‘The Winds of Winter’ Release Date, Spoilers, Characters: Are Pod and Brienne Going to Die in the Sixth Book?

“The Winds of Winter” still hasn’t been completed despite George R.R. Martin’s assurance that the next entry for the “A Song of Ice and Fire” series will come out in late 2018 or early 2019. The award-winning author even said that the sixth book of the installment could see a similar release date to his “Fire and Blood” novel.

But that promise has not transitioned to reality and it’s up in the air when “The Winds of Winter” will come out. The 70-year-old author previously admitted that he finds it difficult to wrap up all the complicated storylines that he’s been cultivating for nearly 30 years, The Guardian reported.

“I’ve been struggling with it for a few years. ‘The Winds of Winter’ is not so much a novel as a dozen novels, each with a different protagonist, each having a different cast of supporting players, antagonists, allies and lovers around them, and all of these weaving together against the march of time in an extremely complex fashion. So it’s very, very challenging. ‘Fire and Blood’ by contrast was very simple. Not that it’s easy – it still took me years to put together – but it is easier,” Martin said.

As for the plot of “The Winds of Winter,” it will follow what occurred in its TV adaptation although there are certain elements that are missing in the show. Among them is the exclusion of Lady Stoneheart, the resurrected version of Catelyn Stark (Michelle Fairley).

In “The Winds of Winter,” Lady Stoneheart will play an integral part in pushing the narrative forward, especially the stories involving the Freys, Brienne (Gwendolyn Christie), and Pod (Daniel Portman). The story of Brienne and Pod ended in a cliffhanger in the fifth book where Stoneheart hanged both of them on the grounds of colluding with the Lannisters.

Indeed, Brienne’s sword – called Oathkeeper – was the very weapon that convinced Stoneheart of this fact. It can be recalled that the elegant sword was made from the melted Valyrian blade of Eddard (Sean Bean), Catelyn’s deceased husband. With the fate of Pod and Brienne still unknown, it’s not surprising that book lovers are still waiting for “The Winds of Winter” to come out.

This is despite the fact that it’s been nearly eight years since Martin announced he’s writing the sixth entry for the award-winning fantasy saga. Hopefully, “The Winds of Winter” delivers hard on its storyline and provide satisfying conclusions to several of its overarching plots.