George R.R. Martin releases new chapter from The Winds of Winter

With the sixth season of Game of Thrones underway, and no The Winds of Winter to guide us, many book fans might be feeling a little resentful that the show is giving away all the plot points ahead of the book’s publication. With the show increasingly diverging from the books, it’s starting to look like The Winds of Winter won’t much resemble Season 6 of Game of Thrones, as the show is committing itself to stone things Martin can still treat as fluid.

For example, last year he released a Sansa chapter—excuse me: an “Alayne” chapter—that served as a reminder that nothing Sansa did last season, including returning to Winterfell and marrying Ramsay Bolton, would be happening on the page. In the books, Sansa is pretending to be Littlefinger’s bastard daughter Alayne Stone in the Vale. (Hence the chapter name.)

Now, Martin has released a new chapter from the book, written from the point of view of a character who isn’t even in the show at all: Arianne Martell, the only daughter of Doran Martell, and heir to his kingdom. Click here to read it.

Now, for those getting excited that this is proof Martin has written more, don’t get your hopes quite that high. This is a chapter Martin has been reading aloud to fans at conventions for years. (It was first read aloud at Worldcon in 2011.) But it is the first time he’s published it on his website. (It is the second Arianne chapter he’s released from the forthcoming novel. The first can be found archived here.)

The chapter comes with a statement on his NotABlog that The Winds of Winter is progressing though.

You want to know what the Sand Snakes, Prince Doran, Areo Hotah, Ellaria Sand, Darkstar, and the rest will be up to in WINDS OF WINTER? Quite a lot, actually. The sample will give you a taste. For the rest, you will need to wait.

And no, just to spike any bullshit rumors, changing the sample chapter does NOT mean I am done. See the icon up above? Monkey is still on my back… but he’s growing, he is, and one day…

Next: Game of Thrones Screencap Breakdown: Oathbreaker

So the Dornish are up to quite a lot in the books, huh? Some wonder if that’s a dig at the show, which unceremoniously killed off several Dornish characters at the beginning of Season 6. Whether or not Martin means it that way is up to debate. (But I’m guessing he’ll say it is not. He has been nothing but positive and polite about the producers.) But for those who feel like the show has given Dorne the short end of the stick, here Martin provides us a reminder that the next book will—when it finally arrives—be there to do right by them.

(And for those books readers who sigh heavily at the idea of slogging through more Damn Dornish chapters: sorry!)