14 DAY TRIAL // An entire chapter of George R. R. Martin's new book called “Winds of Winter” made its way online yesterday, when the author decided to publish it on his own website. The chapter is said to have been with the author for some time and has been rewritten a dozen times.
“The first draft was written more than a decade ago,” Martin reveals, “Originally, it was intended to be the opening Arya chapter after the infamous ‘five-year gap’, her first appearance in A Dance with Dragons, as initially conceived.”
As you can already tell by now, the “Winds of Winter” is the next installment in the award-winning series “A Song of Fire and Ice,” which has been since adapted for TV by HBO under the name of “Game of Thrones.”
This update comes days before season 4 of the TV series is set to premiere on April 6 and already anticipation ran high among fans. With this new addition, it's safe to say that there is going to be massive response both on and offline.
In fact, Martin confesses on his blog that, after he posted the chapter, his website crashed from all the traffic. But that now it has “eased off,” he was pleasantly surprised at the enthusiastic response he's gotten from fans.
You can read the entire first chapter of “Winds of Winter,” entitled “Mercy” on georgerrmartin.