George R.R. Martin teases more deaths, betrayals, and marriages in The Winds of Winter

Fans of George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series have been eagerly awaiting the next installment for nearly three years. Although there has been a lot of speculation about Game of Thrones catching up to it’s written counterpart, news about the upcoming book has been few and far between. Martin usually does his best to avoid questions about The Winds of Winter, but in a new interview with Entertainment Weekly, he offers up some plot details.

Of course, the interview contains spoilers, continue at your discretion!

Martin says that the book will deliver more of what we’ve come to expect from A Song of Ice and Fire. “We have more deaths, and we have more betrayals. We have more marriages.”

And we won’t have to wait to get into the action. “I think we’re gonna start out with a big smash with the two enormous battles.” Presumably this means we will be treated to the Battle of Winterfell, and the Battle of Meereen, which had to be left out of A Dance With Dragons because of it’s already massive length and delayed publication date.

Martin also teases that the Dothraki will be coming back “in a big way,” and that “a lot of stuff is happening at The Wall.”

Readers are anticipating the inevitable meeting between Tyrion and Daenerys, and Martin says that while they both have large roles to play, and that they will intersect, it won’t happen until later in the book. He shares some details on what their interaction will be like. “Tyrion has decided that he actually would like to live, for one thing, which he wasn’t entirely sure of during the last book, and he’s now working toward that end—if he can survive the battle that’s breaking out all around him. And Dany has embraced her heritage as a Targaryen and embraced the Targaryen words. So they’re both coming home.”

No word yet on when The Winds of Winter will be coming home with readers, but we can look forward to two other releases from Martin in October.

First, The World of Ice and Fire: The Untold History of Westeros and the World of Game of Thrones, the illustrated companion to the ASOIAF series. And, announced yesterday on Martin’s blog, The Ice Dragon, an illustrated short story that has been out of publication for quite some time, will return to bookstores on October 21 with all new lavish illustrations by award-winning fantasy artist Luis Royo.

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• Published on 06/27/2014 at 9:00 AM CDT
• Last updated on 10/21/2016 at 12:41 PM CDT