Over at Mission Unknown, contributor Paul Vaughn mentions the enjoyment he’s had in reading through GRRM’s A Song of Ice and Fire for the first time this years. Others contributing to the site’s listing of favorite SF/F/H of 2009 are award-winning artist John Picacio (currently working on the 2011 A Song of Ice and Fire calendar), author Sanford Allen, and more.
It’s the season for list making, and Brainz.org pitches in with a top 10 fantasy series of all time list where they rank George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire as the greatest series of them all. This has naturally sparked a good deal of discussion on the web, such as at social bookmark site Digg (of course, some of the discussion is focued on the failure of Terry Goodkind’s “masterpiece” in not making the list ...)
Great a fan as I am, I admit I can’t put it ahead of The Lord of the Rings, but a high position in any such ranking is pretty much a given.
Fantasy Flight Games, maker of the Game of Thrones card game, is now making available one of its unique, three-dimensional resin house cards. The Martell house card is a unique item—almost an art object, with its “Viper’s Bite” theme referencing both the arms of House Martell (sun pierced by a spear) and its most famous son, the Red Viper.
Jay Tomio of BSCreview gives a sneak peek at an upcoming contest, planned to be officially launched on January 3rd, for a limited edition Giclée print of Jeffrey Jones’ cover for Meisha Merlin’s Game of Thrones limited edition. We’ve previously reported the availability of this print.
Over on Twitter, Tomio stated that members of the A Song of Ice and Fire forum who enter the contest (and remind him of their membership) will get an extra entry counted in their name, which is a very generous gesture on his part (thanks, Jay!)
GRRM’s official site has been updated with a number of new book covers, and his “Not A Blog” has a reminder on his end-of-year sale on a number of his books that he has for sale. The original post concerning the sale is here.
The Television Zombies podcast has Winter is Coming proprietor, Phil (aka Halfhand on the A Song of Ice and Fire Forum) on for an episode focused on HBO’s Game of Thrones production. A fun listen, and Phil’s kind enough to give Westeros.org a shoutout—thanks, Halfhand!
Patrick of Pat’s Fantasy Hot List has again selected the A Song of Ice and Fire forum as the best SF/F forum on the web. It’s always an honor and a pleasure for the community to receive such recognition. Our Literature sub-forum has attracted a host of insightful fans, well-read reviewers, and interesting authors over the years which has led to a good deal of interesting discussion.
Over at the U.K.‘s Guardian newspaper, actor Harry Lloyd is on their 2010 Hot List, where it’s written that Lloyd describes HBO’s Game of Thrones with, “relish as a ‘dark, political intrigue set in a fantasy world… with incest’.” Newsweek has another list, “Most Important People in 2010”, which includes HBO president Sue Naegel. In the couse of describing reasons for why she is important and various projects on tap, the entry also notes “a potential order for the hotly anticipated fantasy series Game of Thrones”.
(Thanks to Winter is Coming and readers ninepenny and the rabbit for bringing these tidbits to light.)
Over at Publisher’s Weekly, award-winning science fiction author Connie Willis is interviewed regarding her latest work. In the course of it, she reminisces on the changes in the science fiction field since she started. It includes an anedcote concerning George R.R. Martin:
You’ve been writing science fiction for over 30 years. How has the genre changed during that time?
‘At my very first writer’s conference, George R.R. Martin said to me, “It’s a pity you’re getting into science fiction right now, because it’s on its last legs.” Not only was that not true, but now you can’t turn on a TV without seeing our influence everywhere, and some of the best science fiction I’ve ever read is being written right now. Science fiction is an amazing literature: plot elements that you would think would be completely worn out by now keep changing into surprising new forms. I have great faith in the future of books—no matter what form they may take—and of science fiction.’
Green Ronin’s A Song of Ice and Fire Roleplaying Game is #4 on Suvudu’s Top 10 Tabletop Roleplaying Games list, the first in a series of “Top 10” lists they’ll be offering through the end of the year.
A pair of new posts at George R.R. Martin’s “Not a Blog” provide updates on various “odds and ends”. First, he notes that Suicide Kings, the final volume in the new “Wild Cards” trilogy, is now on sale. Then in a longer post he reports that the original Wild Cards novel will be re-released with three brand-new stories, and the next “Wild Cards” novel Fort Freak is well under way with all first drafts in and revision notes out.
Finally, GRRM shares the fact that the cross-genre anthology he and Gardner Dozois have edited is nearly ready for delivery, though the title has been changed from Star-Crossed Lovers to Songs of Love and Death. GRRM includes a partial list of contributors: Diana Gabaldon, Jim Butcher, M.L.N. Hanover, Peter S. Beagle, Marjorie Liu, Jacqueline Carey, Carrie Vaughn, Robin Hobb, and Neil Gaiman.
The good folks at Valyrian Steel provide an update on the shipping status of their latest reproduction, Needle, as well as shipping information for Longclaw. Needle will start shipping the week after Christmas, but if you order by the 23rd there’s still a chance to get in Longclaw in the U.S. by the holiday if you use the air-mail option or even by ground mail if you live close to the distribution centers in Michigan and California.
An interview with actor Harry Lloyd, cast as Viserys Targaryen, in the Gay Times mentions his enthusiasm for the project and the role. The relevant paragraphs can be found on the third page of the feature, transcribed below:
Adam Whitehead, aka Werthead, of the Wertzone and the A Song of Ice and Fire forum has posted a lengthy and detailed FAQ for the forum’s Game of Thrones series section providing answers to common questions regarding the production. You can find it at the forum.
Tamzin Merchant, cast as Daenerys Targaryen in HBO’s pilot for Game of Thrones, is featured in her role as Catherine Howard in the course of this promo for Showtime’s The Tudors, entering its fourth and final season this April. Some choice (and rather racy) imagery in the course of the trailer, and one quite beautiful one of Merchant on the floor with a mask.
Due to a tip shared over at Winter is Coming, it seems HBO filed for merchandise-related trademarks for Game of Thrones back in June, and most recently renewed an application on December 9. The text of that filing can be found here, and the rest of the filings can be found here.
Following on our previous report, it’s been pointed out to us that Marc Simonetti’s Deviant Gallery also includes a fourth cover painting for A Feast for Crows. The artist seems to have gone to town with these, focusing on strong, evocative color choices. The image, and more information about the “A Song of Ice and Fire” publishing situation in France as well as Marc Simonetti, can be found below:
Hard on the heels of their latest release, Fantasy Flight Games has the next chapter pack expansion for their popular Game of Thrones card game. A Sword in the Darkness is a 40-card set including 20 brand new cards (3 each of 10 of the cards, according to commentator Will—thanks!), drawing thematic inspiration from the Night’s Watch.
Halfhand of Winter is Coming points that the original source for our post about Peter O’Meara expressing interest in Game of Thrones, this fuller release from PRWeb, makes things seem more like a hope of the actor’s rather than any sign of a clear commitment for a role should the production goes forward. It also reveals that he did in fact audition, as speculated, but was passed over for the part of Jaime Lannister (a fate dealt to Jamie Bamber, and according to rumor Garret Dillahunt as well) in favor of Nikolaj Coster-Waldau. O’Meara is quoted as saying:
“Well, I did read for HBO Game of Thrones but the role went to Nikolaj Coster Waldau. That hurt like hell because I love the David Benioff script. He’s a genius writer. His ‘City of Thieves’ is my favourite novel of the last ten years. If I have any new years career wish its to join the world of fire and ice he’s creating with HBO. Fingers crossed. Failing that I’ll happily play a Vampire in the next Twilight saga. I’ll bring my own teeth.”
Fantasy Flight Games reports that their latest expansion for their popular Game of Thrones Living Card Game, Princes of the Sun, is now available for purchase at gaming stores and their webstore. With a thematic focus on Dorne and House Martell, the expansion includes sixty brand new cards (with accompanying art from a host of artists) to introduce into the card game.
Via the A Song of Ice and Fire forum, we learn that Irish actor Peter O’Meara seems to hope that he’ll be involved in Game of Thrones next year via this press release that’s making the rounds.
Over at Winter is Coming, speculation runs that O’Meara auditioned for a role in the pilot and was passed over, but has been told by the casting director and/or producers they have in mind for another role if HBO greenlights the series. O’Meara, a veteran of film and television productions, has been associated with HBO producitons before—he had a role in the acclaimed miniseries, Band of Brothers, as 1st Lieutenant Norman Dike.
Dark Sword Miniatures now has four new miniatures on sale from the George R.R. Martin Masterworks series. Ser Gregor Clegane, Prince Oberyn Martell, Victarion Greyjoy, and Aeron Greyjoy have all been previewed before, but they’re now available for purchase. Dark Sword has also updated their galleries with pictures of the completed miniatures painted by some of their award-winning artists.
Thanks to our friends at La Garde de Nuit, we’ve learned that GRRM’s French publishers, J’ai Lu, are republishing the “A Song of Ice and Fire” series in integral paperback editions. The French standard up to now has been to split each book into three volumes, so these new integral editions should be welcome to French readers. Besides standardizing the novels into single volumes, they come equipped with brand-new cover art by artist Marc Simonetti, who has provided art for Fantasy Flight Games in the past.
Simonetti has shared the covers for the first two books, which will be published at the same time in January 2010, as well as the cover for the third at his Deviant Art page in a gallery with his other “A Song of Ice and Fire” pieces for Fantasy Flight Games. The integral edition of A Storm of Swords is set for a June release, and the integral edition of A Feast for Crows is set for a September release.
Westeros has finally undergone a long-planned redesign, which brings a new, unified look to all of the various subsites. We hope our visitors will find it easier to navigate between the subsites as well as within the subsites. There’s still some polishing and finetuning left to do, so expect to see little changes here and there over the coming weeks, but most everything should work as intended.
Thanks to Narwen at Chronarda.ru, the Wiki of Ice and Fire, devoted to George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire, is now interwiki linked to Chronarda’s own wiki. As editors of both sites go through the pages, they can add a simple tag to easily link to English or Russian language versions of the webpages.
This increases the global fan community cooperation already present in the wikified “Ice and Fire” fan project, as the Wiki of Ice and Fire also shares interwiki linking with La Garde de Nuit, the French-language Ice and Fire fansite and associated wiki.
At Time.com’s new Techland group blog, Lev Grossman—the critic who dubbed George R.R. Martin “America’s Tolkien” and a recently published fantasy novelist in his own right—presents a list of his picks for the ten best SF/F novels of the decade. At #2? A Storm of Swords, of which Grossman writes:
“The third and (so far) best novel in Martin’s bloody marvelous Song of Ice and Fire epic, which depicts the collapse of Westeros into civil war following the death of the king. Martin delivers blow after stunning blow to his characters—the “Red Wedding” is one of the most devastating scenes in contemporary fantasy.”
A brief article from the Coventry Telegraph features an image of Sophie Turner—cast in the role of Sansa Stark—and another young actress, both alumni of the Warwickshire-based Playbox Theatre. Mentioning the various professional jobs three of the theatre’s young members are partaking in, the article mentions Ms. Turner’s role in HBO’s pilot adaption of Game of Thrones.
George R.R. Martin is selling three of his books at a discounted price (which he’s happy to personally inscribe and sign), according to his latest post at “Not a Blog”. The three novels are the Meisha Merlin edition of Tuf Voyaging, Bantam’s edition of Windhaven, and the first of the new Wild Cards series, Inside Straight. All three novels have been reduced to $20 each, or $57 for all three. Shipping would be $5 for single books or $10 for all three together, domestic; people in other countries are directed to contact him via a special e-mail address just for book sales questions.
Barnes & Noble has just released the Nook, a next-generation e-reader that’s causing quite a stir as it takes aim at Amazon’s Kindle. It’s interesting to note that two of the first reviews (right as the embargo lifted at midnight) at major technology websites have mentioned or even highlighted the availability of George R.R. Martin’s A Game of Thrones for the Nook in the course of their review. First up is this review from Endgaget, which prominently features a picture of the Nook with Daenerys’s third chapter from A Game of Thrones displayed; the video shows the cover image of the e-book in the Nook’s color LCD screen as well.
The next review, from Endgaget, has the reviewer mentioning that the e-text of A Game of Thrones was one of the two purchases he made with the device. On the whole, the device sounds interesting but as with all E-ink devices it has issues with refresh rates and UI limitations.
Dark Sword Miniatures have posted no less than five new miniatures in their George R.R. Martin Masterworks collection. Four, stunning work by Tom Meiere, depict Catelyn, Sansa, Sansa building the snow castle, and Arya. There’s a terrific series of photos showing these greens—which in reality are about 1.5 inches tall, and are sculpted by hand—in great detail. Meier, considered the best sculptor in the business by some. is even able to convey differences in facial structure in the Stark daughters. Particularly good are the series of comparison photos depicting the Catelyn and Sansa miniatures together.
The last is a depiction of a full-grown Ghost by noted sculptor Dave Summers. A quote from the text is provided to illustrate the differences in appearance from a direwolf to a normal wolf, and there’s certainly something lean and terrible. Hopefully we’ll have a chance to see Ghost set beside Jon Snow’s miniature soon to get a better idea of the scale. Promising to have even more releases in January, Dark Sword Miniatures continues to create miniatures that capture the setting and doing so in the highest possible quality. The miniatures they’ve put into production so far are available to be purchased from their on-line store.
The Kansas City Star has an interview with David Benioff, co-executive producer and writer of HBO‘s Game of Thrones adaption. Benioff, an A-lister among screenwriters in Hollywood, is also a notable novelist and the interview largely concerns itself with his literary production. However, on the second page Benioff is asked about current projects. He responds: “I just returned from Northern Ireland shooting “Game of Thrones” (an adaptation of George R.R. Martin’s “A Song of Ice and Fire”) for HBO. I’m the writer and the executive producer with Dan Weiss, so we got to do everything, hiring the director, the actors. The shooting of the pilot is done. We’ll find out in March if it will be picked up as a series.”
This is yet another confirmation that March seems to be pretty unequivocally the date at which HBO’s decision will be handed down. Anything earlier or later than that will be pretty unusual, and perhaps significant.
The A Song of Ice and Fire forum now has the option to use Facebook Connect to log in. For those who already have accounts, you can associate your forum account with Facebook via the following steps:
1) Open profile.
2) Click “Edit My Profile”.
3) Click “Manage Facebook Connect”
4) Follow instructions for how to use Facebook Connect to associate.
Once done, you can select to have your Facebook picture be used as your profile picture. Remember to Synchronize and then Save Changes.
Dabel Brothers Productions have had the publication rights to their current titles—including George R.R. Martin’s Wild Cards: The Hard Call penned by Daniel Abraham, Jim Bucher’s Dresden Files, and more—acquird by Dynamite Entertainment. Commentary on the press release (below) can be found at
Publishers Weekly‘s The Beat blog and Bleeding Cool.
We’ll be trying to get information on what this means for the as-yet-unpublished final issue of The Hard Call.
It looks like our upgrade to Invision Power Board 3.0 is a success. However, the last maintenance step needed—rebuilding post content—is a very lengthy one, during which time the board will have to remain down. According to my calculations, it may take twelve hours before this process is done. Apologies for the inconvenience.
The forum will look very different for the time being once it’s up again, as we’ll be using the default skin. We’ll slowly develop the look back to something more unique, but this month is a busy one so it may take a good while.
To increase the intergration of the A Song of Ice and Fireforum with the rest of the myriad of Westeros.org sites, we’ve begun to make use of the RSS Import feature. This allows posts from our various blogs to be inserted into the forum as new topics. Presently, the feeds that are being imported are this present feed, Westeros.org Updates, into the Announcements forum; Game of Thrones (TV series site), into the General TV series forum; and Blood of Dragons Announcements, into the Blood of Dragons MUSH forum.
These imported blog posts can be responded to in threads, hopefully facilitating discussion and increasing awareness on the various topics Westeros.org keeps track of.
GRRM’s official site has been updated with news regarding the forthcoming publication of the third in the newest Wild Cards trilogy, Suicide Kings, on December 22 by Tor. The cover art gallery has been updated with Michael Komarck’s beautifully cover for the novel.
GRRM provides some photos from the former Kingdom of Heaven Jerusalem set near Ouarzazarte in Morocco, in his latest “Not a Blog” post. The pictures are quite excellent, and show some freestanding large-scale props such as battering rams, siege towers, and trebuchets that are still in good shape. George notes that while he offers a picture of one of the courtyards in the set, he couldn’t show the redressed courtyard used for Ilyrio’s manse during the filming.
In a follow-up post, he shares pictures from the Game of Thrones wrap party. Picture #2 shows director Tom McCarthy, and #4 and the final picture (where he’s jamming on a guitar) shows actor Jason Momoa of Stargate: Atlantis fame.
Several commentators, including myself, asked George to identify the group of women surrounding him in one of the photos. He has replied, indicating that, “The gorgeous young ladies in the pictures with me were the dancers at Dany’s wedding to Khal Drogo, whose wild, erotic celebrations lead to wanton coupling and arakh fights. Not Moroccan, no. They actually all came from London, and flew down with the cast and crew.” He thinks the dancing and swordfighting sequence in that scene should be quite amazing.
Jamie Bamber (of BSG fame) auditioned for the role of Jaime Lannister in HBO’s pilot for Game of Thrones, a part that ultimately went to Nikolaj Coster-Waldau. This was revealed by him to Jackie, who reported it at the A Song of Ice and Fire Forum, at the Cylon Attack convention this past weekend in London.
Bamber would have been interesting in the role, although Jackie speculates that perhaps his average height ultimately weighed against him when the character of Jaime is supposed to be tall. That said, we know from remarks from GRRM and from at least one actor that has auditioned that the audition process leads them to keeping in mind actors for future roles. If the series goes forward, we may well see Bamber in a secondary role later on.
