After a long hiatus, it appears that Swedish publisher Forum is giving the “A Song of Ice and Fire” series a third try in translation. Originally having published the first novel back in 1997, slow sales in Sweden led them to drop it until a few years ago when they published the first three novels in the series in translation. Again, however, slow sales—Sweden has a very high percentage of readers who read genre fiction in English rather than in translation—led them to stop. Now they’re back at it, republishing the first three books in paperback and then tackling A Feast for Crows.

Right when the TV series was in the offing, there were efforts to get Forum to bring the books back into print, including some e-mails from us urging them to that effect. The staggering popularity of the new novel, and the series in general following HBO’s television adaptation, seems to have finally swayed Forum to give it another chance.

Here’s their present publishing plan, with the first three novels being republished in paperback:

• Kampen om järntornen (A Game of Thrones) September 19
• Kungarnas krig (A Clash of Kings) October 19
• Svärdets makt (A Storm of Swords) November 21
• Kråkfesten (preliminary title for the translation of A Feast for Crows) Spring or Autumn 2012
• A Dance with Dragons (no announced Swedish title) 2013