Huge news for fans of A Song of Ice and Fire: George R. R. Martin has just released a brand-new chapter from The Winds of Winter, featuring a character we haven’t seen in a very long time…almost ten years, in fact!
We don’t want to spoil anything for anyone here, but you can check out the chapter at GRRM’s site…and it is juicy, full of intrigue and familiar faces, plus some hardcore flirting. It seems that someone has grown up quite a bit, and has had some serious coaching in the art of courtly scheming since last we met—let us know what you think in the comments! And what are the chances that we’ll get to see these scenes played out on the new season of Game of Thrones, which starts in a little over a week?
Missed any of The Winds of Winter excerpts? Here’s everything we know about the book so far.
YES!!!! More WOW !!!!!
I was absorbing every word of this because I need this piece of ASOIAF until I finally can hold TWOW in my hands.
Yes, and watch out for Shadrach the Mouse. As Brienne learned in AFFC, he was a Sansa hunter commissioned by Varys. Intrigue to the max.
This was good. It’s nice to see that they were really only overdosing Robin with sweetsleep to get him down the mountain, and that it seems to have abated since.
There’s only one way I can put this and it’s to borrow from last season of GoT. :-)
@5, Your thingy is broken
while i appreciate the chapter it has a very rough draft feel to it.
I expect when the book comes out the chapter will be a bit more polished.
It is nice to have a little something.
Oh man, that was very good, very, very good, Come on! I want the book lol
Very nice. I hereby nominate Sansa, the she-wolf of Winterfell, as Queen of the North.
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh!
*Ahem*
YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!
Okay, done now.
The famous “controversial” chaper, I assume?
@10 – yes. Elio/Ran of Westeros said in response to the posting of this that this was the chapter he and Linda had commented on years ago. He was referring to how sexually charged and flirtatious Sansa is here. Seemed pretty mild to me – I guess I was expecting an assault or ickiness with Petyr, etc.
@11: I agree, the flirtation seemed only excessive because it’s *Sansa* doing it. She does seem to have grown up quite a bit. How many months has it been? Can’t be much more than a year, because she’d probably have already met Harry then…
Still, it’s finally good to set the record straight. No assault, molestation, or murdering of Sweetrobin in this chapter, for all that it shows a new side of Sansa/Alayne.
I am a little confused as to how one can stutter a silent letter, but…
Well, I stand corrected. GRRM has peaked my interest and I GUESS I’LL GIVE THAT OLD FART ANOTHER $30 AND READ IT WHEN IT COMES OUT!
Damn you GRRM!!!
Who haven’t we seen in over 10 years? None of the characters appear new or forgotten?
Intellectually, I know that an eight year old talking about how much he wants to marry a seventeen year old (or however old Sansa is) so she be his surrogate mother is icky, but emotionally seven hells I really felt for Sweetrobin in this chapter.
Also, Harry the Arse is right (it’s his latest mistress I feel sorry for); Lord Robert should have him thrown off a mountain already.
For some reason I really enjoy the Eyrie supporting cast (Mya Stone, Lothor Brune) so it’s nice to see them all again.
Nice chapter. I’m guessing there’s a high likelyhood we’ll see this played out in season 5, since there was an article recently where Sohpie Turner (Sansa) was talking about some sort of titilating scene she had done. Definitely seems like this could be it, though of course modified since A) she’s not Alayne in the show and B) it’s HBO, so likely to be a lot less innocent than this chapter was.
Can’t wait for the books. I have to say Sansa was definitely climbing the charts of favorite character combined with most hopeful outcome, so I’m glad to see she’s still going in a positive direction.
@16, Sansa only had one chapter in ADWD, so we’ve “hardly” seen her, as the article says.
@17, I don’t know, her hair was dyed brown at the end of last season, she may be Alayne now.
@18, I think you meant 15; and I didn’t think Sansa had any chapters in Dance.
@3 – I know Shadrach was ringing some bells but I couldn’t remember where I had heard the name before!
I actually do feel kind of bad for Sweetrobin…I do wonder if his animosity for Harry (and in all honesty, I can believe it of Harry) was fed to him by his mother, or if he was actually astute enough to pick up on it himself.
Uhh……. Didn’t they said that ‘Mercy’ would be the last sample chapter of WOW?
@19, She had the one where they came down from the Eeyrie, correct?
These sample chapters have proven one thing about the Winds of Winter and the direction it’s headed as far as character growth. With Bran’s ‘Theon’ ravens, Mercy running about, and Alayne making political moves; winter has come and the wolves have returned. Woe to the people of summer.
@22 Wasn’t that the end of Feast?
@20 If you look at his reactions to people, Sweetrobin is a surprisingly good judge of character: he’s terrified of Littlefinger (and who wouldn’t be), he likes Alayne (who appears to have some affection for him, and at the very least still has some semblance of conscience), can’t stand Harry (who is a dick, and clearly waiting for Robert to die) and isn’t too keen on Lyn Corbray either (a paedophile). So far he’s batting a thousand.
@24, You are correct, I thought it was in ADWD, but no, Tower of the Hand says AFFC. So it has been 10 years
Almost completely off-topic, but did Harry the Heir remind anyone else of Adolin Kholin?
There are quite a few similarities:
Young, handsome heirs to power and title, players, slightly dim, engaged to women beneath them socially but intellectually superior (Sansa running verbal rings around him was very Shallan-ish), sort of snobbish.
The big difference being that, since Adolin is in the hands of a more generous author, his flaws are treated as a source of humour and growth (it doesn’t hurt that his girlfriends usually dump him rather than the other way around) and his fiancee comes to love him in spite of the fact that he’s thick as two short planks.
Since GRRM is a…less generous author than Brandon, Harry’s flaws become full-blown moral failings and his fiancee is using him to advance her position politically.
@26, I have a suspicion that Harry’s about to die in this tournament
@16: She’s still thirteen/fourteen. It can’t be more than 9 months since we last saw her, because we know Harry’s mistress is still expecting his second child (the one we heard about in Feast). So, less icky, but yeah still pretty big difference in age.
@27 lol I had the same thought. Thanks
ObamaMartin@27 – hahahahaha :) I kept trying not to read Harry as ‘Harry Potter’ but it’s hard not to associate the name with that.
Regarding Lyn, I have a bad feeling about the safety of Lyonel’s wife/baby.
@29, It would be just like Martin to bring up Sansa’s hopes only to crash them down around her again. However, as has been pointed out, the title of this book(and the other chapters we’ve gotten) indicates the longcoming Stark resurgence is finally here.
So if this does fall down around her, it’s only going to enable a greater victory, so I’m excited!