‘The Winds of Winter’ Release Date, Author, Plot: Is the 6th Book Coming Out in 2019?

“The Winds of Winter” has yet to be released and fans are still hoping that George R.R. Martin will finish the sixth book of the “A Song of Ice and Fire” saga sometime next year. This collection of books is the inspiration that birthed the critically acclaimed fantasy series “Game of Thrones.”

The first book of the saga hit the shelves in 1996, with the fifth one having been published back in 2011. Seven years later, the “The Winds of Winter” hasn’t been finished yet and fans of the epic saga are perturbed by Martin’s slow writing.

Some are even speculating that the renowned author might not live long enough to write the last two books of the series. And it’s this very sentiment that Martin himself abhors. In his interview with Swiss newspaper Tages-Anzeiger, the author expressed his distaste for people’s assumption that he will die before finishing the “The Winds of Winter” and “A Dream of Spring.”

“I find that question pretty offensive, people speculating about my death and my health. So fuck you to those people,” Martin said. “A Dream of Spring” will be the conclusion of the epic fantasy collection and will wrap up the overarching plotlines that have pitted the living against the dead. “The Winds of Winter” has already been touched upon by the TV series and its seventh season will also be the end of the fantasy drama.

And this is what fans are vexed with, especially those who have been fans since “A Game of Thrones” first came out more than 20 years ago. For the epic series to end on a TV show and overtake the books themselves is a bitter pill to swallow for some people since most of the time, books are always superior to their television or film adaptations. But being angry at the author will not spur him to write “The Winds of Winter” hastily.

Martin even admitted that when he is finished with “A Dream of Spring,” he’s not going to write any fantasy saga but will stick to standalone novels, novellas, and short stories. The author revealed that writing the series nearly killed him. As such, “A Song of Ice and Fire” will be the most extensive book series that he will have ever written. As for “The Winds of Winter,” it’s still unclear whether or not it will be released anytime soon.

Although Martin said that he’s constantly working on the book, there are other projects he’s involved with that are competing with the completion of “The Winds of Winter.” While anyone can speculate on when the official release of the sixth installment of “A Song of Ice and Fire” will be, only Martin and a few select individuals truly know when the book will be published.