George RR Martin the creator and author of the best-selling book series "A Song on Ice and Fire" and co-executive producer of the HBO adaptation of the said books entitled "Game of Thrones" has explained the reasons behind the delay on the release of the sixth book in the series. Martin has been under pressure from obsessed fans of both the books and the series to put out the sixth book and he has explained that as the story goes further along it becomes harder for him to keep track of the story line and the characters.
George R.R. Martin, author of the "Song of Ice and Fire" fantasy series that is the basis of the television series "Game of Thrones", gestures during his masterclass at the Neuchatel International Fantastic Film Festival (NIFFF) in Neuchatel July 10, 2014.
With numerous characters and story lines to think about as well as a timeline that spans thousands of years, Martin needs to keep his facts straight. In an interview with the
Independent, Martin shared that he needs to go back and check what was written about each character before continuing to write about them. In order to do this, He shared that he still uses a DOS operating system with Wordstar 4.0. A primitive system he admits, but the program serves its purpose well by having a search and replace function that Martin uses to look up characters that he intends to mention again just to see everything he has said about that character in the previous books. With more books and more characters to think about, the task has proven to have become tedious and drawn out.
Martin also states that he has charts and family trees that he consults from time to time but in general, everything is in his head. This causes concern for some fans who have raised questions about the author's health and the probability that he might not be able to finish the story. Martin has expressed annoyance at this and has even said some strong words to people who have been making negative speculations about his health. Despite the annoying few, Martin states that the fans of the books and the series are wonderful and some have even read his mind and have guessed some parts of the story line correctly.
Five books have so far been released in the series "A Song of Ice and Fire" namely "A Game of Thrones," "A Clash of Kings," "A
Storm of Swords," "A Feast For Crows" and "A Dance With Dragons." The fifth book entitled "The Winds of Winter" is reportedly expected to come out in 2015 after immense pressure from fans worldwide. Another book, "A Dream of Spring" is expected to complete the series.
"A Dance With Dragons" came out in 2011 and due to the immense success of both the books and the HBO TV adaptation, fans are eagerly awaiting the next book. The series had finished airing the fourth season in Spring 2014 and the fifth season is in the middle of production. The story is already catching up to the books with come characters' story lines already dipping into the fifth book.
With the immense pressure to release the next book and with the series quickly catching up with the books, Martin has decided not to write the screenplay for the episodes for season 5 but will instead focus on completing "The Winds of Winter." Season 5 is expected to come out in Spring 2015 and the next book is expected to come out also within the same year.
http://au.ibtimes.com/articles/562934/20140818/game-thrones-winds-winter.htm
