'The Winds of Winter' release date, spoilers: Will GRRM release Book 6 with 'A Dream of Spring?' 'GoT' plotline to take off from 'ASOIAF'

"The Winds of Winter" is perhaps the most anticipated book of the year, following the massive success of "A Song of Ice and Fire" series where it belongs, and HBO's epic series "Game of Thrones" that is mostly based on the book series. Another reason why the readers are on their knees, asking George R. R. Martin to release the book as soon as possible, is the number of times the renowned author promised the book to be out in the shelves.

Some avid fans of GRRM's work have actually turned impatient and became critical of the author's attitude towards finishing the sixth book. After several months of keeping mum about "The Winds of Winter," Martin finally gave an update regarding the status of his book. In reply to one of the fans complaining on his blogsite, Martin said that he has already made considerable progress for the upcoming novel.

Martin claimed anew that "The Winds of Winter" might be release sometime this year. However, as other fans have already pointed out, he already made such promise in the past but nothing ever materialized. Some fans have started to think that GRRM is taking too long to release the next book in "ASOIAF" series is because he is planning to release not one, but 2 novels all at once.

According to Independent UK, it can be possible that the seventh and final book in the series called "The Dream of Spring" will be released alongside "The Winds of Winter" in the coming months. Ever since the last book, "A Dance with Dragons," was released in 2011, Martin has promised to wrap up the series with his last two novels.

Still, the online publication warns about Martin's record of having long delays in between his novels. As an example, the readers had to wait a long stretch before 2000's "A Storm of Swords" was followed by "A Feast of Crows" in 2005. While having both Books 6 and 7 at the same is among the possibilities, this might be just wishful thinking as well, especially that GRRM has mentioned getting the so-called writer's block a few times before.

As to what the fans can expect from the upcoming sixth novel, NME reported Martin stating that "The Winds of Winter" will start off with "a big smash with the two enormous battles." The entertainment blogsite thinks that the author is talking about the Siege of Winterfell led by Stannis Baratheon, and the Yunkai's Siege of Winterfell.

The mentioned major battles expected in "The Winds of Winter" already happened in the previous seasons of "Game of Thrones," which would lead to another theory that the HBO series will deviate its story from the source material. After all, the TV series has well taken off from Martin's original creation after Season 5.

Another possible angle in the release of "The Winds of Winter" is the novel being split into 2 volumes. NME cited "A Storm of Swords" and "A Dance with Dragons" as examples. Martin had to split them into separate volumes as there was already too much going on with each book.

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