Another update from GRRM, one of the Angelenos. He’ll be over in Los Angeles in early January (remember, he’s due to attend the TCA Winter Press Tour panel on January 7th) and he’ll be seeing about arranging some public events, such as a signing (probably in the San Fernando Valley area) or a mini-moot. The latter seems almost a certainty, as he adds that David McCaman—a fixture and long-time organizer of the Brotherhood without Banners fan club—will be organizing event on that same day, January 9th.
Keep an eye out here and on the this thread for more details in the days to come.
George adds a tantalizing final note: he may have something exciting to announce ... and maybe two exciting things, “but don’t quote me on that”.
As part of the fifth anniversary of their site, the Tower of the Hand has polled its community of users to determine a list of the top 30 favorite characters, and each day features a profile for one of these characters as they count their way down to the most popular character of them all. Today, they’ve presented the #8 character in their poll, Davos Seaworth, with a profile written by yours truly.
I was quite honored to be invited to participate in this. Congratulations to Johnny, Alex, and the rest of the Tower of the Hand crew!
Via “Not a Blog”, George informs fans that a report and video from Fantasy Flight Games following their Days of Ice and Fire event have been posted. The video’s quite cool, featuring GRRM’s remarks on his cameo in HBO’s Game of Thrones, a few examples of name pronunciations, and remarks from a panel including two of his Wild Cards collaborators, Melinda Snodgrass (who’s just posted some interesting thoughts on Dragon Age 2) and Ian Tregillis.
You can find these reports (plus the video), along with other Days of Ice and Fire reports, at the So Spake Martin collection.
Ser Gregor Clegane, the Mountain that Rides, has climbed over the corpses of his enemies to reach the championship of Suvudu’s Villains Cagematch 2010. His final opponent? The Reaper, from the works of Terry Brooks. Suvudu has a great write-up of how they think the battle would go… except for the fact that they have the end result wrong. ;)
Want to weigh in? Vote now!
Suvudu’s Villains Cage Match continues, with the Mountain that Rides against victorious after having smashed Gaius Baltar’s head in for him. Now his next challenge: the Terminator (T-800 model)! Suvudu’s own experts have made their prediction that the Mountain will prevail… but only votes from fans and readers can really decide the outcome, so vote now!
Reports from Fantasy Flight Games‘s Days of Ice and Fire event, featuring GRRM, have started to come in thanks to Ice and Fire forum member the Mastiff. First off, we have non-spoiler Q&A discussion, with some amusing anecdotes. This will be added to the So Spake Martin collection soon.
And then… big, honking spoilers here, because this is an exhaustive report of GRRM’s reading of a chapter from A Dance with Dragons, featuring the onion knight, Davos Seaworth: Davos 2.
Thanks to the Mastiff, and everyone else who is likely to put in additional reports both from the event and the Brotherhood without Banners lunch with George.
Fans of the A Song of Ice and Fire series around the world have found inspiration in GRRM’s series, whether it leads to cosplay, fan art, game mods, and more. One area fertile for inspiration are songs inspired by the novels, and certainly several metal bands have taken up the cause, as have instrumental composers.
Songs directly taken from the novels, on the other hand, have been less common. Presented below are two very fine examples, however. The first, from the second Belfast Moot (my report on it can be found here), is a rendition of “The Last of the Giants” from A Storm of Swords, by Brotherhood without Banners and A Song of Ice and Fire forum member lilsisorcha:
When she started singing, I have to admit, the emotive lament of the song sent a shiver up my spine. Beautiful.
The next is a truly amazing rendition of “The Bear and the Maiden Fair” ... but in Spanish! It’s a remarkable version, not least because it’s such a lively song that seems absolutely right for a crowded feasting hall, with men and women slamming their fists down in time with the jaunty tune:
Have pointers to any other songs developed directly from lyrics in A Song of Ice and Fire? Note them in the comments!
Suvudu’s latest cage match series focuses on villains, and representing George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire is the Mountain that Rides, Ser Gregor Clegane. He’s defeated Dracula and Morgan le Fay in his last two matches, but now he faces his biggest challenge yet:
Gaius Baltar, the sleazy, self-aggrandizing celebrity scientist of Battlestar Galactica.
Voting on the result of the cage match continues through Thursday. The winner of this contest—and we’re sure it’ll be the Mountain, right?—will go on to face the winner of the contest between the T-800 Terminator and Fenris the Feared. The Terminator seems to be winning that one handily, but if you have the time to vote, we urge you to vote for the Feared, one of Joe Abercrombie‘s more memorable villains.
In any case, go and vote for the Mountain!
Before I can get to posting about the Moot (and, yes, everything else I saw earlier that day), I want to spread the word that, unfortunately, some personal property belonging to Parris was taken from the event and it is very desperately desired to be returned. There were several banners that were used to decorate the venue, and one in particular is a one-of-the-kind. If you read this, and you know who has possession of it, please direct them to this post from Parris about the possible repercussions for such events in the future if this problem is not corrected as soon as possible.
If you have it, or know who has it, please do the right thing.
Despite my best efforts to procrastinate and lead to a fait accompli preventing me from attending (yes, I leave everything to the last minute!), it seems that I shall in fact be heading to Belfast in a few hours, to attend the Belfast Moot which GRRM and a host of fans (including some extras from the production) will be attending tomorrow evening. Reporting through Friday will be light, though I’m hopeful I’ll have opportunity to write up a couple of reports both pre- and post-moot.
Looking forward to meeting many new faces among the Brotherhood without Banners!
Suvudu’s running another cage match (after their previous, massively-popular one in which Jaime Lannister narrowly lost to Rand al’Thor), and this time the representative for A Song of Ice and Fire is none other than Ser Gregor Clegane, the Mountain that Rides. He’s been pitted against Dracula, and could use your support to put an end to the undead vampire count.
Really, I think old Vlad would turn tail and flap his bat wings away if he came face to face with this monstroous knight.
Amy of Shiny Cooking has posted a fantastic write-up of an A Song of Ice and Fire-theme dinner party she put together for the Project Food Blog challenge, which is currently being voted on. She includes a photo of the menu for the day, which features quotes and references for many of the dishes.
It sounds like a delicious set of dishes, with a Dornish-themed starter all the way through dessert which were—what else?—lemon cakes. Definitely worth a vote!
David Barr Kirkley and John Joseph Adams of the Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy podcast have moved from Tor.com to io9, and their first new episode in their new digs features George R.R. Martin. A very wide ranging discussion over about 50 minutes and it sounds like it’ll be a terrific listen.
As has become tradition, the Brotherhood without Banners—George R.R. Martin’s unofficial fan club—are going to be throwing room parties at this year’s Worldcon in Melbourne, Australia. Precise details of time and date will be arriving soon, but flyers are being prepared (date and time to be confirmed). The fans are also organizing a book raffle at the site, filled with some notable prize packages, and George and Parris seem like they’ll be contributing some goodies to the prize pool.
If you’re thinking of attending this year’s Worldcon, drop by Westeros.org’s forum, where this and other fan gatherings are planned and discussed. As is also traditional, there’s a couple of threads where fans who aren’t attending are posting questions they’d like to see answered during George’s two Q&A sessions at his HBO panel and his ADwD reading; naturally, the So Spake Martin collection will become a repository for all the interesting reports and items that come out of the convention.
George R.R. Martin has posted his schedule for this year’s Worldcon, AussieCon 4 in Melbourne, Australia. Here’s GRRM’s schedule and comments on it below:
FRIDAY SEPT 3
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3:00 pm A GAME OF THRONES on television - the HBO series (I do not want to disappoint anyone, so please note, this will just be me talking and answering questions, I do NOT repeat NOT have any footage, trailers, teasers, or even slides to show).
SATURDAY SEPT 4
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11:00 am reading from A DANCE WITH DRAGONS
12 noon signing
1:00 pm interviewing Melinda M. Snodgrass about her career in books and TV
SUNDAY SEPT 5
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12 noon panel: Jack Vance and the Dying Earth
1:00 pm kaffeeklatsche (advance signup required)
MONDAY SEPT 6
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2:00 pm panel: Zombie v. Vampire Smackdown
This just covers the official programming during the days. The real heart of any worldcon are the parties at night, so those of you attending your first con will want to keep that in mind, and plan on hanging around until the wee hours.