It’s spring again in real life, but in Westeros, the seasons are lasting as long as ever, and winter is taking its sweet time to arrive. Winds of Winter is now almost six years in the making, longer than that if you count parts of it that were written even earlier, and there’s no sign it will be done imminently. George R. R. Martin says it’ll be done and published this year; he also thought that last year, and the year before, so maybe he’s not the one to ask. One thing’s for darn sure, though: By the time Winds of Winter actually comes out, you’re going to have to reread the whole darn series to get caught up.
Winds of Winter Release Date: Winters Sure Can Last A Lifetime
Folk science has it that our bodies and our brains entirely replace themselves every seven years. If that’s true, and you read Dance with Dragons when it came out in 2011, that means you’ll probably never read Winds of Winter. A new and different version of yourself will instead; that’s how long you will have been waiting. A new version of George R. R. Martin is writing it, probably while riding in Theseus’ ship.
Point is, it’s been a long time. And there have been several seasons of Game of Thrones since the last book came out—namely, all of them. And the last few haven’t followed the books very closely at all; the newest one went well beyond them. If you’ve been watching the show, it’s hard to remember the exact details of what happened in the books. And A Song of Ice and Fire is incredibly detailed.
Here’s a quick quiz. Do you remember the letter Robb Stark sent North before the Red Wedding, and its current whereabouts? Do you remember who Moqorro is and what his motivation is? What about Marwyn? What’s going on with Mance Rayder’s baby, and what are the current power centers in Dorne? Which Northern houses still are loyal to the Starks, and when is it ambiguous? These are all critically important questions, and not very obscure, but if you don’t know the answer to them, you’re going to need to brush up.
The sheer detail of A Song of Ice and Fire is what made it such a compelling series. But as the long years have elapsed, memory fades, and the finer details with it, for all but the biggest super-fans. If you’re serious about the Game of Thrones series, you’re just going to have to reread all the books—or at least the last two—when the Winds of Winter release date finally rolls around. It’s a lengthy task—but a very enjoyable one. And here I am, giving you a good excuse to do it.
