Fans of George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire know that he can take some time in-between novels–A Game of Thrones was first published in 1996, and the last installment in the series, A Dance With Dragons didn’t come out until 2011. Dance was released only a few months after the first season of HBO’s television adaptation Game of Thrones premiered.

The show somewhat followed the novels until it outran them by its 5th season, so  showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss had nothing but key plot points provided by Martin to use as source material. 7 years later, winter is coming…just not yet.

“No, winter is not coming… not in 2018, at least,” Martin wrote. “You’re going to have to keep waiting for The Winds of Winter. You will, however, be able to return to Westeros this year. I do want to stress… indeed, I want to shout… that Fire and Blood is not a novel. This is not a traditional narrative and was never intended to be… let’s call this one ‘imaginary history’ instead. The essential point being the ‘history’ part. I love reading popular histories myself, and that’s what I was aiming for here … (Though there are enough stories here for twenty novels. Battles, bloodshed, betrayals, love, lust, horror, religious wars, politics, incest, historical revisionism, all the fun stuff) .… As for me, I’m returning once again to The Winds of Winter.”

The author announced the news in a statement from his personal blog, where he talks about his upcoming book Fire and Blood—a comprehensive history of the Targaryens that clocks in at 989 pages (for reference, A Game of Thrones is only 694 pages long). Fire and Blood will hit shelves November 20, 2018.

What do you think about this? Have you been waiting for The Winds of Winter? Let us know in the comments below, and don’t forget to share!

Source: EW