George R.R. Martin is releasing a new “Game of Thrones” story this year — but there’s a catch
Fellow fans champing at the bit for more Westeros, we have good news and bad news. George R. R. Martin will release a new Game of Thrones story in 2017, but not ~that~ Game of Thrones story.
You know, the one we’ve been waiting for since the halycon days of summer 2011, when A Dance with Dragons was released and we all felt super fortunate to have both new episodes of GoT and new entries in Martin’s Song of Ice and Fire series to look forward to? The Winds of Winter?
Yeah, not that one.
In a movie Vanity Fair says is evidence that Martin is feeling the heat from the hit HBO series surpassing his source material and scooping his big twists (characters like Stannis Baratheon, the Tyrell children, and Rickon Stark are all still alive in Martin’s books, while Jon Snow and The Hound have not yet been officially resurrected, to name just a couple of examples), the author will release a story from an anthology called Book of Swords in October; “set in the world of A Game of Thrones!”
We don’t yet know what this story will be about, but dedicated fans guess that it will be a Targaryen family-centric titled “The Sons of the Dragon,” as Martin has read pieces from this story at various conventions over the years.
If this is true, then Martin’s latest release should have virtually no influence on what we see on GoT. And since Season 7 is currently filming with every character having moved far past their story line in Martin’s books, it’s easy to imagine the author feeling like he’s lost control of the operation and, as Vanity Fair‘s Joanna Robinson put it, wanting “to grab a little bit of real estate back for himself.”
No matter what, we’re excited for the short story — we just also really hope that Martin can move past his feelings on HBO’s take on his work, and finally deliver Winds of Winter.
The book will likely be very different from what we already watched on HBO last year, sure, and that might be just a little bit weird. But we trust Martin to create an epic, engaging, sprawling story that is totally worth the wait, and can’t wait until the day finally comes when we can read it.
