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New year! No new book.
“Game of Thrones” author George R.R. Martin says he isn’t finished with “The Winds of Winter,” the sixth book in his series — which means it won’t be published before the sixth season of HBO’s version of “Game of Thrones” premieres in April.
“You’re disappointed, and you’re not alone. My editors and publishers are disappointed, HBO is disappointed, my agents and foreign publishers and translators are disappointed … but no one could possibly be more disappointed than me,” Martin wrote on a blog post this morning.
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The development isn’t that surprising to people who have been following Martin’s very slow writing pace, but it will still disappoint the kind of person who wants to read “Game of Thrones” before watching “Game of Thrones.” It also means that “Game of Thrones,” the TV show, may end up “spoiling” “Game of Thrones,” the book series, which is a novel and meta idea.
This is nbd for HBO, whose hit series has already diverged from Martin’s books. In fact, it’s probably not a bad thing, as it gives people a reason to talk about its most popular franchise. “Game of Thrones.” “Game of Thrones.” “Game of Thrones.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IxI8aPISq8I
Meanwhile, even if you’re not a giant “Game of Thrones”/“A Song of Ice and Fire” fan, you may want to check out Martin’s rambling apology/update, which gives you a little insight into what it’s like it be George R.R. Martin (tl;dr: Kind of great, because people love the thing you’ve made, and kind of awful, because people want more of the thing you’ve made and you’re under enormous pressure — much of it but not of all of it self-imposed — not to disappoint them).
This article originally appeared on Recode.net.
