Confirmed reports regarding the actual status of the sixth installment in the highly popular "A Song of Ice and Fire" novel series are still quite scarce as George R.R. Martin and his publishers have continued to keep mum about its possible release date. With the continued delays of the upcoming new book, "The Winds of Winter," new reports have emerged which have now pinpointed the possible release date for the book to be around spring 2017.

Several reports have also predicted the same time frame as it would coincide with the upcoming release of the next season of the novel series' television adaptation, "Game of Thrones." It would make sense that the book should be released right before the release of the television series so it wouldn't spoil the big plot points of the show. While the show has already diverged from some of the events of the books it has been based on, some of the plot points are still expected to be relatively the same.

Other reports have also predicted that the next book in the novel series might be released alongside the seventh book titled "A Dream of Spring." The combined release of both books could explain a lot about why the best-selling author is taking so long to finish writing his latest book. While this hasn't been confirmed yet, some fans are now inclined to believe this claim as there hasn't really been any official explanations from Martin and his publishers.

As for the next book, "The Winds of Winter," spoiler reports have predicted that it may not really show as many deaths as the previous novels and that it might focus more on the ongoing conflict among the different characters and their eventual alliance to fight against the White Walkers. The next book is also rumored to be missing the presence of the Night King who is expected to likely be the focus of the seventh installment given his impending attack on Westeros.