You Can Read A 'Winds Of Winter' Excerpt Right Now

Waiting for The Winds of Winter is like waiting for rain in a drought... useless and disappointing. (Yes, I did just reference A Cinderella Story at a totally inopportune time.) But grab your umbrellas, because the heavens just opened: a new Winds of Winter excerpt just went up on George R.R. Martin's blog.

A Song of Ice and Fire fans have been waiting five years for the next book in the series — and they've had to face a rollercoaster of hope and heartbreak along the way. The Winds of Winter has been delayed time and time again; rumors swirled that fantasy author Neil Gaiman might help Martin write the book; fans of the Game of Thrones show had to face the fact that the two series have now diverged. It's been a rough ride. So it's about time that the ever-patient super-fans get a reward — and George R.R. Martin has certainly delivered.

The latest Winds of Winter chapter excerpt, now up on George R.R. Martin's website, is told from the perspective of Princess Arianne Martell. It's got talk of dragons and of battles; in short, it's everything we've been waiting for.

Martin also wrote about it on his personal blog — explaining that the new sample is a peace offering to calm the "bitching" he knew he was about to face. “You want to know what the Sand Snakes, Prince Doran, Areo Hotah, Ellaria Sand, Darkstar, and the rest will be up to in Winds of Winter? Quite a lot, actually. The sample will give you a taste. For the rest, you will need to wait.”

Unfortunately, this doesn't mean Winds of Winter is finished. For that, we still might have to wait another year... *Sigh*.