A Song of Ice and Fire/Game of Thrones Spoiler-Filled Discussion

I suspect 2016 is the earliest we'll see The Winds of Winter, but that site is pretty clearly just making stuff up.

 

I'm not sure "Korean Drama Stars" is the best source for the Winds of Winter publication date...

 

I completely forgot about The Worlds of Ice and Fire until io9 posted a story about some of the revelations from the book yesterday. I immediately ordered a copy from Amazon and it just shipped today. Hopefully it'll get here by the time I get back from Spain next week.

 

I'm sur it's not, but it was just one of several sites I saw. Doesn't make it 'official', but...

 

Shady "news" sites post stories about The Winds of Winter all the time, because anything related to Game of Thrones will get them pageviews. One of the ones now jumping on the 2016 bandwagon claimed barely a month ago that the book was coming out in February-April 2015, which was already obviously impossible. The only concrete statement anyone in a position to know has made recently was Martin's UK editor reiterating that she thinks next year is very unlikely.

My copy of the world book arrived today. So far I'm up to the end of Aegon III's reign. The text is readable and pretty entertaining, though the parts most radically condensed from Martin's contributions are so dense with names and events that they can be difficult to follow. But that density is a reflection of the intricacy of the worldbuilding, which extends the series' portrait of multiple self-interested factions back into the fictional history. The art is well-done, though it might have looked better if the book was printed on glossier paper.

 

When past book delays can be expressed in decades I think there is really no sense in estimating future publication dates.

Ordered my World on Amazon.ca yesterday, $29 and free shipping, can't beat that.

 

The Hollywood Reporter reveals that most of the main cast, including Harington, Clarke, and Dinklage, have signed new deals with a season 7 option in exchange for hefty raises for that season as well as 5 and 6. Further evidence, if we needed it, that seven seasons and out seems to be the current plan.

 

The pay increases are well deserved. I doubt anyone could have imagine how much of a worldwide hit the show would become before it started.

The producers must be constantly thanking Martin for killing so many of the characters in the books. Helps keep costs down. Can you imagine how much they would be paying Sean Bean if Ned was still alive in season 7?

 

Jon Snow lives!

 

After a fashion, I'm sure.

 

He still knows nothing.

 

He was always going to. I presume Melisandre saves him.

I think there's something to 'R + L = J'.

 

I don't think anyone here believes that Jon is permanently dead. Also, casting contracts are not proof of anyone's plot armor. It's just fun to notice.

 

I expect that the popular fan theory about his parentage is true, what I'm not clear on is how that will be revealed to him and what significance it would have. He'd still be their bastard, after all.

 

Not if they were married before he was born.

 

There's one person alive who witnessed Ned making his promise.

 

Remind me.

 

Bran, looking back through the weirwood net.

No seriously, Howland Reed is alive, presumably, and has not yet been seen in the story.

 

There may be others. There was almost certainly at least one other. Possibly Wylla. She certainly wouldn't have been left to give birth all alone.

 

Good point which gets missed by most people who are counting on Howland to proverbially ride into the story on a white horse and answer everyone's questions.

I on the other hand can see Howland coming into a scene, and then just as he is about to reveal R+L=J, he gets killed. It would be like Alderaan being destroyed all over again, as millions of fanboy voices suddenly cry out.

Then later on Jon, and readers, still find out the truth from some other character who till then has been ignored but was present at the Tower of Joy. Or not, and no one ever knows R+L=J.