George R.R. Martin confirms 'The Winds of Winter' will not be a happy book

LONDON -- Guess what, Game of Thrones fans? The Winds of Winter, if you can believe it, is not going to be a happy read.

George R. R. Martin has confirmed as much.

While answering questions onstage at Guadalajara International Book Fair, the author addressed the tone of his next instalment.

"There are a lot of dark chapters right now in the book that I'm writing," he said. "You know, it is called The Winds of Winter, and I've been telling you for 20 years that winter was coming. And winter's the time when things die, and you know... cold, and ice, and darkness fills the world.

"So this is not going to be the happy, feel-good book that people may be hoping for."

Yep, that's right: "Winter's the time when things die." That doesn't bode well, does it?

Martin went on to say that some of the characters are in a very dark place.

"In any story, the classic structure is things get worse before they get better," he said. "So things are getting worse for a lot of people."

During the hour-long Q & A (which you can watch in full above), Martin also spoke briefly about the end of his A Song of Ice and Fire series.

"We'll see by the end of the book if I've left any loose ends," he said in response to a question on juggling so many different characters. "I hope not.

"That's not to say that everything is going to be tied up completely neatly in a bow. I think there's a difference between a loose end and something that's deliberately left by the author ambiguous, or something for the readers to think about and worry about and debate about."

So from the sounds of it, A Dream of Spring might not be an entirely neat finish to the series. Or -- as you probably guessed -- a cheerful one.

"I'm not going to tell you how I'm going to end my book," said Martin. "But I suspect the overall flavour is going to be as much bittersweet as it is happy."

Oh dear.