'The Winds of Winter' release date, plot rumors: George R.R. Martin suggests that catching up to 'Game of Thrones' is unlikely

The wait for George R.R. Martin's book "The Winds of Winter" still isn't over. The book won't be out before "Game of Thrones" season 6 premieres. And while the book will be released soon, fans will have to wait longer for Martin to complete the book series.

On his live journal, the author wrote that the books will ("maybe") once again outpace "Game of Thrones" when, by his estimation, it reaches 10 seasons.

That being said, "The Winds of Winter," when it is released, will be the book that fans will be stuck with for another bulk of years. Martin implies that the seventh "A Song of Ice and Fire" volume titled "A Dream of Spring" will hit the shelves by 2019.

Martin has acknowledged the possibility of "The Winds of Winter" being spoiled to readers in "Game of Thrones" season 6. However, he has already said that he included a big twist in the book that the HBO juggernaut won't be able to do.

During an interview with IGN, he revealed that the twist he has been mulling over for a while is officially part of the story of "The Winds of Winter."

"It involves a dead character, one of whom is dead in the show but not dead in the books," Martin revealed. "So the show can't do this unfortunately, because they have killed a character that I have not killed," he added.

As for the release date of "The Winds of Winter," fans hope that it will be out either later this year or early 2017. Martin admits that there's still a lot of writing left to do and rewriting will take time as well.

Martin blames the distractions in the form of travels, interviews and conferences for the delay of "The Winds of Winter" but he admits that he is disappointed with not being able to put out the book on schedule.

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