Outlander author: Game of Thrones “distorted” George R.R. Martin’s ending

It’s been over two years since the ending of Game of Thrones aired on HBO, to huge audience numbers and a lot of ridicule; whether you loved it or hated it, the ending has become infamous for stirring up very vocal dissatisfaction online, and it’s not just fans who are complaining. Diana Gabaldon, author of the very successful Outlander books, sounds like she has some issues too.

Some context: Gabaldon has been friends with George R.R. Martin, the writer of the Song of Ice and Fire novels HBO adapted as Game of Thrones, for years. She’s putting out he own novel right now: Go Tell The Bees That I Am Gone, the ninth book in her Outlander series. It’s been seven years since the last Outlander book came out, which is a long time but still short of what Martin’s fans are used to.

“It was definitely more of a challenge to write, mostly because of the chronology, which was very complicated,” Gabaldon told The Guardian. She even named one of her chapters “The Winds of Winter,” a reference to the long-in-coming sixth book in Martin’s saga. Gabaldon says it’s a “nod or a dig, depending on how you want to interpret it.”

"Poor George, I feel very sorry for him. What happened is that his show caught up with him, and he then met with the showrunners and he told them what he was planning to do in that book, so that they could then write accordingly. Only they didn’t write accordingly, they took his stuff, and distorted it and wrote their own ending, which wasn’t at all what he had in mind but used all the elements that he told them."

Gabaldon is repeating a well-known story here about when Martin met with Game of Thrones showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss about halfway through the series to tell them his thoughts about the ultimate ending, after it became clear that the show was going to catch up to him. However, her comment about Benioff and Weiss “distorting” things is editorializing. We won’t know for sure how similar the endings are until Martin’s final book comes out, but he’s said himself that the show’s ending probably isn’t “that different” from the one he’s mulling.

"[T]here’s no way to get in all the detail, all the minor characters, all the secondary characters. The series has been extremely faithful compared to 97% of all television and movie adaptations of literary properties. But it’s not completely faithful. And it can’t be. Otherwise, it would have to run another five seasons."

Really, we just have to make like everyone else and wait.

Outlander won’t pull a Game of Thrones, according to Diana Gabaldon

Anyway, Gabaldon is determined that Starz’s Outlander show won’t catch up with her the way Game of Thrones caught up with Martin. After all, the show is coming up on its sixth season and she only has one more book to write. “They’ll never catch me. I will certainly finish the 10th book before they finish the show.”

Famous last words?

As for how that tenth book will end, Gabaldon knows but isn’t saying. “It was about 20 years ago that I saw the ending, and I got up in the middle of the night and wrote it down with tears rolling down my face,” she said. “And no: I’m not telling you what it is.”

Go Tell the Bees That I Am Gone is available to buy now.

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