George RR Martin promises Game of Thrones fans a Westeros book in 2018 – or "maybe two"

Many fans had hoped that the novelist was building up to an announcement that he'd finished The Winds of Winter, the next novel in the A Song of Ice and Fire series. But it was not to be.

Writing on his Livejournal blog, Martin hit out at media speculation: "And, yes, I know you all want to know about THE WINDS OF WINTER too. I’ve seen some truly weird reports about WOW on the internet of late, by ‘journalists’ who make their stories up out of whole cloth. I don’t know which story is more absurd, the one that says the book is finished and I’ve been sitting on it for some nefarious reason, or the one that says I have no pages. Both ‘reports’ are equally false and equally moronic."

But he added: "I am still working on it, I am still months away (how many? good question), I still have good days and bad days, and that’s all I care to say.

"Whether WINDS or the first volume of FIRE AND BLOOD will be the first to hit the bookstores is hard to say at this juncture, but I do think you will have a Westeros book from me in 2018… and who knows, maybe two. A boy can dream…"

Fire And Blood will serve as a sort of history book for Martin's fantasy world of Westeros, covering the Targaryen reigns before the events of Game of Thrones even started. The first of two volumes will cover the period from Aegon's Conquest to the regency of the boy king Aegon III – that is, the Dragonbane.

Volume one is "largely written", so it will definitely be hitting the bookshelves next year. But will Winds of Winter be joining it? Let's just hope for more "good days" for George RR Martin...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=videoseries?list=PLbs-Pk9dtKb8YP3Qd5UDiUQqkuzd776iF&showinfo=0?ecver=1