George R.R. Martin, renowned writer for the ‘A Song of Ice and Fire’ series of books that spawned the award-winning hit television series Game of Thrones on HBO, has announced that a new chapter of Winds of Winter is available online.

The sixth book in the series, “Winds of Winter”, is still a work in progress for George R.R. Martin, but the author has decided to tide fans over by releasing another chapter from the new book. The latest chapter from book six is told from the perspective of Princess Arianne Martell, a character who is not yet a part of the television series. This chapter replaces the previous one about Alayne, which was on the official George R.R. Martin website for most of 2015.

Warning, some spoilers for both the book and the HBO series lie ahead.

The Martells, who were introduced on Season 4 of Game of Thrones through Prince Oberyn Martell (played by Pedro Pascal), and then subsequently in Season 5 with his older brother and ruler of Dorne, Doran Martel (played by Alexander Siddig), have had a much more significant role in Martin’s books versus what has been shown in the television series.

In the premier episode of season 6, the female warrior band known as the Sand Snakes were shown to have killed Doran Martell and his son. In the books, however, Doran’s plot line differs in that he was meant to marry his son to Daenerys Stormborn (played by Emilia Clarke), and eventually have the Sand Snakes crown Myrcella Baratheon as queen.

“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,” Martin said on his personal blog, Not a Blog. As a means to get people to stop going on about the new book’s time of arrival, he continued “…just to spike any bullsh— rumors, changing the sample chapter does NOT mean I am done”, ensuring fans that the monkey is still very well on his back, and only getting bigger.

For those of you who simply cannot wait for the new book to release, you can find the sample chapter here.

[Sources: Business Insider, Not a Blog]

Junior Editor at Vamers. From Superman to Ironman; Bill Rizer to Sam Fisher and everything in-between, Edward loves it all. He is a Bachelor of Arts student and English Major specialising in Language and Literature. He is an avid writer and casual social networker with a flare for all things tech related.