George R.R. Martin says his 'Game of Thrones' book plans have gone horribly awry

Did you know that before “Game of Thrones” was a popular television show, it was a popular series of books written by George R.R. Martin? It’s true look it up. While HBO has been airing the show, Martin has continued writing the books, and the two have coexisted quite peacefully…until now. (Pause for suspense. OK pause over.)

Martin announced on his LiveJournal page (!) very early on Saturday morning that, despite his best efforts, he would not be able to finish “The Winds of Winter,” the sixth book in the series, before the sixth season of the show comes out:

We all wanted book six of A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE to come out before season six of the HBO show aired. Assuming the show would return in early April, that meant THE WINDS OF WINTER had to be published before the end of March, at the latest.

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Here it is, the first of January. The book is not done, not delivered. No words can change that. I tried, I promise you. I failed. I blew the Halloween deadline, and I’ve now blown the end of the year deadline. And that almost certainly means that no, THE WINDS OF WINTER will not be published before the sixth season of GAME OF THRONES premieres in April (mid April, we are now told, not early April, but those two weeks will not save me).

This is all a problem for hardcore fans because now the show might spoil things in the books since it’s coming out earlier. Martin basically told his desolate followers that they would just have to deal:

Look, I never thought the series could possibly catch up with the books, but it has. The show moved faster than I anticipated and I moved more slowly. There were other factors too, but that was the main one. Given where we are, inevitably, there will be certain plot twists and reveals in season six of GAME OF THRONES that have not yet happened in the books. For years my readers have been ahead of the viewers. This year, for some things, the reverse will be true. How you want to handle that… hey, that’s up to you.