'The Winds of Winter' release date news update: Book launch may happen sooner than expected

"The Winds of Winter," the sixth novel in the highly popular "A Song of Ice and Fire" book series written by the world renowned author, George R. R. Martin, has long been rumored to arrive this year. Unfortunately, the first half of 2016 has passed and yet, there is no glimpse yet of Martin's highly anticipated novel. Some fans have already given up their hopes that "The Winds of Winter" will be released this year, and instead might be further delayed until the middle of next year. However, it seems that not all hope is lost for those who could not wait to read the latest installment of "A Song of Ice and Fire."

Melty reported a hot rumor that recently spread in the Reddit forums. Particularly, a Reddit user under the name Burnfyre revealed a very surprising scoop regarding the book launch of "The Winds of Winter." He claimed that he already discovered the ISBN supposedly assigned for Martin's upcoming book, which implies that the book has already been registered in the ISBN office. Thus, "The Winds of Winter" is getting more likely to be published in the near future.

Furthermore, Burnfyre revealed that the new ISBN he discovered is associated with the Penguin Random House. This might be a bit surprising for some fans as it was also reported earlier than Harper Collins also registered an ISBN for the same novel, although this has yet to be verified by Martin or the publishing house itself. Still, it can't be denied that a lot of readers are now getting impatient with the delayed release of "The Winds of Winter." This year is perhaps the best time for the fans to get the sixth book as the sixth season of "Game of Thrones," which is heavily based on Martin's original writings, is supposedly based on "The Winds of Winter" and yet the Season 6 has already ended last June.

Over the past few months, Martin has already started teasing the fans with the finished chapters from "The Winds of Winter," like the excerpt for Aeron Greyjoy. This is also an indication that Martin is on its way to finishing the book.

Meanwhile, Digital Spy speculated that while there are rumors that "The Winds of Winter" may be released sooner than thought, there is also a possibility that it will be released alongside the seventh entry of the series called "A Dream of Spring." Even though Martin has already finished writing "The Winds of Winter," the fans may have to wait longer as the seventh book will have to be finished first before the two novels are released simultaneously.