George R. R. Martin says the new Game of Thrones book will be out in 2017

The news we’ve waited six long years for is finally here: George R.R. Martin says the newest book in his A Song of Ice and Fire series is coming this year.

In the six long years it’s been since the last book in the ASOIAF series has been released, the books were adapted into an HBO television drama called Game of Thrones. Perhaps you’ve heard of it.

Responding to a query on his Livejournal about an ETA for The Winds of Winter, Martin replied: “[I’m] not done yet, but I’ve made progress. But not as much as I hoped a year ago, when I thought to be done by now.”

“I think it will be out this year.”

Don’t get too excited about these words, however, because Martin did cover himself by adding: “(But hey, I thought the same thing last year).”

When the adaptation began in 2011, fans, producers and Martin himself didn’t expect the television series to catch up with the books, which had a five book head start. Unfortunately, after series five in 2015, the television showrunners David Benioff & D.B. Weiss were faced with exactly that scenario and created season six without the aid of Martin’s book for the first time. Book lovers faced the strange possibility of spoilers from the television series.

The upcoming book will hopefully reveal what really happens after Jon Snow’s ambiguous death (somehow, we expect his resurrection to be a little more complex in the books), what Bran’s going to learn from the Three-Eyed Raven (it’s probably still time travel), and what exactly happens to the blind Arya in Bravos (probably still that she becomes more of a bad-ass).

It’s not clear how much of what happened in season six of Game of Thrones was a spoiler for The Winds of Winter, but it has already been revealed the traumatic Hodor origin story is straight out of Martin’s famously twisted mind.

Hopefully, we’ll find out later this year!