What To Expect From The Next Game Of Thrones Book

Come on. The only thing GRRM loves more than killing characters is bringing them back to life. There's no way that Jon is gone for good—although we don't know yet how he'll come back. Did he survive his stab wounds at the end of A Dance with Dragons? Will Melisandre bring him back to life using her Red Priestess magic? Will he warg into his Dire Wolf, Ghost, before dying and be stuck as a wolf for the whole book? Whatever happens, there's no way that Jon will die for good until he learns his true parentage and makes out with Daenerys in a fire-meets-ice love fest (even though she is probably his aunt).

GRRM has pre-released several Winds of Winter chapters, including a Theon chapter where we see Stannis planning for an-all out battle against Ramsay Snow/Bolton to take back the North. Stannis has hinted that he's going to lure the Bolton army out onto a lake and let them fall through the cracked ice (and he'll also probably sacrifice his daughter to the Red God for good measure).

Everyone's favorite Onion Knight is headed up to Skagos to retrieve everyone's least favorite Stark, baby Rickon (it's nothing personal Rickon, you just haven't been in the books very much). Hopefully this means we'll get to see Osha again, as well as the terrifying Skagosi and a slightly older, slightly less (or more?) wild Rickon and Shaggydog.

Oh those Greyjoys and their very tedious drama. Aeron "Damphair" Greyjoy and Euron Greyjoy will probably have it out on the Iron Islands, since Aeron has threatened to raise up the common folk against Euron's claim to the Seastone Chair.

Dany has come a long way from the frightened little girl who was sold to a Dothraki Horselord. Where we left her in A Dance with Dragons, her dragon Drogon has dropped her off in the Dothraki Sea, where she runs into Khal Jhaqo's khalasar (basically, her hateful Dothraki in-laws). I think it's a safe bet that Dany's going to try and take some dragon-based revenge on her late husband's bloodriders, and win the loyalty of the rest of the khalasar with her ruthlessness and ability to withstand high temperatures.

Sir Barristan Selmy, Tyrion Lannister, and probably Victarion Greyjoy are all in for a big ol' siege on Meereen. I think we can assume that our guys win the day (even if we lose some major characters in the process), which means that Dany will have the Dothraki, the Unsullied, her sellsword companies, her free men, her three dragons, the Ironborn, and her soon-to-be BFF Tyrion locked and loaded by the time she's ready to invade Westeros.

Sansa might not be married to Ramsay in the books, but it seems like she's going to suffer something creepy and horrifying at the hands of Littlefinger, or possibly the shady musician Marillion, who GRRM has promised will return. I'm also guessing that Bran will watch at least one of his friends get eaten by zombies, and Arya will be punished by the Faceless Men for breaking the rules. Let's hope the series ends with the Stark kids all signing up for therapy.

"Young Griff" claims to be the long lost baby Aegon, son of Prince Rhaegar and Elia Martell of Dorne. Where we left him, he's established a foothold in the Stormlands, and plans to claim the Iron Throne. If he's truly Aegon, that makes him a cousin to Arianne Martell and the Sand Snakes, and we all know that the Dornish are obsessed with revenging Elia and her kids. I smell another ill-fated Dornish plot.

You just know that badass zombie mom Lady Stoneheart is going to force Brienne and Jaime into single combat against each other. Lady "Catelyn" Stoneheart has been waiting since book one to get revenge on Jaime for pushing Bran out of the window. Loyal Brienne is caught between her oath to Lady Stoneheart and her oath to Jaime. And Jaime has one hand (his left) and one friend (Brienne). This is going to be a very emotionally fraught trial-by-combat.

We all know that Cersei loves her wildfire, and that she's pretty much cool with Qyburn turning all her enemies into Frankenstein-style monsters. And yes, Cersei is going down eventually, to be replaced by a younger, hotter queen, as per the prophecy. But first, I'm betting she's going to try and destroy both the Faith and the Tyrells with fire or zombies, and probably end up watching her own children die in the process.

OK, look, maybe it's just because there's a horn on the cover of the book... but something has to happen with the Horn of Winter while it's still winter, right? We know that Melisandre destroyed the fake horn, but Sam Tarly still has that old, cracked warhorn that Ghost and Jon found beyond the wall. I'm betting that Sam, Gilly, and Mance's baby end up back at the wall eventually with that horn and use some freaky winter magic to fight the Others.

There's no way that Arya, Dany, and Tyrion have left Westeros for good. I don't even think Bran is going to stay beyond the wall and live in a tree forever. Even if it takes most of The Winds of Winter for us to get there, I think we can expect all of our favorite characters to be ready to roll out by the end of the book, all set for a massive battle for the Seven Kingdoms in book seven.