Winds of Winter: what is upcoming George R.R. Martin Game of Thrones novel about, how many pages will it be?

Fantasy author George R.R. Martin began writing Game of Thrones, the first book in what was supposed to be an epic trilogy, in 1991. His sprawling A Song of Ice and Fire (ASOIAF) series has ballooned in the decades since and is now set to be seven books long, when it is finally complete.

HBO began adapting the novels into the big budget Game of Thrones series in 2011, and while the TV series came to an end in 2019, readers are still impatiently awaiting the next book in the series, The Winds of Winter.

It has been 12 years since book number five, A Dance with Dragons, was released, and in that time Martin has shared plenty of updates on his progress, but the book still isn’t finished.

The world of Game of Thrones continues to grow, with a prequel novel, Fire & Blood published in 2018 and new HBO adaptation House of the Dragon, released last year, but fans are still clamouring for Winds of Winter.  

What is Winds of Winter about?

The exact plot of the novel is unknown, despite the fact that it will be published years after Game of Thrones, the HBO series based on the ASOIAF novels, finished.

Martin has said several times that his novel will be similar to the series in some ways but also make many departures. The final series of the show was panned for its rushed, underwhelming ending, and readers will be hoping that Martin does not repeat that in his novels. 

We do know that the book will follow on directly from where the A Dance with Dragons left off and will introduce the White Walkers.

One of the main characters in the books, Jon Snow, was stabbed to death in the last novel. In the series he is brought back to life through the use of black magic, but it remains to be seen whether this will also be the case in Winds of Winter.

Martin previously stated that the novel will open with two big battles - one in the far north of Westeros, and the other in Mereen, in Essos. The author also suggested that it would be even darker than his previous books, with some of his characters in very bad places.

A sample chapter, released by Martin, sees Arianne Martell visit a man naming himself Aegon Targaryen - the name of the warrior who conquered Westeros before the events of the series.

How many pages will Winds of Winter be?

A lot. Martin estimated in 2012 that Winds of Winter would run to around 1,500 pages, longer by far than any of the previous instalments. A Dance with Dragons, which was released in two parts in July 2011, was around 1,000 pages.

Earlier this year Martin said that he had written between 1,100 and 1,200 pages and had about 400-500 left to write, meaning the high estimate would put the novel at a staggering 1,700 pages, though it would probably be edited down.

Either way, it seems like Winds of Winter will need to be published in two parts, as were the third and fifth instalments of the series.

When will Winds of Winter be published?

Martin has released a series of updates over the last 12 years about the next A Song of Ice and Fire novel - check out our full progress timeline to find out more.

Essentially, Martin has no idea when he will finish writing the novel and has given up on making estimates, as they have always turned out to be way off the mark. Last month Martin confirmed that he was ‘writing, rewriting, editing, writing some more’ and was making ‘steady progress’ on the book.

It’s hard to believe that he could have spent more than a decade writing his novel and still have much more to do, but there’s no telling how far off the finished product he is.

It’s possible that the book could be published a year from now, equally, we could have another five, or even 10 years to wait, or the 74-year-old may never finish his novel at all.

And what’s worse is that if he does ever complete Winds of Winter, we still have the final Song of Ice and Fire novel, A Dream of Spring, to come. So, don’t hold your breath.