George RR Martin
'The Winds of Winter' release date might come as a surprise to the fansReuters
  • The first book in the Game of Thrones prequel series, Fire & Blood, will release November 20 via Ballantine Bantam Dell.
  • The volume one deals with entire of history of The Targaryens.
  • Apart from this, the three other books are The Princess and the Queen, The Rogue Prince, and The Sons of the Dragon.

There is some bad news, Game of Thrones fans! The final season of HBO series has already been delayed,  and now the last remaining hope for the fans was author George RR Martin's Winds of Winter. The author was supposed to release the next book in his A Song of Ice and Fire saga, Winds of Winter at the end of 2018, but fans will now have to wait for some more time. 

"No, winter is not coming... not in 2018, at least. You're going to have to keep waiting for THE WINDS OF WINTER. ... I do want to stress...indeed, I want to shout... that FIRE & BLOOD is not a novel," Martin said in a statement.

"This is not a traditional narrative and was never intended to be...let's call this one 'imaginary history' instead. The essential point being the 'history' part. I love reading popular histories myself, and that's what I was aiming for here... As for me, I'm returning once again to THE WINDS OF WINTER."

Sophie Turner
Sophie Turner in a still from Game of Thrones Ep 4 'Spoils of War'HBO

His upcoming novel Fire and Blood, which is all about the upcoming history of The Targaryens, will hit the bookshelves on November 20 via Ballantine Bantam Dell. Besides this one, there are three more books in the prequel series — The Princess and the Queen, The Rogue Prince, and The Sons of the Dragon.

In Martin's words, Fire and Blood "covers all the Targaryen kings from Aegon I (the Conquerer) to the regency of Aegon III (the Dragonbane)."

GoT fans, who have been waiting for last seven years for Winds of Winter, were disappointed after the news came. Some even took to Twitter to react on the issue.

However, Winds of Winter is the penultimate novel in the A Song of Ice and Fire saga. The last and the eighth one in the series is A Dream of Spring. There is no hint about the release date of this novel.

Game of Thrones will not return to the small screen anytime before 2019.

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