Westeros

We thought we’d provide a little background to the iOs app that Random House released, titled A World of Ice and Fire, for those who’ve been peppering the forums and ourselves with questions about them. We’re very pleased at all the excitement, to say the least! First up, here’s the official press release that followed the app’s release:

Now, the origins of it… the name of the app is no coincidence, given that it shares its title with the book that we’re co-writing with GRRM. In fact, a good part of the content in the app was originally slated for said book. However, that book has more than enough content already planned, between the histories, the family trees, the art, the maps ... and truth be told, the book seemed the best place to focus on the setting as opposed to the characters. Somewhere along the way, the app idea came up. This was all bubbling along at levels above our pay grade, so to speak, so we didn’t really know anything of it until one day the editor of the book (and the A Song of Ice and Fire series), Anne Groell, contacted us to let us know that they had found an interesting use for that material.

Suffice it to say, that sounded really cool. And it was even more interesting when it turned out that the content we had so far (which was many, many entries at that point) needed some additions and expansions, plus it needed to be broken up into chunks suitable for preventing spoilers. A mad flurry of activity, and eventually you have what you see today.

The vast majority of the app really only restates, in more concise form, details that are scattered across the novels; many things you might think are new are just things you’ve forgotten or didn’t quite piece together, in other words! But there are some new details buried in there, both minor and not-so-minor, thanks to a long, long Q&A with GRRM that provided us quite a few details that have never been confirmed before. In the case of some entries that seemed to be particularly sensitive in terms of the overarching plot, special note of them was made so that they could receive extra scrutiny and make sure (to the best of our ability) that they were correct.

Even so, it’s a massive document behind the app, and little mistakes will slip in despite the best efforts of everyone involved (we’ve already found and are working on correcting a few) . Omissions, too, have happened that weren’t intended; that’ll be worked on as well, though no ETA on that. There are also places where the choice of wording could well be taken to mean something that wasn’t intended, or may simply emphasize an idea in such a way that you could read more into it than was intended. That’s harder to correct, but suffice it to say, we’ve been getting notes and comments that will be put to good use in revising and expanding the app in the future.

Finally, a lot of people have asked if there’ll be an Android version. All we know for certain is that it

is now available on the Nook, and that’s derived from Android. I wouldn’t rule out an Android version down the road, of course—anything’s possible!