Perhaps too aware of the negative reception of the final episode of game of Thrones – although “negative” would be to put it mildly – George RR Martin has decided to put fans’ concerns to rest by revealing that his vision for the rest of A song of ice and fire is rapidly moving away from the show’s history.
The last time we read a game of Thrones book, Jon Snow had just been betrayed and apparently killed by his brothers at Castle Black. That essentially means the winter windsthe upcoming sixth novel in the series, it will pick up things from season 6, which also marked the live-action series’ nosedive in terms of quality.
But if you’re worried that the book series will end the same way as the show, making reading a pretty fruitless rote exercise, Martin just took to his personal blog to address those concerns. According to the author, he really can’t give you a precise answer as he is not an “architect”, a storyteller who designs everything from start to finish and then starts writing it down.
He describes himself more as a “gardener”, constantly reviewing and changing things as his stories “grow and evolve”. That said, Martin is pretty sure his job will be “pretty different” from HBO’s. game of Thrones.
“What I’ve noticed more and more lately, though, is that my gardening is taking me further and further away from the TV series. Yeah, some of the stuff you saw on HBO in game of Thrones you will also see in the winter windsbut much of the rest will be quite different,” he wrote.
Giving fans one last ominous tease, Martin further adds that not every character who lived game of Thrones he’s going to do the same thing in the book series, and vice versa.
“One thing I can say, in general enough terms not to spoil anything: Not all of the characters that survived to the end of game of Thrones will survive to the end of A song of ice and fireand not all the characters who died in game of Thrones will die in A song of ice and fire.”
However, there is still no luck on a possible release date. I am sorry, game of Thrones fans, but his watch is ticking for the time being.
