Winds of Winter Release Date News: Book will be delayed but will have a major twist for some main characters
Rumours are floating that "Winds of Winter," the sixth book in the "A Song of Ice and Fire" series on which "Game of Thrones" is based is not coming out soon as fans are expecting. Work on the book by author George R.R. Martin has not been showing the expected progress.
The television show "Game of Thrones" has deviated much in its fifth season from the book series. It seems that the book and the television show are going to follow slightly different tracks, especially regarding the deaths of some characters.
Martin had earlier said that it is possible his books would have a major twist for one of the main characters and that it might affect the others as well. He said, "This is going to drive your readers crazy but I love it. I'm still weighing whether to go that direction or not. It's a great twist!"
In Season 5 of "Games of Thrones," lots of terrible things happened and one of the deaths was of Stannis Baratheon who gets killed by Brienne of Tarth as she takes revenge on Stannis for having killed his brother whom Brienne was under oath to serve.
In his blog, "Not a Blog," Martin stated that in his novels, Stannis Baratheon is "alive beyond a doubt".
Some other things too are different from the books and the HBO series. Such is the case of Princess Arianne Martell of Dorne who is present in the books but is missing in the show.
Meanwhile, HBO president Michael Lombardo had hinted in August that Season 8 might be the last season for the show.
Martin, though, has said that there is a possibility that his seventh and final book in the series will finish before Season 8 of "Game of Thrones" or vice-versa. Martin says that writing the book takes a long time as he is writing 1,500-page novels whereas the scripts are condensed to 60 pages. He says "anything is possible."
When asked how he would like his masterpiece to end, Martin said that he would like the ending to be like the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy and it will be bittersweet. He said, "I haven't written the ending yet, so I don't know, but no. That's certainly not my intent. I've said before that the tone of the ending that I'm going for is bittersweet. I mean, it's no secret that Tolkien has been a huge influence on me, and I love the way he ended 'Lord of the Rings.' It ends with victory, but it's a bittersweet victory."