Fans of A Song of Ice and Fire by George RR Martin can slake their thirst for The Winds of Winter with a new sample chapter released today.
Though the release date for The Winds of Winter is still shrouded in fog and mystery, George RR Martin has delivered on a recent promise to release a never-before-seen sample chapter from the forthcoming novel.
Martin, the author of epic fantasy series A Song of Ice and Fire, wrote yesterday on his “Not A Blog”-blog that “the time [is] ripe to give my readers another taste of The Winds of Winter.” The chapter in question appeared on Martin’s website today, and is (perhaps ominously) titled “Mercy.” Following the pattern established in the series, the chapter is told from the point of view of a character who identifies as “Mercy” – though his or her full name is – at least initially – up for speculation.
According to Martin, this new chapter is not truly new at all. “It’s new in that it is material that no one but my editors… have ever seen before, but it’s old in that it was written a long time ago,” Martin wrote on his blog. “The first draft was, at any rate,” he qualified. “I’ve rewritten it a dozen times since then.”
This new chapter will be the third peek at The Winds of Winter that Martin has released on his website. The author has also read chapters from the sixth installment in the Song of Ice and Fire series at conventions and interviews. Recently, a new Tyrion chapter was released on the “A World of Ice and Fire” app for iTunes.
Though speculation continues to percolate about an eventual release date for The Winds of Winter, fans of the series can definitely look forward to the premiere of Game of Thrones season 4. The new season, based largely on the second half of A Storm of Swords, the third book in the Song of Ice and Fire series, will return on April 6 at 9:00 p.m. on HBO.