Westeros

There’s a great deal of new coverage for A Dance with Dragons, now that the book has been released world-wide in its English editions. Our own forum has been hopping with discussion, and there’s some great articles and interviews out there. Here’s a sampling:

• EW Interviews GRRM: An excellent interview, although it has some small spoilers for both A Dance with Dragons and the next book, The Winds of Winter.
• Westeros Interviews GRRM: Posted late last night, but here it is again! A fairly vague, mild spoiler in there.
• Review at TIME.com: TV critic and series fan James Poniewozik reviews the book and also discusses the problems it may generate for TV adaptation. All in all, very positive: “All this makes for a thousand-page book that feels half as long, that moves dextrously, answers key questions and gobsmacks you with convincing feints and change-ups.”
• USA Today Cover Feature: With quotes from our friend David MaCaman, founder of the Brotherhood without Banners fan group, and Linda and I. Regarding the TV show, it notes that the average viewership per episode of the series has climbed to 8.9 million according to HBO.
• Green Bay Press Gazette: Reveals that over 650,000 copies of A Dance with Dragons are in print. That’s over twice the initial print run of A Feast for Crows. It also adds that 4 million copies of the previous four novels have been printed to cover demand since January of this year. 4 million. Since January. Simply mind-boggling. This brings the series up to 8.5 million copies in print in the U.S. alone.
• Review at the LA Times: Fantasy author Jeff VanderMeer gives an amazing review of the novel, his erudite knowledge of the field allowing him to place Martin in the context of his influences, particularly Jack Vance. Quite a fan of this one
• Review at Salon.com: Another exceptional review from Andrew Leonard, a staff writer at Salon who also happens to be a genuine fan of the series, but one who was not a great fan of the previous volume.
• Globe and Mail profile: A look at Martin’s relationship both to the novels and the TV series that springs from them.
• Review at NPR: Lev Grossman provides a second review, and reads it on NPR’s All Things Considered program.
• On Point Interview: Great radio interview with the On Point program on WBUR in Boston, ahead of his signing in Burlington today.