When the dragons start to fly again on HBO in April, for the first time ever, both book and TV fans of “Game of Thrones” will be on the same blank page of not knowing what is coming up for our favorite characters in Westeros and Essos.
That's because author of the “A Song of Ice and Fire” series, George R.R. Martin, missed his previously declared deadline that the newest installment of the books, “The Winds of Winter,” would be published prior to the airing of the upcoming season on television.
Martin has confessed recently that distractions have been a major cause for the delay of him finishing the next installment of his hugely popular epic fantasy series. And apparently, all those distractions – promotions and interviews for the HBO series, running his own independent movie theater in his home town and free trips to Dubai – have resulted in “The Winds of Winter” being unfinished.
Even Martin himself is not happy with breaking this news as he wrote in a lengthy and heartfelt apology to all his fans on his blog, “Not A Blog.”
He writes that he is first and foremost disappointed at himself for being unable to deliver the book before the last day of 2015. Unfortunately, the book is unlikely to be finished any time soon at that. Although hundreds of pages have already been written and chapter upon chapter has already been charted out, he still has much more to write before he can call it finished up to his standards. That looks like it's still months away.
Martin also acklowledges how much this will impact fans who have been waiting patiently, especially with season six of “Game of Thrones” on the horizon. But as an avid reader and viewer of science fiction and fantasy himself, he assures his fans that even though he has missed his deadlines, he still thinks people can enjoy the books even after the series has spoiled it for them, just as many of the book readers until now have also enjoyed the series despite having known many of the major plot turns from reading the books.
"I never thought the series could possibly catch up with the books, but it has. The show moved faster than I anticipated and I moved more slowly[...] For years my readers have been ahead of the viewers. This year, for some things, the reverse will be true. How you want to handle that... hey, that's up to you. Look, I read Andy Weir's novel THE MARTIAN before I saw the movie. But I saw the BBC production of JONATHAN STRANGE AND MR NORRELL before I finally got around to reading Susanna Clarke's novel. In both cases, I loved the book and I loved the adaptation. It does not need to be one or the other. You might prefer one over the other, but you can still enjoy the hell out of both,” he says in his post.
Although it is unfortunate that we don't have “The Winds of Winter” on bookshelves yet, Martin's truly honest apology was written directly to his faithful fans and comes with an assurance that he only wants to the deliver the best possible work he can, as only true “A Song of Ice And Fire” fans have come to expect from him.
He ends his apology blog with a promise that he is still working on making “The Winds of Winter” as good as he can make it. In the meantime, have fun watching the show and enjoy as the story unfold on the screen.
And maybe let's stop offering him those enticing free trips to Dubai for a few months while we're at it.
