A taste of George R.R. Martin’s ‘The Winds of Winter’

George R.R. Martin’s bestselling “A Song of Ice and Fire” series has found even more readers with HBO’s adaptation, “Game of Thrones.” Martin’s next much-anticipated installment, “The Winds of Winter,” is coming -- it has to be. Entertainment Weekly has the book’s first paragraph.

“Somewhere off in the far distance, a dying man was screaming for his mother,” it begins. It’s told from the point of view of Tyrion Lannister, played in the HBO series by Peter Dinklage.

The new writing leads off a chapter of “The Winds of Winter” that will be included in a new update to the app “George R.R. Martin’s A World of Ice and Fire.” Random House will release the update later this month; it will also include new characters and location descriptions.

The books in Martin’s series have not always come quickly. Although the first three novels -- “A Game of Thrones,” “A Clash of Kings” and “A Storm of Swords” -- were published in two-year intervals starting in 1996, the later books have taken more time.

With their hundreds of pages, vast scope and complex storylines, it’s not surprising that Martin can work on his novels for several years, but fans have often been anxious for the release of the next book. “A Feast for Crows” was published five years after the third book, in 2005, and three was a six-year break before “A Dance with Dragons” arrived in 2011.

And Martin has occasionally dared to do something other than sit at his desk and write. He purchased and has been restoring a movie theater in Santa Fe, N.M., where he lives. The Jean Cocteau Cinema is celebrating the opening of its bar this week with three days of free films, including “Charade” with Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn, sci-fi camp classic “Plan 9 From Outer Space,” and “Back to the Future,” with a specially concocted Flux Capacitor cocktail.

So clearly “The Winds of Winter” is coming, but the book’s release date has not yet been announced. Random House is providing a taste, but we don’t yet know when the feast will arrive.

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