George R.R. Martin says ‘Winds of Winter’ will be very different from ‘Game of Thrones’ show

Perhaps all too aware of the negative reception to the final episode of Game of Thrones — though “negative” would be putting it mildly — George R.R. Martin has decided to put fan worries to rest by revealing that his vision for the rest of A Song of Ice and Fire is rapidly moving away from the show’s storyline.

The last time we read a Game of Thrones book, Jon Snow had just been betrayed and seemingly killed by his brothers in Castle Black. That essentially means The Winds of Winter, the forthcoming sixth novel in the saga, will pick things up from season 6 onward, which also marked the steep nosedive of the live-action series in terms of quality.

But if you’re worried that the book series will end in the same way as the show, making reading it quite a fruitless exercise in repetition, Martin has just taken to his personal blog to address those concerns. According to the author, he can’t really give you a precise answer since he’s not an “architect,” a storyteller who devises everything from start to finish and then starts to actually write it.

He describes himself as more of a “gardener,” constantly revising and changing things as his stories “grow and evolve.” That said, Martin is fairly certain that his work will be “quite different” from HBO’s Game of Thrones.

“What I have noticed more and more of late, however, is my gardening is taking me further and further away from the television series. Yes, some of the things you saw on HBO in Game of Thrones you will also see in The Winds of Winter, but much of the rest will be quite different,” he wrote.

Giving fans one last ominous tease, Martin further adds that not every character who lived through Game of Thrones is going to do the same in the book series, and vice versa.

“One thing I can say, in general enough terms that I will not be spoiling anything: Not all of the characters who survived until the end of Game of Thrones will survive until the end of A Song of Ice and Fire, and not all of the characters who died on Game of Thrones will die in A Song of Ice and Fire.”

Still no luck about a possible release date, though. Sorry, Game of Thrones fans, but your watch continues for the time being.