George R.R. Martin assured fans that he’s still at work on The Winds of Winter, but warned them—or maybe it should be promised them—not to expect the long-awaited novel to play out like the Game of Thrones series.
Martin took to his blog to update his readers on the next book in his A Song of Ice and Fire series, which formed the basis for HBO’s hit television show. Fans have been waiting for The Winds of Winter, the sixth novel in the series, for more than a decade now—the last installment, A Dance With Dragons, was published in 2011. 
“Some of the things you saw on HBO in GAME OF THRONES you will also see in THE WINDS OF WINTER (though maybe not in quite the same ways)…but much of the rest will be quite different,” Martin wrote. “And really, when you think about it, this was inevitable. The novels are much bigger and much much more complex than the series. Certain things that happened on HBO will not happen in the books. And vice versa.”
He also warned fans that just because their favorite character made it to the end of Game of Thrones intact, that might not be the case in the book series.
“Not all of the characters who survived until the end of GAME OF THRONES will survive until the end of A SONG OF ICE & FIRE, and not all of the characters who died on GAME OF THRONES will die in A SONG OF ICE & FIRE,” he wrote. “(Some will, sure. Of course. Maybe most. But definitely not all.)”
Michael Schaub, a journalist and regular contributor to NPR, lives near Austin, Texas.
