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Season Six Of Game Of Thrones Will Air Before Sixth Book Is Finished
George R.R. Martin took to his LiveJournal account today to post an update on progress of The Winds of Winter, the sixth book in the Game of Thrones series. Namely, it's not done.
Here's what he said:
THE WINDS OF WINTER is not finished.
Believe me, it gave me no pleasure to type those words. You're disappointed, and you're not alone. My editors and publishers are disappointed, HBO is disappointed, my agents and foreign publishers and translators are disappointed... but no one could possibly be more disappointed than me. For months now I have wanted nothing so much as to be able to say, "I have completed and delivered THE WINDS OF WINTER" on or before the last day of 2015.
But the book's not done.
Nor is it likely to be finished tomorrow, or next week. Yes, there's a lot written. Hundreds of pages. Dozens of chapters. (Those 'no pages done' reports were insane, the usual garbage internet journalism that I have learned to despise). But there's also a lot still left to write. I am months away still... and that's if the writing goes well. (Sometimes it does. Sometimes it doesn't.) Chapters still to write, of course... but also rewriting. I always do a lot of rewriting, sometimes just polishing, sometimes pretty major restructures.
Martin goes on to talk about a concern that fans of the book and show might have: will watching the show spoil the book for them?
I can't think of any other instance where the movie or TV show came out as the source material was still being written. So when you ask me, "will the show spoil the books," all I can do is say, "yes and no," and mumble once again about the butterfly effect. Those pretty little butterflies have grown into mighty dragons. Some of the 'spoilers' you may encounter in season six may not be spoilers at all... because the show and the books have diverged, and will continue to do so.
Our Take
While you may or may not be a huge fan of the books or the TV show (I'm kind of lukewarm on them myself) this whole situation with elements of the show airing before its source material do is fascinating. It'll be interesting to see how this all plays out.
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