George R. R. Martin "Winds of Winter" Excerpt

[Suttree]

http://georgerrmartin.com/if-sample.html

 

Sweet preview of a chapter from Winds of Winter. We are back in Dorne. Discuss.

[peacesells]

When is is due out?

[Suttree]

Don't think there is a release date for the actual book yet. Martin typically releases 3-4 of these chapters before he is finished and this is the first of those.

[Rufae]

Actually, the first one was of Theon in shackles. This is new though.

[Suttree]

Actually, the first one was of Theon in shackles. This is new though.

Thanks Sam! Had forgotten about that...

[Justin Bassett]

When is is due out?

Probably in about 7yrs, at the rate he gets things done...I swear, I'm afraid that 'Ice and Fire' will suffer the same fate as the WOT series...

[Rufae]

I think about 8 chapters of Winds of Winter were already written when Dance of Dragons came out. They were cuts from DoD and moved to the new book. Hopefully that would speed him along. 

 

WIth the tv series, that could speed him up because of the urgency to stay ahead of the show.Or slow him down because of the time involvement he has with the tvshow.

[MattTaz]

GRRM did a reading of this chapter about a year ago, I think it was one of the completed chapters from ADWD.

I've seen him doing an interview at some football game where he said he hopes to finish this series in 10 years.

Dont hold your breath with this guy,

[Werthead]

TWoW will be, like ASoS and ADWD, about 1,500 pages long in manuscript (which translates to about 900-930 pages in hardcover, or circa 400-420,000 words) according to GRRM. As of his last statement on what he had done, which is about four or five months old now, he had 400 manuscript pages completed for TWoW, about half of which were hold-overs from ADWD. He's been working primarily on TWoW for most of the last few months, but has made no statement on his progress. At this (relatively) early stage in writing a novel, GRRM rarely discusses what's going on with it in depth. As he gets nearer the end he feels more confident about talking about completed page counts and so on.

 

My realistic expectation is that TWoW will be out by Christmas 2015. It it's any earlier than that - certainly any earlier than 2015 - that will be a pleasant surprise.

 

More succinctly, GRRM currently has about a quarter of the novel done.

[Red2111]

hmm, Wert i can't see HBO being okay witht he book comming out in 2015. he's got to be getting massive pressure to finish the series at a quicker rate from that studio and because of this i dont think we have to worry about it not being finished or hime taking 6 years to finish a single book.

[Darksmoon]

Other possibities include the TV series not getting finished or they make 2 seasons per book to slow down and give him more time.

[BFG]

I thought their were rumors that the TV show was going to end after Storm?  This was a couple of years back, maybe it's proved successful enough to go the whole way? 

 

Surely Storms has to be 2 series? that would mean another 3 years before they start working on WoW and 4 before aDoS(?), So that's another 4 years to finish and publish Wolves, and write a rough draft of Dream(not sure what the title's going to be, but the last I heard it was Dream of Spring?), editing of book 7 could occur at the same time as the series being produced and maybe being released at a similar time.  I imagine that Wolves will take the most time and Dream will be faster, as it sounds like a lot of the problems writing it at the moment are because the characters are all so far apart, but they have to start heading back together in Wolves...

 

On the excerpt - I really liked it, thanks for bringing it up Sutt, I was starting to think the tab was broken it had been on Theon for so long

[hotpocket2006]

From what I have heard, they are splitting books 3, 4, and 5 into two seasons for the show. So that'll give George some time.

 

 

I loved the excerpt. I am very intrigued by this storyline and Arianne.

[Agitel]

Book three is being split into two seasons. They've also said that at this point they may need to rework the chronology of some things for the show. Even if they weren't, I'd imagine that they'd at least dip into Feast and Dance by the end of season four. For those who haven't read the books, The fourth and fifth books in the series parallel each other chronologically for the most part.

[Werthead]

 

 

hmm, Wert i can't see HBO being okay witht he book comming out in 2015. he's got to be getting massive pressure to finish the series at a quicker rate from that studio and because of this i dont think we have to worry about it not being finished or hime taking 6 years to finish a single book.

 

 

There is no pressure form HBO to get the book done in any kind of timeframe. Either it'll be done and they can adapt it directly, or it won't be and they'll work from the outlines and notes that GRRM has already provided. Regardless of whether TWoW comes out in 2015 or earlier, however, there is almost certainly no way that Book 7 (or later books, if the series expands) will be done by the time they need it, so barring cancellation the HBO show will overtake the books before they are done.

 

 

Other possibities include the TV series not getting finished or they make 2 seasons per book to slow down and give him more time.

 

The TV show will be finished as long as the ratings, foreign sales and DVD/Blu-Ray sales warrant it.

 

 

I thought their were rumors that the TV show was going to end after Storm?  This was a couple of years back, maybe it's proved successful enough to go the whole way? 

 

No. You may be thinking of the fact that the producers have said they were looking forwards to getting to Season 3 to do the 'RW' scene, but they've always taken the view that they want to do the whole story.

 

 

Surely Storms has to be 2 series? that would mean another 3 years before they start working on WoW and 4 before aDoS(?), So that's another 4 years to finish and publish Wolves, and write a rough draft of Dream(not sure what the title's going to be, but the last I heard it was Dream of Spring?), editing of book 7 could occur at the same time as the series being produced and maybe being released at a similar time.  I imagine that Wolves will take the most time and Dream will be faster, as it sounds like a lot of the problems writing it at the moment are because the characters are all so far apart, but they have to start heading back together in Wolves...

 

 

The current timeline is:

 

Season 3: The first two-thirds or so of ASoS. Filmed in 2012 to air in 2013.

Season 4: The last third or so of ASoS and some stuff from the start of AFFC/ADWD. Filming in 2013 to air in 2014.

Season 5: A large chunk of AFFC/ADWD. Filming in 2014 to air in 2015.

Season 6: The remainder of AFFC/ADWD and possibly a large chunk of TWoW. Filming in 2015 to air in 2016.

Season 7: The remainder of TWoW. Filming in 2016 to air in 2017.

Season 8: The first half of ADoS, filming in 2017 to air in 2018.

Season 9: The remainder of ADoS, filming in 2018 to air in 2019.

 

Even publishing TWoW at the end of 2015 is still 'okay', although HBO would need access to the MS a good six months or so earlier, which shouldn't be a problem. However, GRRM has then only got 2-2.5 years to get ADoS out to beat HBO to the punch, which I think is extremely unrealistic.

 

In theory HBO could use an additional season to cover TWoW, but the producers have said that they think the series can only go 8-9 seasons maximum, and that's being rather optimistic. In other interviews they've said it might only go seven seasons. In which case they'll trim out a lot of subplots and characters and bring the main storyline to a close much earlier, working from GRRM's notes.

[he who comes with a bong]

I may have to read these books again although i though tthey were a very slow read. (even slower that a few of the middle WOT books). But it does look like i have time to do it hahahahah.

[Rufae]

I wonder what the chances are of the TV series getting one ending loosely based upon GRRMs notes and another completely different "Official Ending" via the books?

[Werthead]

I wonder what the chances are of the TV series getting one ending loosely based upon GRRMs notes and another completely different "Official Ending" via the books?

 

As of right now, I would say better than it not happening. I'd rate the chances of HBO finishing the story before GRRM at around 60%.

[SBoydW]

Well isn't GRRM consulting the series? Couldn't he tell them how he envisons it ending so that the book and series match?

[Werthead]

Well isn't GRRM consulting the series? Couldn't he tell them how he envisons it ending so that the book and series match?

 

Yes, absolutely. There's also no reason that GRRM couldn't, for example, write the very last episode of the series in that case. However, the TV series has many less characters and a lot less subplots than the books. Whilst we might get a bare bones version of the ending on TV, the ending in the books will be more complex because there's a lot more to wrap up, even if it happens years later.

[Pralaya]

One more chapter released. Don't think the book is anywhere close to being complete :D

 

http://www.georgerrmartin.com/excerpt-from-the-winds-of-winter/

[Pralaya]

So, that was a pretty good chapter. It is titled "Mercy"

 

 

 

It does not get the story forward though. I like the fact that Martin completely makes it such that Arya believes that she is Mercy, as if she is changing her face and personality both. Even facts such that she doesn't understand Westeros language and such. Good closure for  Raff the Sweetling though.

 

 

[Werthead]

Interesting comment by GRRM on his blog: so far TWoW has not required anything even approaching the amount of rewriting needed on AFFC and ADWD. So when GRRM works on TWoW, that means he's getting the plot forwards and writing new material, not endlessly revising old stuff.

Encouraging. Although he still doesn't make any comments on how far along he is

[WWWwombat]

I have a feeling he'll beat HBO by a nose.