Weeks before the highly anticipated "Game of Thrones" Season 5 premiered on HBO, George R.R. Martin teased fans with an excerpt from "The Winds of Winter," the next installment in his epic fantasy series "A Song of Ice and Fire."
The best-selling author posted the excerpt from "The Winds of Winter" on his official website earlier this month, prior to the April 12 premiere of the new season of "Game of Thrones," the immensely popular TV adaptation of his series. The sample chapter, entitled "Alayne," is written from Sansa Stark's perspective and mainly focuses on her life in the vale as Alayne Stone, together with Petyr Baelish a.k.a. Littlefinger.
In a recent interview, Martin has expressed his intent to finish the book before "Game of Thrones" Season 6 airs next spring. However, for now fans have to patiently wait for the announcement of "The Winds of Winter" release date, as both Martin and his publisher are yet to give a more definite date.
"I wish it was out now," Martin told Entertainment Weekly. "Maybe I'm being overly optimistic about how quickly I can finish. But I canceled two convention appearances, I'm turning down a lot more interviews -- anything I can do to clear my decks and get this done."
The best-selling author skipped working on GoT's fifth season and won't be writing episodes for the sixth season either in order to focus on completing the novel, according to an article published by the New York Times. In his interview with EW, the "Game of Thrones" writer also shared he just came up with a big, revealing twist on a long-time character that he had never considered before.
"This is going to drive your readers crazy," Martin said, "but I love it. I'm still weighing whether to go that direction or not. It's a great twist."
He said the twist was not something made for the sake of being shocking. "This is something that seems very organic and natural, and I could see how it would happen," Martin stated. "And with the various three, four characters involved... it all makes sense. But it's nothing I've ever thought of before."
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