George R. R. Martin WILL Be Publishing in 2018- But Not The Thing We Want

Author George R. R. Martin WILL be publishing a new tome in 2018, despite reports to the contrary.  True, it’s not the Song of Ice And Fire installment fans were hoping for, it *is* a story set in Westeros.

Announced today on Martin’s not-a-blog blog (which he actually said he was going to STOP using earlier this year, but obviously that isn’t the case), “Fire & Blood” will reportedly cover the Targaryen kings from Aegon I (the Conquerer) to the regency of Aegon III (the Dragonbane), along with their wives, wars, siblings, children, friends, rivals, laws, travels, and sundry other matters.

Martin went on to say that there will be dragons.  Lots of dragons.  You can read his blog here, or scroll down for the entire post.

According to Grandpa George, the book will be roughly a thousand pages, and will be “heavily illustrated” featuring 75 black and white work by Doug Wheatley.

“Fire & Blood” will be published by Bantam Spectra and HarperCollins Voyager, and is releasing in hardcover on November 20th 2018.

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From GRRM’s blog:

No, winter is not coming… not in 2018, at least.   You’re going to have to keep waiting for THE WINDS OF WINTER.

You will, however, be able to return to Westeros this year, as I suggested  back over on Live Journal.

Archmaester Gyldayn has at last completed and delivered the first half of his monumental history of the Targaryen kings of Westeros, FIRE & BLOOD, and Bantam Spectra and HarperCollins Voyager will be releasing the hardcover on November 20, I am thrilled to say.

I’ve seen the archmaester’s manuscript.  Since it was handwritten on vellum with a quill pen, he required my help in transcribing the text to a more modern format: WordStar 4.0, on a DOS computer.   Took a while, but a few weeks ago I was able to ship it off to my editors on both sides of the Atlantic, and to my foreign representatives for all my publishers around the world.   Some of my foreign publishers will be releasing their editions simultaneously with the US and UK hardbacks; others may need to wait for translation from the Common Tongue.

It’s a hefty book, almost a thousand manuscript pages (okay, 989, if you want to be precise).   That’s not quite as long as A GAME OF THRONES or any of the later volumes in A SONG FOR ICE AND FIRE, but there’s a lot of reading there, and I hope you’ll enjoy it.  This first volume covers all the Targaryen kings from Aegon I (the Conquerer) to the regency of Aegon III (the Dragonbane), along with their wives, wars, siblings, children, friends, rivals, laws, travels, and sundry other matters.   For those not up on your Westerosi history, that’s Aegon I, Aenys, Maegor the Cruel, Jaehaerys I (the Conciliator), Viserys I, Aegon II (and Rhaenyra), and Aegon III (the regency).   Oh, and there are dragons too.

Lots of dragons.

Of course, the story doesn’t end with the regents of Aegon III.   There is a lot more history to come, and Archmaester Gyldayn will get to all that too, in FIRE & BLOOD, Volume Two.   But that one is a few years down the pike.   So don’t get impatient.  Gyldayn will get to it eventually, but he’s old, and so am I, and we both have other projects to tend to as well.   The Citadel puts a lot of demands on an archmaester’s time.

Oh, and I almost forgot the best part: FIRE AND BLOOD will be illustrated throughout.   No, it won’t be a huge coffee table book with art on every page, like A WORLD OF ICE & FIRE… but there will be lots of lots of interior artwork.   Think more along the lines of the special anniversary edition of A GAME OF THRONES that we did a few years ago, or the gorgeous hardcover of A KNIGHT OF THE SEVEN KINGDOMS, the Dunk & Egg collection.    We’ll have more than 75 black & white illustrations by artist Doug Wheatley.

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