Westeros

And it’s at Making Game of Thrones, HBO’s official production site. It’s brief, but it features Maisie Williams discussing her “new look” as Arya Stark for season 2 of the series. Find it embedded below:

George R.R. Martin is among many other artists and authors besides have made contributions to Magick 4 Terri, a fundraiser to benefit artist, editor, and writer Terri Windling who’s hit a rough patch for herself and her family.

Windling has been a key player in pushing forward the writing of mythic fiction and taking inspiration from fairy tales. The Fairy Tale series of novels which she originated have seen some fantastic novels, such as Pamela Dean’s Tam Lin, Tanith Lee’s White as Snow, and Steve Brust’s The Sun, the Moon, and the Stars, while the many collections she’s co-edited with Ellen Datlow have been a showcase for many great stories both in the areas of mythic fiction and general fantasy and horror. Her role in founding Endicott Studio, which includes a diverse set of members from artists Thomas Canty, Alan Lee, and Charles Vess to writers Neil Gaiman, Jane Yolen, and Ellen Kushner, has helped foster the mythic arts in a wide range of mediums.

So far, it looks like GRRM has contributed three items to the auction, signed copies of Starlady/Fast-Friend, Fevre Dream #1, and Nightflyers. Possibly others will be added later. Items from Neil Gaiman will soon be added, to join the many amazing bits of art, rare books, crafts, manuscripts, tuckerizations, dedications, personalizations, and more.

It is a very good cause, and there’s bound to be something of interest for everyone, so please visit the Magick 4 Terri site.

With the wealth of new information on the March 6th release of the DVD and Blu-Ray Season 1 sets of Game of Thrones, including the fact that the HBO Store is offering an exclusive companion disc for those who order the DVDs or Blu-Rays via their store (which is presently offering $10 off a $100 order if you use GOTAFF20 at checkout).

And now… there’s more. Or at least, the promise of more.

Valyrian Steel, official producers of replica weapons inspired by George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series, have had a few updates of late that are worth noting.

Thanks to a tip, we’ve found this article by Freya Gígja Gunnarsson of the Icelandic paper, Fréttablaðið, in which she reports on a visit to the set near Svínafell glacier where they were able to watch Kit Harington and talk to some of the production crew. And as a treat, the article gives us our first look at Jon Snow‘s costume for Season 2, and a separate video report with more shots of Harington, and snippets from Benioff & Weiss. The report starts at the 1 minute mark.

Hard on the heels of EW’s exclusive details from the DVD and Bluray sets, the HBO Store has come out swinging with an exclusive to bring pre-orders straight to them.

According to the official Game of Thrones Twitter and Facebook accounts, pre-orders at the HBO store for the DVD and BluRay season 1 sets will come with an HBO Store-exclusive additional disc, “Creating the World of Westeros”, which should provide more behind-the-scenes looks at the production’s bringing the world of A Song of Ice and Fire to life.

Alas, the HBO Store is US-only, and the HBO UK store doesn’t even list the DVDs and BluRays yet. You can of course preorders for the DVDand Blu-Ray sets at Amazon.com and others retailers, but they won’t include the exclusive disc.

Decisions, decisions….

Now that word’s been going around regarding the DVD and Blu-Ray set, EW’s come in with some exclusive details, images, and even a video.

The biggest news is that the prospective release date is a couple of weeks earlier than previously speculated: March 6th. At a guess, this more strongly supports the idea that the premiere of the 2nd season is in the first half of April (Luck wraps its 9-episode season on March 25th, so theoretically Game of Thrones could air as early as April 1st). Best to mark that calendar (and get those pre-orders in, as we suspect the show will be #1 with a bullet at Amazon and other retailers, and who knows if supply will meet demand in the initial rush). Besides that, James Hibberd provides some excellent looks at original art and storyboards for the production.

The comic book adaptation of George R.R. Martin’s A Game of Thrones continues, with issue #3 hitting shelves tomorrow. With art by Tommy F. Patterson and script by Daniel Abraham, it’s one of the most faithful adaptations from book to comic that we’ve seen. Well worth checking out!

If you’re not sure where your nearest comic shop is, the Comic Shop Locator is a handy service.

Thanks to Volokh Online, we’ve come across this podcast—part of a series by the Institute for Humane Studies at George Mason University—discussing the topic of liberty as expressed in A Song of Ice and Fire. The main speaker is Amber Taylor, a writer for The Atlantic. Some very interesting topics brought up in the course of the discussion, especially in regards to Sansa and Daenerys.

For those who aren’t fond of listening in to podcasts, a transcript can be found further down the page.

James Hibberd of Entertainment Weekly has now published a two-page article on his set visit to Croatia a couple of months ago, where filming was going on for scenes set in King’s Landing as well as in the exotic city of Qarth. Several photos illustrate the piece, including a depiction of Fort Lovrijenac which served as a setting for King’s Landing scenes, and two photos from the Qarth set.

One depicts a line of Qartheen guards with spears and shields, and robed figures behind them, and feature the walls of Qarth which we’ve glimpsed previously.  The other photo, on the second page, is interesting in that it depicts a horse carrying three baskets or cages (two of them visible) which Hibberd identifies as being where Daenerys Targaryen keeps her three, newly-hatched dragons when she and the Dothraki are travelling.

Hibberd promises more exclusives in the coming months, so be sure to keep an eye out on EW’s Inside TV for future reports.

Amazon.de, the German arm of the retail giant, has provided fans the first glimpse of the packaging for HBO’s boxset of the first season of Game of Thrones, which will be available in the U.S. on March 20th in both DVD and Blu-ray editions.

It’s certainly a pretty handsome box-set, and it looks to be quite feature-filled. The best part is that the bonus features can be seen, and suffice it to say, there’s plenty. Here’s a run-down:

Last week, Tor.com announced that four of the Wild Cards novels will be available for just $2.99 each in e-book editions available in the US.. Wild Cards is the oldest, still-active original shared world setting, created by George R.R. Martin and a number of fellow authors. Detailing an alternate history where an alien virus led to mass casualties, disfigurement, and a handful of individuals with superhuman abilities, the Wild Cards universe has seen 21 novels (a 22nd due next year), comic books, and roleplaying games, while being a playground for authors as varied as Roger Zelazny, Walter Jon Williams, Carrie Vaughn, Melinda Snodgrass, and of course George R.R. Martin.

The four books that are part of the offer are the re-issue of the book that started it all, Wild Cards, and then the three novels of the “new generation” trilogy: Inside Straight, Busted Flush, and Suicide Kings. Again, to take advantage of these prices, you’ll have to be in the U.S.—Amazon members with foreign addresses will see the regular prices; possibly other stores may show the $2.99 price, depending on their policies.

The new trilogy’s a good read, while Wild Cards I is something of a classic in superhero fiction, introducing a range of memorable characters marked by an unusually realistic approach to dealing with their lives and travails.

Fantasy Flight Games has released the second edition of its highly-regarded Game of Thrones: The Board Game (Amazon: US, UK). Ranking in the top 100 games at Board Game Geek (which lists and rates over 50,000 board games), it’s one of the earliest licensed products based on George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire, being almost a decade old at this time.

The new edition presents revised and clarified rules, incorporates a number of popular elements from the two expansions released for the original edition, and more. For more details about the game, check out FFG’s official page.

Entertainment Weekly‘s James Hibberd has revealed through a tweet that he spent time on the set of Game of Thrones when filming was going on in Dubrovnik. In the tweet, he coyly refers to an outdoorsy, pet-owning girl he met while travelling… and he shared a photo of himself posing with Emilia Clarke in costume as Daenerys Targaryen.

What interests us most is the background, however, which is our first glimpse at one of the sets built to represent the fabled city of Qarth.

The good folks at A Podcast of Ice and Fire have released a brand new episode after a two month hiatus, discussing various topics including GRRM signing a copy of Tuf Voyaging for Mimi, their views on A Dance with Dragons several months on, and more. And, about the 45 minute mark, they called me out of the blue and we chatted a bit more about the novels and the TV show.

It’s worth checking out, as is their extensive archive of prior episodes.