definitely not all) ((Of course, I may change my mind again next week when I write the next chapter. This is gardening)).
This major departure should be welcome news for die-hard fans of both Martin’s novels and fans of the HBO series who were disappointed with how it ended. While small deviations have always been speculated (and, again, often confirmed by Martin himself), this latest announcement means fans will have reason to revisit the story with the promise of a very different – and hopefully more satisfying – ending.
Martin doesn’t talk about The Winds of Winter often, partly because he doesn’t want to spoil the story. While he has yet to say anything about when he might release this latest book, we do know that he has been working on it from time to time since A Dance of the Dragons was published in 2011. We also know, based on what he said, that he rewrote parts of the book quite a few times.
In addition to The Winds of Winter, Martin will have another book to complete the planned seven-book arc for A Song of Ice and Fire. Along with his work on The Winds, Martin is also producing several Game of Thrones spin-offs for HBO, as well as working on several other books in the A Song of Ice and Fire universe.
