George R R Martin to release Fire and Blood on November 20 this year! Artwork and illustration out

Game of Thrones author George R R Martin had announced that a new book in the series will be releasing this year! However, and unfortunately for fans, it's not the book everyone wanted. 

"No, winter is not coming… not in 2018, at least", announced Martin at the start of his blog post, referring to The Winds of Winter, which is to be the sixth book in the series. 

Martin is releasing Fire and Blood which, as the name suggests, is about the Targaryen dynasty. The author described the book thusly:

"It’s a hefty book, almost a thousand manuscript pages (okay, 989, if you want to be precise).   That’s not quite as long as A GAME OF THRONES or any of the later volumes in A SONG FOR ICE AND FIRE, but there’s a lot of reading there, and I hope you’ll enjoy it.  This first volume covers all the Targaryen kings from Aegon I (the Conquerer) to the regency of Aegon III (the Dragonbane), along with their wives, wars, siblings, children, friends, rivals, laws, travels, and sundry other matters.   For those not up on your Westerosi history, that’s Aegon I, Aenys, Maegor the Cruel, Jaehaerys I (the Conciliator), Viserys I, Aegon II (and Rhaenyra), and Aegon III (the regency).   Oh, and there are dragons too.

Lots of dragons."

Furthermore, the book will also contain over 75 black and white illustrations that will, no doubt, excite fans!

The book will be released on November 20 and a cover as well as an illustration has been released:

(Queen Rhaenys riding Meraxes)

At the end of his post he does write, however, that he's returning once again to The Winds of Winter and that his current mood is creative, so there's a bit of hope there, though it's unlikely that anything will really fill that giant void in fans' hearts on account of neither book, nor TV show season releasing this year.