Official Westeros artist mocks up cover for final Song of Ice and Fire book

Ertaç Altinöz is an artist who worked with George R.R. Martin on The Rise of the Dragon, a condensed version of Fire & Blood that features many gorgeous illustrations. Clearly, Altinöz loves A Song of Ice and Fire, to the point where he’s mocking up covers for the yet-to-be-released books in the series just for fun!

For instance, the other week, Altinöz debuted a cover for The Winds of Winter, the long-awaited (like, over a decade at this point) sixth book in Martin’s fantasy saga. Take a look:

I can totally see that on a book shelf somewhere. And Altinöz wasn’t willing to let it rest there…

Official Westeros artist mocks up cover for A Dream of Spring

Just today, Altinöz showed off another concept cover, this one for A Dream of Spring, the seventh and purportedly final book in Martin’s saga:

Altinöz’s Winds of Winter cover was easy to understand: he illustrated a piece of dragonglass, one of the only substances known to be able to kill a White Walker. Obviously it’ll be important as the White Walkers become more prominent in the story. But his cover for A Dream of Spring is more mysterious. What is that key?

Altinöz provided the answer on Twitter: this is a master key that can open every door in the Citadel in Oldtown. Every archmaester has one. The novice Pate steals one from the senile Archmaester Walgrave in the prologue chapter to A Feast for Crows, the fourth book in the series, and gives it to a mysterious man known as the Alchemist in exchange for a golden dragon. The Alchemist is thought to be the Faceless Man Jaqen H’ghar in disguise, so who knows what mischief he intends to get up to with it?

When will A Dream of Spring come out?

We do not have a release date for A Dream of Spring. We don’t have one for The Winds of Winter, either, although one hopes that will be coming along in the near future. I mean, the last Song of Ice and Fire book, A Dance with Dragons, came out in 2011. Martin has been writing Winds for 12 years now. How much longer can it possibly take? And I don’t even wanna think about what the wait for A Dream of Spring will be like.

It’s tempting to believe that Altinöz may have inside info and is discreetly sharing it through these covers…but I tend to that he’s just passing the time before the next book like the rest of us.

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