Skip to footer

'Game of Thrones' author George R.R. Martin reads excerpt of upcoming book

At a Toronto event, George R.R. Martin read an exceprt from his upcoming book 'The Winds of Winter.'

|
TIFF/YouTube screenshot
'Game of Thrones' author George R.R. Martin has refrained from setting a publication date for 'The Winds of Winter,' but fans hope that 'Winds' will be completed more rapidly than was 'A Dance with Dragons,' which was released six years after its predecessor.
  • By Molly Driscoll

As part of the “Game of Thrones: The Exhibition” event in Toronto, “Song of Ice and Fire” author George R.R. Martin read a new excerpt of the next book in his series – Book No. 6 – which will be titled “The Winds of Winter.” 

Martin discussed his planned septology on March 12 in an interview with interviewer Teri Hart, who works for The Movie Network, a Canadian TV channel. The portion of the interview in which the author read an excerpt from his upcoming book for more than eight minutes was apparently a surprise to the audience.

“They don’t know?” Martin asked when Hart announced it. 

Martin warned the audience to leave if they hadn’t read each previous book, including “A Dance with Dragons,” the fifth book in the series which was published this July. There is currently no official planned publication date for "Winds."

The excerpt was told from the point of view of Victarion Greyjoy, who is the brother of Balon Greyjoy, the ruler of the Iron Islands, an area of the kingdom of Westeros. Residents of the Iron Islands are famed for their ships, and Victarion commands the mighty Iron Fleet, holding the title of Lord Captain. Victarion is the uncle of Theon Greyjoy, one of the main characters in the series who was raised by Eddard Stark, though technically a hostage of the Starks. Theon was turned over to Eddard Stark as punishment for Balon’s failed rebellion.

(Spoilers follow for “The Winds of Winter.”)

In the excerpt, which Martin said begins around “five minutes” after the end of “Dance,” Victarion tells three oarsmen from the Iron Fleet that they have been chosen to blow the hellhorn, which is said to have the power to control dragons. According to Victarion, the last man to blow the hellhorn died.

“Game of Thrones: The Exhibition” was held from March 9 to 18 and was presented by HBO Canada and the Toronto International Film Festival. Various items from the hit HBO series were available for viewing, including costumes from the show and props, including the Iron Throne, the chair that is the symbol of power for the king of the fictional country of Westeros. 

Check out the video below – Martin begins reading at the 30:49 mark.

Molly Driscoll is a Monitor contributor.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to 'Game of Thrones' author George R.R. Martin reads excerpt of upcoming book
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Books/chapter-and-verse/2012/0402/Game-of-Thrones-author-George-R.R.-Martin-reads-excerpt-of-upcoming-book
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe