HBO's fantasy drama "Game of Thrones," which is based on George R. R. Martin's "A Song of Ice and Fire" series, has surpassed the books and has gone in a totally different direction. While the show may have spoiled a thing or two for book lovers, there is still a lot of interest in the upcoming book, "The Winds of Winter."

The book is yet to have a release date, but according to rumours, an early 2017 release is a possibility. Martin and his publishers have been mum regarding the same, but one of his publishers did admit that the author was working hard to complete the novel.

As for the plot, it has been revealed that "The Winds of Winter" will detail the battle for Meereen and that in the north between Ramsay Bolton and Jon Snow. Like in the show, the book too ended with Jon Snow's death, but Martin revealed in an interview that the character does survive the brutal stabbing by his Night's Watch comrades. 

Book readers can expect another interesting arc with a character who is already dead in the show. "I have decided to do it. Will you know it? I don't know. It is fairly obvious because it is something that involves a couple of characters, one of which is dead on the show, and not dead in the books," Martin told IGN last year, much before Season 6 of "Game of Thrones." "So the show can't do it, unfortunately, because they have killed someone I have not killed."

"It doesn't narrow it down much because at this point, there are like 15 characters who are dead on the show but not in the books. I get all this stuff about being bloody-minded, but [showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss] are bloodier than I am," he added with a laugh.

"Game of Thrones" Season 7 as well as "The Winds of Winter" is expected to be out in 2017.