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The Winds of Winter

This article is about the novel. For the episode of the television series, see The Winds of Winter (Game of Thrones). For other topics, see Winter wind.

The Winds of Winter
AuthorGeorge R. R. Martin
LanguageEnglish
SeriesA Song of Ice and Fire
GenreEpic fantasy
PublisherBantam Spectra (US)
Voyager Books (UK)
Publication date
TBD
Publication placeUnited States
Preceded byA Dance with Dragons 
Followed byA Dream of Spring
(planned) 

The Winds of Winter is the planned sixth novel in the epic fantasy series A Song of Ice and Fire by American writer George R. R. Martin. Originally conceived as the conclusion of a trilogy of books, Martin later gave the title to the penultimate book in the series after expanding to six and later seven books in the series.[1]

Following the troubled creation of A Feast for Crows and A Dance with Dragons, originally intended to be one book but split into two volumes due to their length, Martin began The Winds of Winter with a large amount of content that was cut from A Dance with Dragons due to space. While Martin was optimistic that the book's writing would progress significantly faster than earlier books (initially announcing that he hoped to complete the book before the television series eclipsed complete material), it has been similarly troubled. The manuscript is expected to be over 1,500 pages in length.[2] Martin stated in October 2022 that he had completed approximately three quarters of the novel,[3][4] estimating that he had written approximately 1,100 to 1,200 pages, and had roughly 400 to 500 pages left. He gave a similar estimate in November 2023, saying that he was "struggling" with the manuscript.[5] In December 2024, he stated that he might never finish the novel or book series.[6]

Plot

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Martin stated in a 2012 interview that The Winds of Winter and the following book A Dream of Spring will take readers farther north than any of the previous books, and the Others will appear in the book.[7] The previous installment, A Dance with Dragons, covered less story than Martin intended, excluding at least one planned large battle sequence and leaving several character threads ending in cliffhangers.[8] Martin intends to resolve these storylines "very early" in The Winds of Winter, saying "I'm going to open with the two big battles that I was building up to, the battle in the ice and the battle at Meereen—the battle of Slaver's Bay. And then take it from there."[7] A Victarion Greyjoy chapter will begin five minutes after the end of A Dance with Dragons, taking place on the eve of the Ironborn's arrival in Slaver's Bay.[9] Arianne Martell sample chapters that Martin released on his website showed her heading for Griffin's Roost to see the young man who is calling himself Aegon Targaryen.[10] At Guadalajara International Book Fair 2016, Martin gave some clues about the dark nature of The Winds of Winter: "I've been telling you for 20 years that winter was coming. Winter is the time when things die, and cold and ice and darkness fill the world, so this is not going to be the happy feel-good that people may be hoping for. Some of the characters [are] in very dark places. .... Things get worse before they get better, so things are getting worse for a lot of people."[11]

Potential viewpoint characters

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Martin has confirmed that the following characters have perspective chapters in The Winds of Winter:

  • Sansa Stark: One chapter was removed from A Dance with Dragons in June 2010,[12] and one sample chapter titled Alayne appeared on Martin's website in April 2015.[13]
  • Arya Stark: One chapter was removed from A Dance with Dragons in June 2010,[12] and one sample chapter titled Mercy appeared on Martin's website in March 2014.[14][15]
  • Arianne Martell: Two chapters were removed from A Dance with Dragons in June 2010.[12] One sample chapter appeared on Martin's website in January 2013,[10] and was read at Harbour Front Literaturfestival in June 2015.[16] Martin read from both chapters at MystiCon in February 2016.[17] In May 2016, Martin replaced the sample Sansa Stark chapter titled Alayne on his website from 2015 with the first Arianne Martell chapter he has read from at MystiCon.[18]
  • Aeron Greyjoy: One chapter was removed from A Dance with Dragons in July 2010.[19] A chapter titled The Forsaken was read in May 2016 at Balticon. It was written in, or before, 2011 but there was no confirmation that this was the chapter removed from A Dance with Dragons.[20]
  • Theon Greyjoy: One sample chapter appeared on Martin's website in December 2011.[21][22] It also appears as a teaser chapter at the end of the UK paperback edition of A Dance with Dragons (part two).[citation needed]
  • Victarion Greyjoy: Portions of one chapter were first read at TIFF Bell Lightbox in March 2012.[9]
  • Tyrion Lannister: One chapter was read at Eastercon in April 2012,[23] and another one at Worldcon in August 2013,[24] the second of which was later published in the official iOS app on March 20, 2014.[25]
  • Barristan Selmy: One chapter was released as a teaser at the end of the 2013 U.S. paperback edition of A Dance with Dragons.[26] In 2013, Martin read from a second chapter at Boskone.[27]
  • Cersei Lannister[28]
  • Jaime Lannister[28]
  • Brienne of Tarth[28]
  • Areo Hotah[29]
  • Jon Connington[29]
  • Bran Stark[30]

Martin confirmed that some of these previously released chapters have been rewritten.[31]

Martin confirmed that there are no new viewpoint characters intended for The Winds of Winter.[32] He also stated that Samwell Tarly and Asha Greyjoy will appear in the novel, but did not elaborate if as viewpoint characters.[29][28][33][34][35] He has also stated that non-viewpoint characters Lady Stoneheart, Quaithe, Euron Greyjoy and Rickon Stark will appear.[29] He stated that Melisandre will return as viewpoint but did not state which novel her chapters will appear in.[36] He teased at the 2014 San Diego Comic-Con that Jeyne Westerling, Robb Stark's widow, will appear in the prologue chapter, but did not reveal who will be the POV character.[37]

Background

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Structure

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The Winds of Winter[12] was originally intended, in the very early stages of the series, to be the final installment of A Song of Ice and Fire (then conceived as a trilogy).[38] Following his expansion of the series, Martin eventually concluded it would be succeeded by one final novel, A Dream of Spring.[39]

Martin believes the last two volumes of the series will be works of more than 1,500 manuscript pages each.[40][41] He does not intend to separate characters by geography again, as he was forced to do with A Feast for Crows because of the unpublishable length of that novel's original manuscript. But, as he stated in a 2011 interview, "Three years from now when I'm sitting on 1,800 pages of manuscript with no end in sight, who the hell knows".[42] In 2018, he revealed that some of his publishers had suggested splitting The Winds of Winter into two books but that he was "resisting that notion".[43] In 2022, he stated that The Winds of Winter could be bigger than A Storm of Swords or A Dance with Dragons;[44] the manuscript for A Storm of Swords had 1,521 pages[45] and the manuscript for A Dance with Dragons exceeded 1,600 pages before trimming.[46]

Chapters

[edit]

By June 2010, Martin had finished four chapters for The Winds of Winter from the viewpoints of Sansa Stark, Arya Stark, and Arianne Martell.[12] In July 2010, he added an Aeron Greyjoy chapter that had been moved from A Dance with Dragons to The Winds of Winter, accumulating around 100 completed manuscript pages.[19] Following the publication of A Dance with Dragons in July 2011, Martin announced his return to writing the series in January 2012,[8] having spent the intervening time on his U.S. and overseas book publicity tours and attending various conventions.[47]

In December 2011, Martin posted a Theon Greyjoy viewpoint chapter from The Winds of Winter; he also announced that another sample chapter would be included at the end of the North American paperback version of A Dance with Dragons,[7][48] which was originally expected to be released in mid-2012,[7] but was released on October 29, 2013.[49] (International paperback editions of A Dance with Dragons published a year earlier did not include a new, as yet unpublished sample chapter.)[50] In the first quarter of 2012, Martin read new chapters of other characters at public events, including the chapters of Victarion Greyjoy and Tyrion Lannister.[23] Martin continued work editing anthologies and completing a large, highly detailed series atlas The Lands of Ice and Fire, which was published in October 2012.[51][52] Martin published another sample chapter from Arianne Martell's POV on his website in January 2013.[10] On March 27, ten days before the Game of Thrones season four premiere, Martin posted a chapter on his website, titled Mercy. Martin said the new chapter is actually an old one, though never published nor publicly read.[14] In April 2015, Martin posted a Sansa Stark viewpoint chapter from The Winds of Winter titled Alayne.[13] In May 2016, Martin replaced this chapter with an Arianne Martell chapter he had read from at Mysticon.[18]

As of June 2016, a total of 11 chapters from The Winds of Winter had been either read publicly or published as a sample chapter. The point of view characters with released material are Victarion, Aeron, Tyrion, Barristan, Arianne, Theon, Mercy (Arya), and Alayne (Sansa).[53] In 2018, Martin indicated he would not release any more sample chapters.[54] In 2020, Martin indicated he had been revising some of the sample chapters.[55]

References

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  1. ^ Itzkoff, Dave (April 1, 2011). "His Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy: George R. R. Martin Talks 'Game of Thrones'". ArtsBeat. Retrieved April 21, 2025.
  2. ^ "George R. R. Martin Webchat Transcript". Archived from the original on May 15, 2012.
  3. ^ Hibberd, James (October 26, 2022). "George R.R. Martin Says 'The Winds of Winter' Is Now Three-Quarters Finished". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on October 26, 2022. Retrieved October 26, 2022.
  4. ^ Meaden, Max (October 25, 2022). "George R. R. Martin confirms he's 3/4 done with 'Winds of Winter'". The Brag. Archived from the original on October 25, 2022. Retrieved October 26, 2022.
  5. ^ Dinsdale, Ryan (November 20, 2023). "George R.R. Martin Has Written 1,100 Pages of The Winds of Winter, the Same Number as Last Year". IGN. Archived from the original on November 20, 2023. Retrieved November 20, 2023.
  6. ^ Tassi, Paul (December 6, 2024). "13 Years Late, George RR Martin Admits He May Never Finish Winds Of Winter". Forbes. Archived from the original on December 6, 2024. Retrieved December 6, 2024.
  7. ^ a b c d "George R.R. Martin Talks Season Two, 'The Winds of Winter,' and Real-World Influences for 'A Song of Ice and Fire'". SmarterTravel. March 26, 2012. Archived from the original on March 31, 2012. Retrieved March 26, 2012.
  8. ^ a b Hibberd, James (July 22, 2011). "The Fantasy King". Entertainment Weekly. Archived from the original on February 18, 2019. Retrieved December 12, 2018.
  9. ^ a b Martin, George R. R. (2012). In Conversation With... George R.R. Martin on Game of Thrones Part 3 – TIFF Bell Lightbox. TIFF Bell Lightbox. Event occurs at 30:50 min. Archived from the original on April 17, 2017. Retrieved November 30, 2016.
  10. ^ a b c Martin, George R. R. (January 27, 2013). "Arianne". George R. R. Martin. Archived from the original on March 29, 2013.
  11. ^ Gettell, Oliver (December 6, 2016). "George RR Martin on Winds of Winter: Things are getting worse". Entertainment Weekly. Time Inc. Archived from the original on December 23, 2016. Retrieved December 21, 2016. Watch Martin's full Q&A above.
  12. ^ a b c d e Martin, George R. R. (June 27, 2010). "Dancing in Circles". grrm.livejournal.com. Archived from the original on March 18, 2012. Retrieved February 4, 2012.
  13. ^ a b "Excerpt from the Winds of Winter – George R.R. Martin". georgerrmartin.com. Archived from the original on April 2, 2015. Retrieved October 4, 2022.
  14. ^ a b Tierney, H.L. "'Winds Of Winter' Chapter — George RR Martin Releases 'Game Of Thrones' Excerpt – Hollywood Life". Hollywood Life. Archived from the original on March 28, 2014. Retrieved March 28, 2014.
  15. ^ "The Winds of Winter: Mercy". georgerrmartin.com. Archived from the original on March 27, 2014. Retrieved March 26, 2014.
  16. ^ Martin, George R. R. (2015). George R. R. Martin reads TWoW Arianne @ Harbour Front Literaturfestival 2015 Archived February 8, 2017, at the Wayback Machine
  17. ^ "George R.R. Martin Reads Winds of Winter Chapters At Mysticon". Winter is Coming. February 28, 2016. Archived from the original on February 29, 2016. Retrieved February 28, 2016.
  18. ^ a b Martin, George R.R. (May 10, 2016). "A Taste of This, A Taste of That". Not a Blog. Archived from the original on May 11, 2016.
  19. ^ a b Martin, George R. R. (July 31, 2010). "Dancing". grrm.livejournal.com. Archived from the original on March 18, 2012. Retrieved February 4, 2012.
  20. ^ "6 Things We Learned From the New Winds of Winter Chapter". May 31, 2016. Archived from the original on October 10, 2019. Retrieved February 18, 2020.
  21. ^ "The Winds of Winter: Theon Chapter". georgerrmartin.com. Archived from the original on June 21, 2012. Retrieved January 8, 2012.
  22. ^ Sacks, Ethan (December 30, 2011). "George R.R. Martin surprises Song of Ice and Fire fans with free chapter of next book". Daily News. New York. Archived from the original on March 7, 2012. Retrieved January 21, 2012.
  23. ^ a b "EasterCon – Eat, Drink and talk SFF!". harpervoyagerbooks.com. April 10, 2012. Archived from the original on April 16, 2012. Retrieved April 11, 2012.
  24. ^ Schwartz, Terry (February 26, 2014). "Winds of Winter: Read a new excerpt from George R.R. Martin's next Game of Thrones novel". Zap2it. Archived from the original on July 15, 2014. Retrieved July 15, 2014.
  25. ^ "New Winds of Winter Chapter Coming Out Today". Tor.com. March 20, 2014. Archived from the original on July 15, 2014. Retrieved July 15, 2014.
  26. ^ Martin, George R. R. (October 29, 2013). "The Dragons Are Here". grrm.livejournal.com. Archived from the original on December 27, 2014. Retrieved November 2, 2013.
  27. ^ "How Much of George R. R. Martin's The Winds of Winter is Out So Far?". March 27, 2014. Archived from the original on June 5, 2016. Retrieved June 6, 2016.
  28. ^ a b c d "Good Stuff, Bad Stuff, Strange Stuff". Not a Blog. Archived from the original on June 23, 2022. Retrieved July 9, 2022.
  29. ^ a b c d "A Winter Garden". Not a Blog. Archived from the original on July 9, 2022. Retrieved July 9, 2022.
  30. ^ George R. R. Martin Answers Fan Questions, October 28, 2022, retrieved October 29, 2022
  31. ^ Martin, George R. R. "Back to Westeros". Not a Blog.
  32. ^ Martin, George R. R. (May 10, 2016). "A Taste of This, A Taste of That". Not A Blog. Archived from the original on January 14, 2017. Retrieved November 25, 2016.
  33. ^ "'Game of Thrones' Author George R.R. Martin Posts About Being 'Back in Westeros' After WorldCon Controversy". Entertainment. August 15, 2020. Archived from the original on September 29, 2020. Retrieved August 16, 2020.
  34. ^ "Conventions and Cancellations". Not A Blog. April 1, 2015. Archived from the original on May 11, 2017. Retrieved January 21, 2017.
  35. ^ "George R.R. Martin hopes 'The Winds of Winter' will be released in 2021: 'A huge book'". EW.com. Archived from the original on July 18, 2020. Retrieved July 22, 2020.
  36. ^ JUEGOS DE TRONOS de George R.R Martin en la FIL de Guadalajara 2016 Archived December 6, 2016, at the Wayback Machine Event occurs at 27:22
  37. ^ "George R.R. Martin teases the 'The Winds of Winter' at SDCC". Hypable. July 28, 2014. Archived from the original on November 5, 2015. Retrieved November 11, 2019.
  38. ^ Brown, Rachael (July 11, 2011). "George R.R. Martin on Sex, Fantasy, and A Dance With Dragons". theatlantic.com. Archived from the original on September 1, 2013. Retrieved February 2, 2012.
  39. ^ Gevers, Nick (December 2000). "Sunsets of High Renown – An Interview with George R. R. Martin". Infinity Plus. Archived from the original on March 15, 2012. Retrieved January 21, 2012. (Interview approved by GRRM Archived February 4, 2012, at the Wayback Machine.)
  40. ^ Martin, George R.R. (May 20, 2019). "An Ending" Archived May 21, 2019, at the Wayback Machine. Not A Blog.
  41. ^ Wilken, Selina (April 23, 2012). "'Game of Thrones' author George R.R. Martin: 'Stark is my favourite House'". Hypable. Archived from the original on September 29, 2016. Retrieved June 9, 2019.
  42. ^ Hibberd, James (July 12, 2011). "EW interview: George R.R. Martin talks A Dance With Dragons". Entertainment Weekly. Archived from the original on January 18, 2012. Retrieved January 21, 2012.
  43. ^ "FIRE & BLOOD : On The Way". georgerrmartin.com. Not A Blog. Archived from the original on April 25, 2018. Retrieved April 25, 2018.
  44. ^ "Random Bits of This and That |". Not A Blog. Archived from the original on April 29, 2022. Retrieved April 30, 2022.
  45. ^ Martin, George R. R. (October 6, 2009). "Not A Blog: Dance, Dance, Dance". GRRM.Livejournal.com (Author's LiveJournal blog). Archived from the original on December 28, 2009. Retrieved March 4, 2010.
  46. ^ "KONG". Not A Blog. March 27, 2011. Archived from the original on November 28, 2012. Retrieved June 30, 2011.
  47. ^ Harte, Bryant (July 12, 2011). "An Interview with George R. R. Martin, Part I". indigo.ca. Archived from the original on April 20, 2012. Retrieved February 15, 2012.
  48. ^ Kepler, Adam W. (January 1, 2012). "'Game of Thrones' Treat". The New York Times. Archived from the original on April 6, 2015. Retrieved January 2, 2012.
  49. ^ "A Dance with Dragons by George R. R. Martin". Random House. Archived from the original on January 26, 2013. Retrieved February 16, 2013.
  50. ^ "A Dance with Dragons: A Song of Ice and Fire: Book Five". amazon.de. Archived from the original on November 6, 2015. Retrieved February 9, 2012.
  51. ^ Martin, George R.R (April 8, 2012). George R.R. Martin Interview. Eastercon. Event occurs at 58:00. Archived from the original on April 12, 2012. Retrieved April 12, 2012.
  52. ^ "The Lands of Ice and Fire (A Game of Thrones)". randomhouse.ca. Archived from the original on July 23, 2012. Retrieved April 20, 2012.
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  54. ^ "FIRE & BLOOD : On The Way". georgerrmartin.com. Not A Blog. Archived from the original on April 25, 2018. Retrieved April 25, 2018.
  55. ^ "Back to Westeros &#124". Not A Blog. Archived from the original on November 9, 2020. Retrieved November 10, 2020.
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