Amazon France posted that George R.R. Martin’s The Winds of Winter — the highly anticipated next entry in the A Song of Ice and Fire book series on which Game of Thrones is based — would be released in March of 2017.
Since this obviously isn’t true, GRRM’s publisher, Random House, offered the following statement to Entertainment Weekly:
“As his publisher, we support George RR Martin as he works hard to finish The Winds of Winter. Any on-sale dates currently listed online for the novel are incorrect. Once we have a publication date for The Winds of Winter, the world will know.”
The erroneously “leaked” Winds of Winter release date had the pleasant virtue of arriving before the next season of Game of Thrones, finally staunching the endless plot point spoiler bloodshed experienced by ardent GRRM readers. Of course, it was all just wishful thinking. We can return to waiting forever.
In case Random House’s statement wasn’t enough, The Winds of Winter’s UK publisher also confirmed the denial, stating, “nothing has been finalized regarding the publication or the date.”
GRRM himself has said he won’t discuss or speculate on the release date again until The Winds of Winter is complete, writing on his blog, “It will be done when it’s done. And it will be as good as I can possibly make it.”
