The most recent book in George R.R. Martin‘s A Song of Ice and Fire series, A Dance with Dragons, ends with Jon Snow being stabbed (“for the Watch”), Daenerys encountering a Dothraki horde, and Cersei walking through King’s Landing naked in an attempt to “shame” her. All of those events also happen in season five of Game of Thrones — afterwards, showrunners David Benioff and D. B. Weiss were on their own. We all know what happened next, so it’s wonder Martin had some concerns.
In his new book Tinderbox: HBO’s Ruthless Pursuit of New Frontiers, author James Andrew Miller spoke to Martin’s representative Paul Haas, who said, “George loves Dan and Dave, but after season five, he did start to worry about the path they were [going down] because George knows where the story goes. He started saying, ‘You’re not following my template.’ The first five seasons stuck to George’s roadmap. Then they went off George’s roadmap.” They went off the map, and set it on fire.
Martin (who reportedly begged for 10 seasons of Thrones) has said that “my ending” to the books will be different than the show’s ending. “My biggest issue was when they began that series, I had four books already in print, and the fifth one came out just as the series was starting in 2011,” he told WTTW Chicago. “I had a five-book head start, and these are gigantic books, as you know. I never thought they would catch up with me, but they did. They caught up with me and passed me.”
Martin is hard at work on The Winds of Winter, which is due out… eventually.
(Via Winter is Coming)
