<P> The Winds of Winter is the planned sixth novel in the epic fantasy series A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin . </P> <P> Martin believes the last two volumes of the series will be big books of 1,500 + manuscript pages each . They will take readers farther north than any of the previous books, and the Others will appear in The Winds of Winter . </P> <P> Martin has refrained from making hard estimates for The Winds of Winter's final release date . In 2014, estimates based on extrapolation of Martin's writing pace predicted the release date sometime between 2015 and 2018 . In January 2017, Martin announced that he believed that The Winds of Winter will be released "this year", referring to 2017 . However, he also noted that he believed the same thing would occur the previous year . </P> <P> The Winds of Winter will take readers farther north than any of the previous books, and the Others will appear in the book . The previous installment, A Dance with Dragons, covered less story than Martin intended, excluding at least one planned large battle sequence and leaving several character threads ending in cliffhangers . Martin intends to resolve these storylines "very early" in The Winds of Winter, saying "I'm going to open with the two big battles that I was building up to, the battle in the ice and the battle at Meereen--the battle of Slaver's Bay . And then take it from there ." A Victarion Greyjoy chapter will begin five minutes after the end of A Dance with Dragons, taking place on the eve of the Iron Islanders' arrival in Slaver's Bay . Arianne Martell sample chapters that Martin released on his website showed her heading for Griffin's Roost to see the young man who is calling himself Aegon . </P>

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