In the last week, George RR Martin has given an extensive update on his progress with the penultimate A Song of Ice and Fire novel. Of new chapters in The Winds of Winter, the author teased: “Of late I have been spending a lot of time with the Lannisters. Cersei and Tyrion in particular. I’ve also paid a visit to Dorne, and dropped into Oldtown a time or three.”
Now respected ASOIAF expert BryndenBFish has unpacked Martin’s update, sharing more likely POVs to be expected in The Winds of Winter.
He wrote: “First, we’ve got Cersei and Tyrion chapters that George is writing here.
“Back when AFFC/ADWD were one book, GRRM was structuring Cersei-Daenerys chapters to occur one after the other to parallel their leadership arcs.
“It’s possible that GRRM may be doing something similar with Tyrion and Cersei here as Tyrion is continuing to barrel down a dark path and Cersei moving further towards paranoia and madness.”
READ MORE: Game of Thrones: Winds of Winter to ‘introduce White Walker POV’?
The expert added on Reddit: “If these are new chapters…that would mean that Tyrion has 4-5+ confirmed chapters for TWOW.
“Additionally, GRRM’s wording of ‘Cersei and Tyrion in particular’ serves as indirect confirmation that Jaime Lannister will return as a POV character as he singles out these Lannisters.
“Jaime returning as a POV in TWOW is a foregone conclusion, but it’s nice to get some new confirmation.”
BryndenBFish then moved on to Martin’s mention of visiting Dorne, which the expert said was “a bit surprising”.
The expert said: “Back in August, GRRM said that he was visiting Sam which was our first semi-confirmation that Samwell Tarly would return as a POV character in The Winds of Winter.
“Given that this confirmation came way, way late, it’s possible that George has not written from Samwell’s POV between the end of writing AFFC in 2004/2005 and August 2020. And that’s just wild, man. Fifteen years between writing a POV has to a bit jarring for an author to get back into the POV’s headspace.
“That said, it’s somewhat possible that these are not just Samwell chapters. Perhaps it’s more Aeron Greyjoy chapters — though Damphair’s odds of surviving his second TWOW chapter appear remote given that Aeron is tied to the prow of Silence in The Forsaken and is sailing against the Redwyne Fleet — all while Euron is seemingly planning for eldritch shittery in the coming naval battle. But it’s possible.”
As for when The Winds of Winter will finally be completed, BryndenBFish reckons Martin could be just a couple of months from completion.
Martin’s current deadline is to have The Winds of Winter published in 2021, which would be 10 years since A Dance with Dragons hit bookstores and Game of Thrones first premiered.
After Winds is published, the 72-year-old will write a Dunk and Egg short story before tackling ASOIAF finale A Dream of Spring.
After that, he says he’ll pen a fifth Dunk and Egg before writing Fire and Blood volume 2.
The Winds of Winter will hopefully be published in 2021.
