Westeros

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.

It’s the final round of the GoodReads Choice Awards!

A Dance with Dragons has survived the expansion of the field to twenty books and its collapse down to ten, final novels…. and not just in the Best Fantasy category, as it also remains in the overall Favorite Book category as well. And, as a cherry on the top, Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey (aka GRRM’s assistant Ty Franck and author Daniel Abraham) is up for Best Science Fiction.

As we did last season, we’re going to try and keep a (relatively) up to date screencap gallery as the first official videos start coming out, and Linda and I will try to add some useful commentary along the way touching on details that seem to be from the books and those that seem to differ, highlighting particular actors, and more.

First up, following the In Production video that just aired, we have thirty images—including our very first looks at Stannis, Melisandre, Davos, Margaery, and Maester Cressen, as well as some new locations such as Dragonstone and the Iron Islands. They can be found starting here, beginning with the shot of the slate from the fourth episode of the second season.

Note that there are references to A Clash of Kings in many of the comments, so beware of spoilers.

The in-production, behind the scenes video has now aired, and HBO has it available online! Check it out, comments (and screencaps a bit later!)

Via HBO, we’ve just learned that on November 20th, the first “in-production” behind the scenes look at Game of Thrones season 2 will air just before Boardwalk Empire (which airs at 9PM Eastern).

HBO promises that there will be never-before-seen footage (not too hard, there not having been any footage to date!) and our first look at some of the new characters and actors that populate this season. Best of all, for those without HBO, the footage will shortly afterward go up on Making Game of Thrones, the official production blog for the TV series.

An early Christmas present, clearly—I had thought we’d have to wait until the end of Boardwalk Empire‘s latest season before we’d get such footage. Most excellent!

Just a quick note to share with fans in the vicinity of Philcon 2011, a long-running science fiction convention running through Sunday in Crown Hill, New Jersey. On Saturday at 7 PM, there’ll be a panel dedicated to A Song of Ice and Fire, moderated by the excellent Dave Axler (a friend of GRRM and Parris, and of the Brotherhood without Banners). The program description (not written by Dave, he notes) states, “This his series, now up to five books, has also spawned a hit HBO mini-series. What is so special about Martin’s work? Is it the “new Dune”?”

Having been to a couple of conventions in the past, I can recommend them as an excellent way to talk about genre works, meet authors and editors and fellow fans, and more. More details about the convention can be found at its website.

The Goodreads Choice Awards have finished their first round of voting, so now’s the time to vote in round two. Just like last time, there’s a lot of interesting books in a number of categories. A Dance with Dragons has made the short list in both the “Best Book” and the “Best Fantasy Book” categories. Again, we should also note that George R.R. Martin’s assistant—Ty Franck—has the book he co-wrote with Daniel Abraham, Leviathan Wakes (written as James S.A. Corey), up in the “Best Science Fiction” category.

If you’re a Goodreads member (or are planning to join), give it a look, and vote for your favorite books of the past year!

Award-winning artist Justin Sweet has an exhibition of his work that opened on the 5th but is running through the 28th, at Gallery Nucleus in Alhambra, California. A number of his works—sketches, fantasy paintings featuring Robert E. Howard’s Conan and Kull, and more—are on display and on sale…

And among them is this rather terrific painting of Jon Snow and Ghost. Price? “Inquire”. (That probably means, “Expensive”.)

Unless I’m mistaken, I believe this is one of a number of paintings that Sweet has created for The World of Ice and Fire, which we’re writing with GRRM for Bantam with a prospective release some time next year.

If you’re a fan of fantasy art and are in the area, the gallery exhibition might be an excellent trip to make, if for no other reason than to get a closer look at that painting.

Via a quick, and utterly unmysterious post, GRRM has revealed who has been cast as the wildling raider known as the Lord of Bones, more commonly mocked as Rattleshirt: Edward Dogliani.

Rattleshirt is one of the chief wildling raiders at the time of the novels, having taken the name of Lord of Bones from the bone-armor he wears (including a helmet made from a giant’s skull). In the novels, he’s described as shorter and scrawnier than his armor makes him, and has an ill-favored look to him. Suffice it to say, he’ll be an antagonist for a certain popular character as the story goes forward.

Dogliani’s CV and a few headshots can be found at the agency website where he’s represented, Marcus and McCrimmon.

It’s been a little quiet on the A Song of Ice and Fire front from Dark Sword Miniatures, but their latest update includes something they describe as a surprise for GRRM… and, boy howdy, it must be a real surprise. The legendary sculptor Tom Meier has been at work on this stunning new miniature of Ser Loras Tyrell, the Knight of Flowers, in his tournament armor.

Unlike the previous Ser Loras miniature, this one will be sold as a 54mm figure, something that only two or three of the earlier miniatures have had the benefit of (the other two were Merei’s gorgeous Daenerys and the 54mm version of his Tyrion). The Knight of Flowers is also the only character besides Daenerys to receive a second figure, I believe.

According to Jim at Dark Sword, this Loras is the culmination of 160 hours of work, the longest that Meier has ever worked on a single piece. That cloak made out of forget-me-knots is simply amazing, especially when you consider the fact that the figure is about 2 inches tall.

For those who’ve been keeping an eye on Valyrian Steel—the only official producer of replica weapons based on A Song of Ice and Fire, with direct input from George R.R. Martin—their latest creation, King Robert’s warhammer, is finally up for pre-order. It’s a massive thing, and there’s a nicely illustrative video that gives a sense of how hefty it is and what sort of damage it could do (note: no, you shouldn’t actually use this to hit anyone!)

Besides the warhammer, they’ve created Longclaw and Needle, as well as Ice (including an extremely limited “Damascus” version). I believe their future plans include Khal Drogo’s arakh, an obsidian dagger, and more.

Since our last report about actor and singer Guðmundur Ingi Þorvaldsson having auditioned for a role for the next two seasons, some more details about the shooting in Iceland has appeared.