According to the comments from the publishers and from the author, George RR Martin, himself, "The Winds of Winter," the sixth book of 'A Song of Ice and Fire' series might not be published this year.
Reportedly, there are no current plans publishing the latest volume of the series because of its length and complexity. Publisher, Jane Johnson of Harper Collins, explained that the book needs "an immense amount of concentration to write." Thus, no release date was announced as of now.
Recently, Martin explained his side on the scheduling issues of the book through his official blog. He said, "I certainly hope that 'The Winds of Winter' is not on the schedule of ANY of my publishers. I have spent years trying to persuade them all not to schedule my books until they are completed and delivered. Scheduling, and then having to reschedule and postpone, just pisses people off. I'd rather not schedule at all until the date is real and certain."
Martin didn't mentioned further developments of his book to when he would probably expect it to be finished. However, he just said that he will just announce if it's really done. He cited, "When it is done, I will say that's it is done, on whatever day I happen to finish." One report mentioned that he wants every one to stop pressuring him though he appreciated that a lot are anticipating to his upcoming novel. Yet, he ever disliked to have a structured way to write his books such as writing an outline.
The previous installments took around six years before Martin finished all of them. Thus, the last books were estimated to have around fifteen hundred pages each. So, he is expecting the with the last two series, he can manage to finish them a bit faster than the previous.
Since fans cannot have the desired information about the deeper details about the book, they should be contented to the posted excerpts of the book.
Previously, it was also reported that Martin originally had the "Game of Thrones" series as a trilogy. According to the reports, in 1993, he wrote a 3-page outline containing all the plots of the series before it was published. However, with the outline, there were particular scenes deleted which really didn't ended up occuring in the published books and show as well since the trilogy ended up with five.
In his letter addressed to the late Ralph Vicinanza, his agent, he cited the disturbing love triangle which wasn't really included in the final cut. He told him, "The high fantasy novel I promised you ... When completed, this will be the first volume in what I see as an epic trilogy with the overall title, A Song of Ice and Fire."
He added, "Roughly speaking, there are three major conflicts set in motion in the chapter enclosed. These will form the major plot threads of the trilogy, [unclear] each other in what should be a complex but exciting (I hope [unclear] tapestry. Each of the [unclear] presents a major threat [unclear] of my imaginary realm, the Seven Kjingdoms, and to the live [unclear] principal characters." The unclear meant that in the 22-year old letter, the typewritten letters were already unreadable.
Meanwhile, Martin could include a lot of twists to the upcoming book title. Based from the existing reports, he has already plotted the possible twists and turns. However, it was said that the book will begin with a lot of battles since the previous ended with a cliff-hanger.
From the excerpts of the book, it was stated, "She woke up with a gasp, no knowing who she was, or where... The smell of blood was heavy in her nostrils - or was that her nightmare, lingering? She had dreamed of wolves again, of running through some dark pine forest with a great pack at her hells, hard on the scent of prey."
Amid high-anticipation with the "The Winds of Winter," sixth book of the book series, will it be possible for Martin to set plot by returning to the original storyline he had thought 22-years ago for "Game of Thrones?"
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