Westeros

Something new from Linda and I: a video discussion between us about George R.R. Martin’s A Dance with Dragons, covering the experience of reading it early, where we place it in the hierarchy of the novels, and the beginnings of some more detailed discussion. Despite that, it is spoiler-free. It is, also, the first of three parts.

And, just to emphasize, this has been our first try and this, and there are various little problems—the video cuts off audio for the last few seconds (the result of a mistake in splitting it, I think), I need to tweak the microphone volume next time we record one of these, and I also had a bit of an allergy attack going on and so there’s some sniffling and nose-rubbing for which I very much apologize!

So, here’s part 1. The rest of the recording (split into two parts—it’s about 32 minutes long in total) will be ready tomorrow, we expect.

Not only is this a reminder to vote in the Tubey Awards over at Television Without Pity, but an encouragement to join the Game of Thrones fans who’ve supported the show through two rounds of Spoiler TV’s battle for best TV show. After a couple of relatively easy wins, Game of Thrones has come up against a venerable (yes, I went there!) favorite: Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Now, Linda and I adore Buffy and Angel and the works of Joss Whedon in general, owning the DVD sets and the comics and all that jazz…

But judging season for season, Game of Thrones certainly tops Buffy’s first season in our book. So why not give it a vote? There’s quite a few other shows being paired up against one another as well, for those interested in playing the field.

Vote now!

George R.R. Martin and several Wild Cards authors—Melinda Snodgrass, Victor Milan, and John Jos. Miller.—will today be signing copies of Fort Freak and other Wild Cards books at Page 1 Books in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The signing will run from 2:30PM through to around 5PM. George notes on his “Not a Blog” that this is very much a Wild Cards event:

Part 2 of the Speakeasy interview with GRRM has been posted, and in it George discusses A Dance with Dragons a far bit, with some remarks on The Winds of Winter. Another good one. Thanks to the interview, Christopher J. Farley, for pointing out that it was up!

We wrapped an interview with George over today, most of which we’ll publish on Monday. There are some spoilery bits that we’ll hold off for later.

Over at Suvudu, there’s an informative and interesting interview with the U.S. editor of A Dance with Dragons, Anne Groell concerning the novel and the series. The fact that the editors do actively play a role in shaping the novel is something that some people may be unaware of, or may choose to doubt because they have notions that a “big author” doesn’t get edited, and Anne sets that straight. We do wonder what it is that she learned about The Winds of Winter that has her so excited…

On top of that, GRRM recently revealed that A Dance with Dragons has gone into its sixth hardcover printing, and that’s before it’s even released on July 12th—clearly, demand is outstripping supply, and Bantam’s playing catch-up!

Want to add to their problems? Pre-order the book at Amazon.com: US, UK, Audio US, Audio UK

Just as we speculated yesterday, George R.R. Martin has confirmed that actress Gwendoline Christie (lovegwendoline on Twitter) is now Brienne of Tarth! As he says in his confirmation post:

Below is a sampling of Youtube videos featuring Christie.

Well, things are finally heating up on the casting front. After Natalie Dormer was announced as Margaery Tyrell, we had all expected roles to be noted one after another… but it was strangely silent. Word from HBO was that they weren’t really going to try to hide casting information as deals were made, but it seems that isn’t wholly right, since it seems two roles have been cast: Spotlight.com indicates that a Kerr Logan has been cast as a character named “Mathos”. This led to speculation that he’s playing Mathos Mallarwan, one of the Pureborn of Qarth, but word that that role hadn’t been cast and the fact that a Matthos Seaworth is one of Davos Seaworth’s sons makes us think that’s the role.

More notably since then, Spotlight has yielded up Gemma Whelan as “Yara Greyjoy”, which as Winter is Coming notes was the name of the role given to Theon’s sister in a casing call sheet that was shared at our A Song of Ice and Fire forum. It seems the aversion to having characters with similar names—hence Jhogo being renamed to Rakharo to avoid confusion with Drogo, and Robert Arryn to Robin Arryn—strikes again, given the similarity of Asha to Osha. Hrm…

And, last but not least, what seems to be a brand new clue from George, titled “I’m Blue”, which suggests we’re looking at Brienne of Tarth:

For what it’s worth, Isabella of France—wife of Edward II, mother of Edward III—was called the She-wolf of France. And the Barbican happens to be a noted theatre in the U.K., so we suspect we’re looking for an Isabella/Isabelle who’s performed at the Barbican, at present….

UPDATE:

Okay, we’re pretty sure we’ve figured this one out: Gwendoline Christie, a 6’3” actress and performer. In her association with musician Patrick Wolf, she shot the video for “Damaris”... which had a B-side titled “Queen Isabella”. She’s performed at the Barbican in the role of the Queen in Cymbeline, and she was photographed as Playboy Bunny by an Australian artist.

If this is so, we’re very happy indeed. She first came to our attention in November of last year when she tweeted that she really wanted the role, something we noted back then. From the talk on Twitter, it sounds like she was made aware of the role by fan Paul Gude, so good on him!. She’s remained our favorite choice for the role all this while, so if this is true, we’re pleased as punch.

The review embargo for A Dance with Dragons is lifted, and the reviews are now appearing. First out of the gate was James Hibberd with his not-quite-review for EW, which we linked here and gave our own, brief take to. Now there’s a number more, and we expect to say yet more in the coming days. Here’s a list:

• Tor.com: Author Jo Walton takes a look at the book in a spoiler-free way. She’s One Of Us in a way most professional book critics aren’t, so fantasy fans may find this the most interesting of the reviews.
• The Daily Beast: TV Critic Jace Lacob, a fan of the novels and the TV show alike, gives his views. It’s a very positive review, in which he closes by stating it, “might also be Martin’s finest work yet, a taut and relentless masterpiece…” For those who have avoided learning who new POVs in the book are, though, you’ll want to avoid this one as he names one of them.
• Time.com: Reviewer (and fantasy author) Lev Grossman writes a long and very positive review, although there’s a minor POV spoiler embedded in it (and, yes, Lev mixes up the number of novels in the series, though I expect that will be corrected in short order). He says, “Martin has produced—is producing, since the series isn’t over—the great fantasy epic of our era.”

We’re told the Daily Mail has also published a positive review of the book, but it doesn’t seem to be available on-line as of yet.

Not quite a review, but James Hibberd at Entertainment Weekly shares a few thoughts on the book in the course of answering 10 questions about the book. The spoilers are mild, but they’re there, so don’t click through if you don’t want to see it!

The Hastings store chain —with more than 100 locations—appear to be the first large chain bookseller to announce a chain-wide midnight release of A Dance with Dragons. According to their press release:

The praise for Game of Thrones over at Salon.com continues, with the series being placed on their “2011 - Best So Far” list. Critic Matt Zoller Seitz—who has thoroughly lauded the series —writes a brief comparison to AMC’s The Killing, how differently the two shows were received by critics to begin with, and how superior the show was to its time-slot competitor on AMC. Here’s the closing sentences:

We recently noted on Twitter that the New York Times weekly column on their bestseller list, “Inside the List”, mentioned George R.R. Martin and A Song of Ice and Fire, as the novels held four of the top ten positions on their Mass Market Paperback list.

Well, the New York Times bestseller list has been updated, and fully fifteen years after it was first published A Game of Thrones is now the #1 best seller, while the rest of the novels still hold positions on the top ten. It’s quite an amazing achievement, probably last matched by Charlaine Harris and the boom in sales that her Sookie Stackhouse have enjoyed after True Blood became a phenomena. A Game of Thrones is also #1 on the Publishers Weekly list for the first time, to our understanding, with two other books in the series in the top six.

Congratulations to George and to Bantam (as well as to Voyager in the UK, who’ve seen similar rises in sales), and a big thank you to HBO and the cast and crew of Game of Thrones, who helped kick the doors wide-open for hundreds of thousands new fans!

Thanks to olafkeith for the tip!

These are handy for the summer, to say the least: the HBO store now has Game of Thrones caps (at present featuring the logo, plus three of the major houses). You can get over to them here, or check out the Westeros.org store!

And, by the by, look at the top of the HBO Store: a 20% sale on all items, not just Game of Thrones, with the use of the SAVE20 code.

What are you waiting for?

John Picacio speaks with Tor.com about the 2012 A Song of Ice and Fire Calendar which he’s illustrating. There’s some insights into his process, and sneak peeks at a number of images (including the latest one he’s teased, his painting of Melisandre of Asshai), so check it out!

Canadian bookseller Chapters is sitting down with George R.R. Martin for an exclusive interview prior to the release of A Dance with Dragons, and they’re soliciting questions from fans! Questions must be submitted before 9 AM on July 4th.

Questions can be submitted at Chapter’s post or their Facebook page. (And just to be clear, those question will only be taken there; posting them in comments here will not help!)