In news that probably won’t surprise too many people, A Song of Ice and Fire author George R.R. Martin has announced that The Winds of Winter, the long-anticipated sixth book in this series, will not be out this year. “No, winter is not coming,” he wrote on his Not a Blog. “not in 2018, at least. You’re going to have to keep waiting for THE WINDS OF WINTER.” Fair enough.
But there will be a book set in Westeros this year: Fire & Blood, Volume 1, Martin’s voluminous history of the Targaryen dynasty, written by “Archmaester Gyldayn.”
I’ve seen the archmaester’s manuscript. Since it was handwritten on vellum with a quill pen, he required my help in transcribing the text to a more modern format: WordStar 4.0, on a DOS computer. Took a while, but a few weeks ago I was able to ship it off to my editors on both sides of the Atlantic, and to my foreign representatives for all my publishers around the world. Some of my foreign publishers will be releasing their editions simultaneously with the US and UK hardbacks; others may need to wait for translation from the Common Tongue.
Oh, Mr. Martin. You are too much.
Anyway, Martin provided explicit details about Fire and Blood. Here’s a fact sheet:
- The book will be released on November 20, at least in the US and the UK. As Martin implies above, there could be a delay in other territories.
- Fire and Blood, Volume 1 will be 989 pages.
- The full title is Fire and Blood: A History of the Targaryen Kings from Aegon the Conqueror to Aegon III as scribed by Archmaester Gyldayn.
- Martin is very clear that this book is not a novel. Like A World of Ice & Fire, for which Martin originally began writing these excerpts until they became lengthy enough to support their own two-part book, this will be an “imaginary history” written in the style of a popular history book. So it’ll be more exciting than a history textbook, but less exciting than, well, The Winds of Winter.
- “This first volume covers all the Targaryen kings from Aegon I (the Conquerer) to the regency of Aegon III (the Dragonbane), along with their wives, wars, siblings, children, friends, rivals, laws, travels, and sundry other matters. For those not up on your Westerosi history, that’s Aegon I, Aenys, Maegor the Cruel, Jaehaerys I (the Conciliator), Viserys I, Aegon II (and Rhaenyra), and Aegon III (the regency). Oh, and there are dragons too. Lots of dragons.”
- The book will be fully illustrated, with more than 75 black & white illustrations by artist Doug Wheatley.” For example:
Also, the cover:
As for Volume 2, Martin cautions that it’s “a few years down the pike.”
Gyldayn will get to it eventually, but he’s old, and so am I, and we both have other projects to tend to as well. The Citadel puts a lot of demands on an archmaester’s time.
And it wasn’t all about books. Martin was in a chatty mood, and even dropped a hint about the upcoming Game of Thrones prequel series on HBO, of which several are now in development:
Oh, and I should also say… as most of you know, HBO is presently developing a number of different prequels to GAME OF THRONES. I know I am going to be asked whether those shows are going to be based on material from FIRE & BLOOD. It’s a logical question. The only answer I can give is… ah, well, no one is sure yet, and anyway, I am not allowed to say. So let’s move that to the side.
So one of the prequel series may or may not be based on Fire & Blood. I guess that’s more of a non-hint, but it’s the thought that counts.
Anyway, that’s a lot of information to chew on. What do you make of it? Oh, and you can order the book here.
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