Warning: Spoilers ahead for the finale ofGame of Thrones.
Winter has come and gone for HBO’s fantasy epicGame of Thrones.
But the Emmy-winning show’s series finale involveddisappointing twists for some viewers (King Bran the Broken?).So, fans are clamoring for an alternate ending for their favorite characters. Specifically,GoTfans can’t wait for details about the last two unpublished books in the seven-part series,A Song of Ice and Fire,on which the show is based.
“I fear that New Zealand would distract me entirely too much,” Martin wrote about the invitation to visit earlier. “Best leave me here in Westeros for the nonce. But I tell you this — if I don’t have THE WINDS OF WINTER in hand when I arrive in New Zealand for worldcon [sic], you have here my formal written permission to imprison me in a small cabin on White Island, overlooking that lake of sulfuric acid, until I’m done. Just so long as the acrid fumes do not screw up my old DOS word processor, I’ll be fine.”
Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic for HBO
Martin released the first book in theASOIAFseries,A Game of Thrones, in 1996. The latest book,A Dance With Dragons, published in 2011. For all of those years, Martin has had to balance the speed of his own writing process and the impatience of his fans.
Here’s everything Martin has said about his novels so far.
The author wanted to completeTheWinds of Winterwell before the show ended.
In January 2016, withGame of Thronesseason 6 approaching,Martin announced on his blog that he wouldn’t meet his deadlineto finishTheWinds of Winter. Though he had written “hundreds of pages,” Martin was far from done. No one was more disappointed than he was, the author wrote.
“Look, I have always had problems with deadlines,” Martin explained. “For whatever reason, I don’t respond well to them.”
“So when you ask me, ‘Will the show spoil the books?’ all I can do is say, ‘Yes and no,’ and mumble once again about the butterfly effect,” he wrote in January 2016. “Those pretty little butterflies have grown into mighty dragons. Some of the ‘spoilers’ you may encounter in season six may not be spoilers at all… because the show and the books have diverged, and will continue to do so.”
Helen Sloan/HBO
Martin has NOT been sitting on finished books.
The author firmly shot down “absurd” media reports that he’s secretly completed the final two books in hisA Song of Ice and Firesaga.
Multiple media outlets reported that actor Ian McElhinney, who played Ser Barristan Selmy onGame of Thronesuntil season 5, told a fan convention that Martin has actually finished writingThe Winds of WinterandA Dream of Spring —but thatGoTshowrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss had made Martin agree to not publish his books until after the HBO series was finished airing. Martin immediately fired back.
“No, THE WINDS OF WINTER and A DREAM OF SPRING are not finished,” Martin wrote on his website. “DREAM is not even begun; I am not going to start writing volume seven until I finish volume six. It seems absurd to me that I need to state this. The world is round, the Earth revolves around the sun, water is wet… do I need to say that too? It boggles me that anyone would believe this story, even for an instant. It makes not a whit of sense.”
The Winds of Winterisn’t finished, but you can still read chapters.
To satisfy his starving readers, Martin hasreleased seven complete chapters fromTheWinds of Winter,according to Vox. The order is not known, but chapters can befound on the author’s website(like“Mercy,”and “Alayne,”). Other chapters have been excerpted in his other books and on iTunes or Google Play. Martin has also read other chapters aloud at events, but hasn’t released the full text, according to the outlet.
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The Winds of WinterandA Dream of Springwill be both similar and different from theGoTshow.
In April 2019, Martinsat down with Anderson Cooper on60 Minutesto discuss the variances between the book and the show. Martin explained that he sat down with the show writers, David Benioff and D. B. Weiss, before they began writing and gave them the “major beats” of the storyline.
The show has been “extremely faithful” to the books, he said in the interview.
“But it’s not completely faithful,” Martin clarified, according to CBS News. “And it can’t be. Otherwise, [the show] would have to run another five seasons.”
“I don’t think Dan and Dave’s ending is gonna be that different from my ending because of the conversations we did have. But they may be on certain secondary characters, there may be big differences. And, yeah, some of the people will have that. There will be a debate, I’m sure,” Martin told Cooper. “I think a lot of people, who– say, ‘Oh, Dan and Dave’s ending is better than the one George gave us. It’s a good thing they changed it.’ And there will be a lot of people who say, ‘No. Dan and Dave got it wrong. George’s ending is better.’ And they will all fight on the internet. And there will be debate.”
He joked: “And that’s fine. I mean, you know, the worst thing for any work of art, be it a movie or a book, is to be ignored.”
The ending of the book series will also be different … kind of.
“How will it all end? I hear people asking,”Martin wrote on his website on Monday. “The same ending as the show? Different?”
Martin answered his own question with, “Well… yes.”
However, after his answer, the author also backpedaled a bit, adding, “And no. And yes. And no. And yes. And no. And yes.”
Martindidpromise that all of the characters in the books that didn’t make it on to the show will receive attention in the upcoming novelsTheWinds of WinterandA Dream of Spring.
“There are characters who never made it onto the screen at all, and others who died in the show but still live in the books,” Martin wrote. “So if nothing else, the readers will learn what happened to Jeyne Poole, Lady Stoneheart, Penny and her pig, Skahaz Shavepate, Arianne Martell, Darkstar, Victarion Greyjoy, Ser Garlan the Gallant, Aegon VI, and a myriad of other characters both great and small that viewers of the show never had the chance to meet. And yes, there will be unicorns… of a sort…”
source: people.com
