Fans are getting more and more impatiently about the long wait for George R.R. Martin's "The Winds of Winter." They aren't taking the delay lightly, and are openly expressing disappointment at the author for his slow writing process. But it appears there's light at the end of the tunnel, as rumors suggest that the book might be arriving sooner than expected.
"The Winds of Winter," which is the sixth book in the "A Song of Ice and Fire" series, was initially expected to come out before the release of "Game of Thrones" Season 6. It's been months since the show aired its last episode, but updates on the forthcoming book is scant.
However, a Reddit user named Burnfyre discovered what might be the biggest clue so far as to the whole mystery surrounding "The Winds of Winter" release. The Redditor found out an ISBN allegedly assigned for "The Winds of Winter." Having an ISBN registered with the ISBN office could only mean one thing - the book is near publishing.
As reported by Melty, Burnfyre said in his post that the new ISBN is associated with Penguin Random House. A year ago, Harper Collins reportedly registered an ISBN for the same book. The authenticity of the registrations is, however, still at issue.
In response to the massive backlash surrounding the delayed release of "The Winds of Winter," the publisher of the books came to the author's defense.
The UK editor of Harper Collins said, "I do know is that George is working very hard. And as soon as we possibly can after he delivers, we'll publish the book."
He added, "It's worth saying he's written the best part of two million words of this series in the past 20 years. So given the average length of a novel is around 100,000 words, that's 20 novels in most writers' worlds."
In a previous blog post, Martin gave an update on the book, saying he's still working on it. He has, however, released several excerpts from "The Winds of Winter," including a chapter on Aeron Greyjoy, which gave a chilling excerpt of the wicked beginnings of Euron Greyjoy.