Fans of George R. R. Martin’s book series, A Song of Ice and Fire, have long been waiting for the sixth book, The Winds of Winter.
The author has already given many updates regarding when it may drop. However, the author continues to plow away at it, and it is still currently unfinished.
To make matters worse, book six is the second last time in the series, and A Dream of Spring is, well, just that, a dream. It is unclear exactly when readers will be able to find out how this series concludes.
But for readers who are also fans of HBO’s TV show, Game of Thrones, it seems that they can expect a very different ending to what they saw on TV.
George R. R. Martin gives book update
Martin likes to give regular updates via his blog, and, recently, he teased readers with what they can expect to find in the final two installments in the A Song of Ice and Fire series.
In the post, the author likened writing to gardening and discussed how things change over time from what he initially expected when tending to his manuscript.
“What I have noticed more and more of late, however, is my gardening is taking me further and further away from the television series,” Martin wrote.
“Yes, some of the things you saw on HBO in Game of Thrones you will also see in The Winds of Winter (though maybe not in quite the same ways)… but much of the rest will be quite different.”
Author promises a different ending from the TV show
Many fans were not impressed with how Game of Thrones concluded on HBO. There was a discussion that the final season was much too rushed compared to the start of the TV show.
In addition, many viewers complained about certain storylines, most notably Daenerys Targaryen’s.
The argument could be had that Daenerys definitely was going to wind up exploding like she did thanks to her Targaryen inbreeding and that the storyline would have made more sense had there been enough time to draw this out.
As for who wound up ruling Westeros in the end, many say it was certainly an unexpected result.
With all this in mind, Martin may have decided to change the ending of his book series after the backlash from fans. But the author insists that it has more to do with the fact that there are many more characters in A Song of Ice and Fire, which accounts for some of the changes.
He also stated that characters who survived the TV show might not do so in his books.
“One thing I can say, in general enough terms that I will not be spoiling anything: not all of the characters who survived until the end of Game of Thrones will survive until the end of A Song of Ice and Fire,” Martin wrote.
“And not all of the characters who died on Game of Thrones will die in A Song of Ice and Fire. (Some will, sure. Of course. Maybe most. But definitely not all.) ((Of course, I could change my mind again next week, with the next chapter I write. That’s gardening)). And the ending? You will need to wait until I get there. Some things will be the same. A lot will not.”
Of course, readers will just have to continue waiting to find out the characters’ fates for certain, and George R. R. Martin has not given any indication yet of when he might be finished with The Winds of Winter.
Fans of A Song of Ice and Fire can check out HBO’s complete Game of Thrones TV series based on the books.