content: 
  == Plot ==
  ''The Winds of Winter'' will take readers farther north than any of the previous books, and the Others will appear in the book. The previous installment, ''A Dance with Dragons'', covered less story than Martin intended, excluding at least one planned large battle sequence and leaving several character threads ending in cliffhangers. Martin intends to resolve these storylines "very early" in ''The Winds of Winter'', saying "I'm going to open with the two big battles that I was building up to, the battle in the ice and the battle at Meereen — the battle of Slaver's Bay. And then take it from there." A Victarion Greyjoy chapter will begin five minutes after the end of ''A Dance with Dragons'', taking place on the eve of the Ironborn's arrival in Slaver's Bay. Arianne Martell sample chapters that Martin released on his Web site showed her heading for Griffin's Roost to see the young man who is calling himself Aegon VI Targaryen. At Guadalajara International Book Fair 2016, Martin gave some clues about the dark nature of ''The Winds of Winter'': ... "I've been telling you for 20 years that winter was coming. Winter is the time when things die, and cold and ice and darkness fill the world, so this is not going to be the happy feel-good that people may be hoping for. Some of the characters are in very dark places. .... Things get worse before they get better, so things are getting worse for a lot of people."