See that picture of a dying Jon Snow up above these words? He’s confused, wondering what’s happening as he edges ever closer to oblivion. That’s how many readers of A Song of Ice and Fire series feel after George R.R. Martin teased a 2016 release of Winds of Winter, the sixth book in the series now passed up temporally by Game of Thrones. We were supposed to be enjoying the continuing adventures of a series of characters that would surely all meet gruesome fates by now. But then, 2016 happened and GRRM (pronounced ‘Gurrrrrrrrm’) was one-upped by the Red Wedding of years.
Maybe Martin felt the need to one-up 2016’s non-stop slaying of celebrities and he went back to the cruelest drawing board of all — his pleasant home in New Mexico. Or maybe he decided to contribute a new short story set inside the Game of Thrones universe for his friend, Gardner Dozois.
Due out on October 10th (this is guaranteed), the anthology Book of Swords will have “Fifteen original tales celebrating fantasy’s golden age of sword and sorcery.” Maybe we’ll see some familiar faces in this new story from GRRM, or perhaps we’ll meet a new (anti?) hero. All we know for sure is that Winds of Winter is still not done, and Game of Thrones season 7 is on its way.
(Via Polygon)