One thing about George R.R. Martin you can’t dispute is that he enjoys writing in-depth material for his fans. Now, the Game of Thrones author is promising a Westeros book in 2018 with a possible second.
After previously indicating that The Winds of Winter, the next book in his A Song of Ice and Fire saga, might be finished and released this year, Martin gave fans an update on the highly-anticipated novel.
“I am still working on it, I am still months away, I still have good days and bad days, and that’s all I care to say,” Martin wrote. “Whether Winds or the first volume of Fire and Blood will be the first to hit the bookstores is hard to say at this juncture, but I do think you will have a Westeros book from me in 2018… and who knows, maybe two. A boy can dream…”
Depending on how you feel about the series, you may be itching for Martin to complete that series rather than extending his attention to other novels. It has been six years since the fifth book, A Dance with Dragons hit bookshelves in the summer of 2011, and fans are getting antsy.
Regarding the release of Winds of Winter, Martin shot down rumors about the reason for its delay.
“I’ve seen some truly weird reports about WOW on the internet of late, by ‘journalists’ who make their stories up out of whole cloth,” he said. “I don’t know which story is more absurd, the one that says the book is finished and I’ve been sitting on it for some nefarious reason, or the one that says I have no pages. Both ‘reports’ are equally false and equally moronic.”
Martin also plugged two other books with “Thrones” connections. “The Book of Swords” is a new fantasy anthology that includes a new story by Martin called “The Sons of the Dragon.”
The story is “a chronicle of the reigns of Aegon the Conquerer’s two sons, Aenys I Targaryen and Maegor the Cruel, for those who cannot get enough of my entirely fake histories of Westeros.” He adds, “that one has never been published before in any form, though I did read it at a couple of cons.”
Martin’s best-selling book series “A Song of Ice and Fire” is brought to the screen as HBO sinks its considerable storytelling teeth into the medieval fantasy epic. It’s the depiction of two powerful families — kings and queens, knights and renegades, liars and honest men — playing a deadly game for control of the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros, and to sit atop the Iron Throne. Martin is credited as a co-executive producer and one of the writers for the series, which was filmed in Northern Ireland and Malta.
The HBO show has already overtaken the books, and is expected to conclude with an eighth season sometime in 2018 or 2019.
What do you think about the possibility of two Westeros books? Are you hoping that Martin finishes the Game of Thrones series first? Let us know in the comments section.
Photo Credit: HBO