Game of Thrones may not come back until 2019, but A Song of Ice and Fire is returning with a new book this year. Unfortunately, it still isn’t the story we’ve all been eagerly anticipating for years. But at least it’s something… right?
Image: HBO
George R.R. Martin revealed on his Livejournal that the next book in the A Song of Ice and Fire franchise will be the first half of Fire and Blood, a companion book Martin teased back in July 2017. According to Martin, Fire and Blood will be a compilation of his “fake histories of the Targaryen kings”, with the first volume covering the history of Westeros from Aegon’s Conquest all the way through Aegon III. Most of it will consist of sidebars Martin wrote for The World of Ice and Fire, along with new chapters and expanded notes.
In a series of comments on his post, which talked about this year’s Hugo Awards, Martin said Fire and Blood‘s first volume is nearly finished and has a “planned” 2018 release date. Unfortunately, this means the next official book in the ASoIaF series, The Winds of Winter, is still nowhere to be found. But we do have a better idea of when we should expect it.
According to Martin, The Winds of Winter will come out between the first and second volumes of Fire and Blood. But since he would only confirm a planned 2018 release date for Fire and Blood, we’re guessing this means Winter won’t arrive until 2019 at the earliest.
[via Mashable]