George R.R. Martin’s Deadline For GoT Book 6 Doesn’t Exist — ‘Game Of Thrones’ Season 6 Release Date Affected? [Spoilers]
George R.R. Martin’s deadline for Book 6 of the series, Winds Of Winter, has been missed. Yes, to the groans and disappointment of many a fan, winter is not coming soon in 2016. This announcement was made on Martin’s blog on the second day of the new year, but it gets even worse since Martin admits that he has many chapters left to complete. But TV fans will probably just want to know: is the Game Of Thrones Season 6 release date affected at all?
In a related report by the Inquisitr, Game Of Thrones Season 6 spoilers and theories are actually painting interesting connections between GoT and Star Wars. Speaking of comparisons, author Terry Brooks also bashed Game Of Thrones when he was asked about the similarities to The Elfstones Of Shannara TV series.
The good news, or the bad news, depending on how you look at it, is that George R.R. Martin’s deadline will not affect the upcoming seasons at all. It is very likely that Game Of Thrones Season 8 will be finished, and the story complete, before Martin ever finishes typing out the last sentence on his 80s-style computer.
“The show is moving forward like a locomotive, or sometimes a jet locomotive,” Martin said back in August of 2015. “They’re writing 60-page scripts, I’m writing 1,500-page novels… There was a period where I was worried about that. Then I said, to hell with that. Worrying about it isn’t going to change it one way or another … I’m just going to tell my story, and they’re telling their story and adapting my books, and we shall see.”
To a certain extent, the book’s deadline does have an affect on the story divergence between the TV series and the written version. Martin says he is definitely planning on going a different direction, and he already revealed that a character, Princess Arianne of Dorne, does not even come into the TV series version at all. At the same time, this type of difference is not unexpected, since the TV series introduced two new characters, even in Season 1.
“Just consider. Mago, Irri, Rakharo, Xaro Xhoan Daxos, Pyat Pree, Pyp, Grenn, Ser Barristan Selmy, Queen Selyse, Princess Shireen, Princess Myrcella, Mance Rayder, and King Stannis are all dead in the show, alive in the books. Some of them will die in the books as well, yes… but not all of them, and some may die at different times in different ways. Balon Greyjoy, on the flip side, is dead in the books, alive on the show. His brothers Euron Crow’s Eye and Victarion have not yet been introduced (will they appear? I ain’t saying). Meanwhile Jhiqui, Aggo, Jhogo, Jeyne Poole, Dalla (and her child) and her sister Val, Princess Arianne Martell, Prince Quentyn Martell, Willas Tyrell, Ser Garlan the Gallant, Lord Wyman Manderly, the Shavepate, the Green Grace, Brown Ben Plumm, the Tattered Prince, Pretty Meris, Bloodbeard, Griff and Young Griff, and many more have never been part of the show, yet remain characters in the books.”
As for the Winds Of Winter release date, George R.R. Martin’s blog admits that this is a tricky question.
“[T]he book’s not done. Nor is it likely to be finished tomorrow, or next week. Yes, there’s a lot written. Hundreds of pages. Dozens of chapters. (Those ‘no pages done’ reports were insane, the usual garbage internet journalism that I have learned to despise). But there’s also a lot still left to write. I am months away still… and that’s if the writing goes well. (Sometimes it does. Sometimes it doesn’t.) Chapters still to write, of course… but also rewriting. I always do a lot of rewriting, sometimes just polishing, sometimes pretty major restructures.”
Martin reveals that he had hoped the Game of Thrones Book 6 release date could have been set for the end of March, 2016. The plan was to have Book 6 of the series come out shortly before the Game Of Thrones Season 6 release date, which is set for April by HBO. Unfortunately, this plan required meeting the first deadline, which turned out to be Halloween of 2015.
Martin says his editors and publishers took the bad news with “surprising equanimity,” but he also admits, “Maybe they knew it before I did.” But then they revealed that Book 6 could make the March, 2016, publishing timeframe, assuming Martin could finish before the New Year’s Eve ball dropped.
As for his current writing pace, Martin also blogged that he does not like to feel rushed to the deadline like a news journalist.
“Look, I have always had problems with deadlines. For whatever reason, I don’t respond well to them… No contracts, no deadlines, no one waiting. Write at my own pace and deliver when I’m done. That’s really how I am most comfortable, even now,” he wrote.
In the end, George R.R. Martin’s deadline for Book 6 now no longer exists. Martin says he won’t set another deadline for himself to “trip over,” and now he says, “It will be done when it’s done.”
