Westeros

SF Bokhandeln—Sweden’s premiere SF/F bookstore chain, with locations in Stockholm, Gothenburg, and Malmö;—has announced on Facebook that their main store in Stockholm will open its doors at midnight to allow fans to buy A Dance with Dragons as soon as possible. Once everyone who’s queued has the book, the store will close and reopen at normal hours, but will have some special fantasy-themed events during the day. They also have a special pre-order page, in which all pre-orders will be eligible to win one of a handful of signed copies of the book.

If you’re in the vicinity, definitely drop by!

Know of any other stores, whether in North America, the U.K., Europe, or elsewhere, that will have midnight releases for the book? Feel free to post the details in comments!

The latest episode of Sky Atlantic’s Thronecast, their official post-episode webcast, is now available! Join Geoff Lloyd has he hosts the program, looking at the past episode, exploring some of its details, and more. As usual, Linda and I are there to answer a couple of questions, and there’s also an interview with Gethin Anthony, who plays Lord Renly Baratheon (you can also read our interview with the actor).

Dark Sword Miniatures, official producers of the George R.R. Martin Masterworks series, have some amazing new miniatures (as well as painted miniatures) to show off. George shares some of the images here on “Not a Blog”, but you can see them in more detail at Dark Sword’s site. We’re especially keen on the “greens” for Lord Tywin (looking very Caesar-like) and King Robert, which also gives us a sneak peek at Tom Meier‘s Renly and Stannis.

Oh, and Bronn as painted by Jen Haley? Stunning!

As usual, after You Win or You Die, HBO has released an inside look at the episode—quite a lengthy one, clocking in at 5 minutes—as well as a preview for next week’s episode, “The Pointy End”, written by one George R.R. Martin.

See the videos below.

Pearson Moore has provided another incisive essay on the latest Game of Thrones episode, “A Golden Crown”. If we’re not mistaken, it’s his longest yet, and as usual spins out some interesting thoughts drawing from history and popular culture (in this case, an episode of Aaron Sorkin’s The West Wing).

In the course of the article, he also compares the novel to the TV show… and in the case of one very particular scene, he thinks the writers have outdone GRRM. Can’t say I disagree with his reasoning on that very specific point (regarding Theon Greyjoy and his interactions with Robb).

Our latest audio commentary on episode 6, done along with Tom and Daniel of MTV Geek, is now live! Took a bit longer than usual to get out from under everything else, but hopefully we’ll soon be able to return to a more regular schedule on these! You can find it here.

HBO’s put out two sneak peeks at episode 7, “You Win or You Die”. The clips feature Osha (Natalia Tena) and Maester Luwin (Donald Sumpter), and Lord Commander Mormont (James Cosmo) which you can find below:

Oh, the mischief Froggy wreaks!

Turns out that that last post from GRRM is not a casting clue, as confirmed by Amy Joyce Hasting herself. According to her, that cover (created by Poppaea Bicknell) was for a prop for the film The Callback Queen. Morgane Deare played Horatio King, a bestselling fantasy author whose books were the basis of a big production…

And it turns out that he and his film were directly inspired by GRRM and HBO’s Game of Thrones, which is why George shared it. As to the mischeviousness? Froggy the Gremlin is a troublemaker.

Perhaps the most elaborate casting clue yet has cropped up on GRRM’s “Not a Blog”, involving a fake book cover, with a fake title, fake blurbs and quotes, a fake author…

What to make of it? We were left scratching our heads, but a clever fan got a cigar from GRRM by figuring out that the photo is of actor Morgan Deare, who plays a character named Horatio King in the film The Callback Queen. Can’t figure out anything about his role—is he the actor cast? It seems unlikely, because Deare is very much an American, and in fact does voiceover work in which he’s noted for his “authorative American” sound. Not to say he couldn’t do a British accent, but… If he were in it, who would he be? Salladhor Saan? Xaro Xhoan Daxos? Hrm.

However, while digging around, we came up with an interesting fact. Could his role in the film be someone who’s inspired by someone else? Such as the lead actress, Irish-born Amy Joyce Hastings, who was sporting some very red hair for that particular role? Her looks would not be bad for Melisandre…

ETA: We see that others have had the same idea. Lets see what GRRM says as more people bring the possibility up in comments.

UPDATE: It’s definitely Amy Joyce Hastings! Check this post from last year, when we found a video of hers on Vimeo featuring her audition for the role of Doreah. Follow through—the video is now private, but notice the name details? 22:22 Productions!

She “inspired” Horatio King, so I’m going with Melisandre here, but some are thinking Ygritte.

It’s been noted to us that there’s been some movement on international air dates for Game of Thrones, so we’ve updated our air date listing. Moving out of the “approximate date” category is Australia, which has since been set for a July 17 airing. We’ve gotten more detail about approximate air dates in Germany and Austria (both will be on TNT Serie in Winter 2011), while Sky Italia will be bringing the show to Italy in 2011.

Over at his website, John Picacio provides an exclusive sneak peek of the 2012 A Song of Ice and Fire Calendar from Bantam. The award-winning artist has completed his work on the project, and slowly, slowly indeed Bantam is beginning to lift the veil when it comes to his work. The image featured in his post is a cropped version of the January image, featuring Bran.

In the post, he also allows readers to put forward which character they’d most like to see a sneak peek of next, giving three options: Arya, Melisandre, and the Hound. We know from Twitter comments that there’s also a Tyrion and, we believe, a Jon, on top of whch we know there’s a Ned Stark image which also features on the cover of the calendar.

It looks like HBO Connect has now gone live. This is a really interesting initative from HBO, a way for fans to easily follow and take part in conversations about the show through Twitter. The site design is slick, and it promises to have some unique content down the road…

Like the Conversations section, which will apparently include a fan-driven conversation with Jane Espenson, co-writer of Episode 6. And perhaps more Game of Thrones crew or cast members down the line?

As promised, our interview with actor Harry Lloyd is now available!

We asked the actors about a number of topics, from his audition for Viserys Targaryen, his experience filming in Morocco for the pilot, all the way through to his final scenes, along with some book-based discussion (including the question he’d most like to ask George about the series)

So, that was a pretty good episode, wasn’t it? HBO has gone and posted an inside-look at the latest Game of Thrones episode with director Daniel Minahan and executive producers David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, as well as posted an interview with actor Harry Lloyd, who certainly had a memorable turn as Viserys. Keep an eyes open for our own interview with Lloyd, later this evening!

On top of that, there’s a preview for episode 7, “You Win or You Die”, which includes our introduction to the Lord of Casterly Rock, Tywin Lannister!

Looks like Froggy the Gremlin is back to his old tricks at George R.R. Martin’s “Not a Blog”. For those who are newer fans of the show, Froggy was a character on a children’s variety program from GRRM’s day, a mischevious gremlin who has now become GRRM’s persona when he’s preparing to start hinting at casting through dastardly riddles and hints.

In the comments to the post, he’s asked about Stannis, and reveals he hasn’t seen any of those yet… but he has seen auditions for “Melisandre . . . Ygritte, Asha, Xaro Xhoan Daxos, Davos, Dolorous Edd, Margaery Tyrell, Brienne, and many more.”

With the help of Philo, we’ll be having a chat party for this Sunday’s episode!

Comment on the episode live with others watching it, turning viewing into a social experience! As with Philo’s other chat parties, there’ll be prizes for the best comments—the two best comments, in fact—featuring items from the HBO Store. And just for taking part, you’ll earn the nifty little award you see here, an exclusive for those participating in the event.

There’s a great Dothraki piece from TV Guide, with a lot of cool details… including a few long awaited phrases. Me nem nesa!

The latest feature article from Pearson Moore is now available for your reading pleasure, in which he examines the way different characters choose their priorities through the lens of “The Wolf and the Lion”.

A Dance with Dragons (US, UK) is now completely done, according to George R.R. Martin, with his . The final manuscript is 1,510 pages, just shy of the A Storm of Swords final manuscript—the “sweat” of the book removed about 61 pages from the final tally. He even provides some details regarding new POVs, saying that his original plans had only included one new POV… but in the end, there are four additional ones, with 16 total POV characters (not counting the prologue and the epilogue characters).

Most interestingly of all, he provides a rather detailed summary of the road towards completion, back from when he was hopeful he could finish the novel in a year.

Below, behind spoiler protection, is our run-down of those POVs, extrapolating from what he’s said and filling in some blanks from remarks he’s made in the past:

George R.R. Martin’s official website has had a few updates of late. Most notably, he has provided his mostly-complete US signing tour schedule, though he’s indicated there’s probably one more stop to be decided. He’s also announced his presence at Semana Negra in Gijon, Spain in 2012.

At his “Not a Blog” he’s also made several posts, including a reminder about the forthcoming publication of the latest entry in the Wild Cards, Fort Freak, the signing of a contract for the 22nd entry in the series tentatively titled Lowball that would be a follow-up to Fort Freak, and a recommendation that viewers of the TV show (and fans in general) consider donating to the Wild Spirit Wolf Sanctuary, a rescue organization for wolves and wolf-hybrids.

HBO has released two clips from episode 6, “A Golden Crown”. The first features a convalescing Ned waking up to find Robert and Cersei in his room, while the second features an entirely new scene between Syrio Forel and Arya Stark.

“The things he does for love.”

Our latest interview is now up! Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, who plays Ser Jaime Lannister in Game of Thrones, took the time to answer a few questions from us concerning his role in the production. From Jaime’s reasons for being a Kingsguard to just how Coster-Waldau got pulled into the production to begin with, Nikolaj provides some interesting answers.

Read the interview.

Over at Suvudu, we’ve shared some further thoughts on “The Wolf and the Lion” that may be of interest to readers. Suvudu.com, a website set up by Random House, is an excellent site for SF/F, Comics, and more, with news items and the occasional special features.

On top of that, we’re a bit tardy, but we’ve finally gotten our audio commentary up for the episode, recorded in conjunction with MTV Geek.

Conan Stevens was hinting at some big news in our Conan Stevens. Well, the news—or at least some of it—has broken in an unexpected corner of the web…

... Peter Jackson’s official Facebook page, where he announces several castings, including one Mr. Stevens as an orc by the name of Azog! There’s a terrific picture included in the post, showing the 5’5” Jackson next to the 7’ tall Stevens. Congratulations to Conan—lets just hope this doesn’t interfere with his second season filming!

... is somewhat exaggerated!

Some concern among fans cropped up after the recent Thronecast which stated that Lord Hoster Tully (Catelyn’s father and Lord of Riverrun) was killed at the Trident, whereas he’s alive when the novels start. We’ve checked with the “keeper of the mythos” for the production, Bryan Cogman, who says that in the show canon, Lord Hoster is very much alive (but not well, being very ill) . So, chalk that one up to a small error that cropped into Thronecast’s material at some point!

Over the last couple of days, some more interviews have been trickling out from the production. We’ve already shared a look at BlueBolt’s VFX work for the production, but there’s also a brand new Emilia Clarke interview as well as a fun (but very spoilerish) interview with Nikolaj Coster-Waldau at The Vulture.

On top of that, the Times of Malta has an excellent article looking at the production’s presence in Malta, with some nice factoids at the end regarding the length of the shoot, the number of extras and local production crew involved, and some of the filming locations. A good read for those interested in a behind-the-scenes look at the production.

As we’ve previously reported, HBO Go will have episode 7 available immediately after episode 6 airs, so there will be some very lucky fans next weekend who’ll get it a week earlier than everyone without HBO Go. HBO has now released a preview video touting this special occasion, and it includes some never-before-seen clips and dialogue from the episode, which can be seen below.

Via James Hibberd at EW, we now have the numbers for this past Sunday’s episode: 2.6 million viewers, up from last week, with 3.3 million viewers after the encore performance is factored in and a 8.1 million viewer per-episode average to date. Good numbers!

The news is slightly less rosy in the U.K., in that it seems Game of Thrones on Sky Atlantic actually dropped down to 522,000, losing almost all of the 20% gain from the last week. We’re guessing last week’s number was anomalous, perhaps related to the holiday weekend, and factoring it out it looks like the show’s climbed a little bit compared to the week before last. These numbers are still quite strong for the fledgling number, putting it on par with some of their very top broadcasts.

Now that the show is at its half way point, it looks like Bluebolt—the chief VFX vendor for HBO’s Game of Thrones—is starting to be interviewed, revealing some great details about their work. This profile at Below the Line News is an excellent read…

And also a spoilerish one, especially regarding some work that’ll close out the season. If you’ve not read the books, we suggest skipping it. Here’s a couple of the coolest tidbits, however:

HBO’s realized just how popular Game of Thrones merchandise can be, apparently, because we notice that the show has quickly grown into the second most merchandised show at the HBO Store (only True Blood is ahead of it, in terms of total items). And the store keeps on growing, with HBO having added a number of cool t-shirts—including shirts to cover the last, unrepresented houses, House Tyrell and House Martell—and one of the top-requested items from fans: banners!

We’ve collected them all in our affiliate store, for easy perusal! Unfortunately, HBO Us only ships within North America, I believe. The HBO UK Store adds options for those there… and I notice that they seem to list some items that HBO U.S: hasn’t yet added. Very cool!

We’re having a chat party!

Westeros.org and the good people at Philo—a social media site for television fans—are teaming up to host a chat party for next Sunday’s episode, “A Golden Crown”, with official HBO merchandise as prizes. Just sign up at Philo and make sure to participate in next Sunday’s chat to connect with fellow fans and have a chance at the prizes!

Depending on how tired Linda and I are—it’ll be 3 AM when episode 6 starts to air in the U.S.—we may well be participating directly, watching our copy of the screener and maybe offering some tidbits concerning changes between screener and air.

We’ve posted our recap and analysis, plus a look at the adaptation from book-to-screen (including the addition of new scenes), to our episode guide for the momentous fifth episode, “The Wolf and the Lion”. Have at it, and remember that you can always discuss and rate the episode with fellow fans at the A Song of Ice and Fire forum.

Over at “Not a Blog”, GRRM shares the latest preview for the upcoming episode of HBO’s Game of Thrones... and it prompts him to reveal one of the new point of views that will feature in A Dance with Dragons (US, UK). See below, with some spoiler protection, to find out who it is;

Another episode, another insightful article from Pearson Moore of Winterfell Keep. In his discussion of “Cripples, Bastard, and Broken Things”, Pearson examines the subject of illegitimacy—literal and figurative—as portrayed through representations of several characters in the episode. It’s an insightful, interesting look into the subject, well worth reading while counting the hours to Sunday’s upcoming episode.

We’ve posted our audio discussion for “Cripples, Bastards, and Broken Things”, recorded with Tom and Daniel of MTV Geek. We discuss various facets of the previous episode, including the changes that led to Sansa and Sandor not having their moment from the book. There are very minor spoilers regarding the second novel, A Clash of Kings

We’ve just been told that Focus Home Interactive and Cyanide Studio have fully opened the official website for their forthcoming strategy game, Game of Thrones: Genesis, with additional information and screen shots. The site also has a forum devoted to the game.

There’s a particularly great one showing a closer look at the dragon model—love the fact that there’s a rider in the saddle!

Art of the Title, a rather cool website focused on the art of main title design, has a terrific interview with creative designer Angus Wall, an Emmy-award winning title designer and recent recipient of the Academy Award for film editing. They go over the Game of Thrones title sequence in some detail.

Best of all, the article is heavily illustrated with concept art and high-resolution stills from the sequence. Plus, the highest resolution glimpse at the map that includes Essos ... including Essos’s eastern coast, on the opposite side of the Sunset Sea. This one’s so cool that we’ve added it to our Gallery, with some comments.

Dartmouth’s student newspaper profiles alumnus David Benioff, and Game of Thrones is briefly discussed. Of note is the fact that it states Benioff (presumably with Gemma Jackson, and perhaps D.B. Weiss) spent ten days scouting possible locations in Croatia and Spain. Croatia, Spain, and Turkey are three areas that we’ve now learned of as possible shooting locations for the second season.

Locus Magazine has posted the list of finalists in this year’s Locus Award, and there’s a number of finalists we’re extremely pleased to see present:

• Novella: “The Mystery Knight” by George R.R. Martin, published in Warriors (US, UK), edited by George R.R. Martin and Gardner Dozois
• Short story: “The Thing About Cassandra”> by Neil Gaiman, published in Songs of Love and Death (US, UK), edited by George R.R. Martin and Gardner Dozois
• Anthology: Warriors (US, UK), edited by George R.R. Martin and Gardner Dozois
• Best Artist: John Picacio, artist for the 2012 A Song of Ice and Fire Calendar (US, UK)
• Best Editor: Gardner Dozois, co-editor of Warriors (US, UK) and Songs of Love and Death (US, UK)

Congratulations to GRRM, Gardner, Neil, and John, as well as all the other finalists!

The fans of A Song of Ice and Fire and Game of Thrones often reveal some great talent, turned towards celebrating the story they love. Whether it’s cooking up a storm, depicting the lands and the characters, or just plain rocking out, it’s always good. And now, one of the newest additions to the fan pantheon of awesome, ASoIaF/GoT inspired works are…

Infographics. But not just any infographics, no. These infographics from HauteSlides beautifully, succinctly, and humorously lay out the inter-relationships between various families, and gives a nice, clean look at the key locations of the story. Great work from graphic designer Magda Maslowska!

This week’s installment of Sky’s Thronecast not only features Linda and I with an awesome new webcam (are you excited yet?!), but it also has a fun interview with actor Jason Momoa, who plays Khal Drogo. The webcast itself contains a short except from the interview, while the landing page for it features the full interview as a separate video.

The So Spake Martin collection of correspondence, signing and convention reports, and interviews has been updated with a number of entries from the past month. These include Dave Itzkoff’s and James Poniewozik’s extensive interviews with Martin, as well as Joe Abercrombie’s chat with GRRM for Sky Arts.

More good news for Game of Thrones this week, on both sides of the pond. In the U.S., James Hibberd of Entertainment Weekly has again gotten the scoop: ratings are up a tenth of a point from last week, to a total of 2.5 million viewers on the initial viewing. More numbers will probably roll in later in the day, so well-worth taking a look at. And over in the U.K., the show had a whopping 20% jump in viewership on Monday, according to Digital Spy, from 510,000 to 628,000 viewers. Of course, last weekend was a holiday, but still—a strong showing.

Just a quick note: those who’ve eagerly awaited for the soundtrack to Game of Thrones can now pre-order via Amazon.com! The CD is due to be released on the 14th.

And while you’re considering that, HBO’s updated their store with a few new items, which we’ve added to our Store page. Ever wanted a mousepad featuring the Seven Kingdoms? It can now be yours, provided you are in the U.S.; the UK HBO store may or may not have it, for those who reside there.

... with Westeros.org in an exclusive interview!

Introduced in tonight’s episode, “Cripples, Bastards, and Broken Things”, the ferocious Ser Gregor Clegane is a knight with a black reputation, and armor to match. The role is played by 7’ ft tall Australian stunt man, actor, and former professional wrestler Conan Stevens, who agreed to answer a few questions for fans about his career, how he became involved in the production, and some details of the shooting that we’re fairly sure have never been noted before.

At the end, Conan teases that he’s leaving local film behind (he lives and largely works in Thailand), and that there’ll be some big news soon. Keep an eye out on his official site to learn more. Until then:

Read the interview!

The strategy game A Game Of Thrones: Genesis, being developed by Cyanide Studio, receives some coverage from IGN, a leading source of PC and video game information.

The interview with designer Regis Robinson illuminates some more details of the gameplay, explaining the single-player focus on a linear campaign covering the breadth of Westerosi history in the last thousand years (from the time of Nymeria’s landing in Dorne) to Robert’s rebellion. One important aspect that Regis emphasizes is the fact that the game really isn’t about resource-production or warfare—it’s about political intrigue and subterfuge more than anything else.

Also of note, a new release estimate (at least, it’s new to us): Q4 2011.

HBO has shared a little sneak peek at next week’s episode, “Crippples, Bastards, and Broken Things”. This preview features Tyrion Lannister, ready to depart Winterfell after a cold welcome, and a combative conversation with one Theon Greyjoy. A second sneak peek was later added, with Sansa Stark and Septa Mordane.

Our interview with Miltos Yerolemou, who plays the role of Syrio Forel, is now on-line. It’s our longest podcast-style interview yet at nearly 50 minutes long. Enjoy!

Pearson Moore’s latest essay on Game of Thrones, discussing “Lord Snow”, is now available for reading in our Features section. His detailed, thoughtful analysis covers several notable, thematic aspects of the episode as well as touching on some of the plot points. He draws particular attention to the debt of the kingdom—largely owned by House Lannister—and draws some interesting (and unexpected) historical parallels.

Moore, known for his incisive Lost essays, offers additional material at his site, Winterfell Keep.

With the airing of Game of Thrones on Canal+ in Sweden, Denmark, Finland, and Norway, there’s been quite a lot of media coverage in those countries. As Westeros.org’s admin happen to be based in Sweden, we thought we’d share with fellow Swedish fans (and those fans who are used to the vagaries of Google Translate) some of the most notable articles we’ve come across:

This lithograph by comic book artist Mike S. Miller (responsible for the art in The Hedge Knight and Hedge Knight II: The Sworn Sword graphic novels), officially licensed by George R.R. Martin, depicts Miller’s interpretation of the decisive moment of the Battle of the Trident.

Copies of the high-quality lithograph remain for sale… and Miller’s taking suggestions via poll as to what his next lithograph should be, if interest is high. If you’d like to follow along, and offer suggestions, make sure to visit Miller’s official Facebook page, “Art of Ice and Fire”.

Despite earlier reporting that France was looking at a September air date for HBO’s Game of Thrones—fuelled by an executive at Orange, the broadcaster holding the rights in France—it looks like the wait won’t be quite so painful for fans of Le Trône de Fer (as the series is dubbed in France). Via Evrach at Le Garde de Nuit, we’ve learned that the show will be airing on Orange Cínema Séries beginning June 5—little more than a month away.

Today, the show will be premiering in Nordic countries served by Canal+ (including our native Sweden), on the 8th it’ll premiere in more than a dozen countries served by HBO in Latin America and the Caribbean, plus Spain is due to see the show premiere on Canal Plus on the 9th. Good times! For those still waiting on information for their country, we’re keeping our international air dates guide up to date. If you have any information about a country not listed or as yet noted as having unconfirmed details, feel free to drop us a note!

Haven’t had a chance to share this as of yet, so here is HBO’s post-episode look at what was going on in episode 3, with remarks from executive producers David Benioff and Dan Weiss.

Despite the breaking news that likely impacted the viewership of HBO’s Game of Thrones in other time zones (the East Coast managed to be finished just before word started to get out that an announcement was pending), James Hibberd of Entertainment Weekly has broken the news that the third episode scored 2.4 million viewers—up about 10% from last week—and added an additional 700,000 at its 11PM encore to reach the 3.1 million mark in total, again, 200,000 better than last week’s 2.9 million mark.

Hibberd also adds that the premiere has risen to 8.7 million views in total, via all HBO platforms such as On Demand and HBO GO.

At the same time, good news in the U.K., as Game of Thrones holds steady, dropping only a very small amount to 510,000 viewers, which is on the top end for Sky Atlantic.

Over on Twitter, Del Rey Spectra‘s official account revealed that a certain author was at work reviewing edits of a certain book by the name of A Dance with Dragons. And they had a photo to prove it, which seems to reveal that they’ve already printed off some examples of the 2012 A Song of Ice and Fire Calendar.

ADwD is due on store shelves both in the U.S. and U.K..

Tommorow, Stockholmers will get the opportunity to watch the first two episode of Game of Thrones in a theatre, courtesy of Canal+ Sweden and Cinemateket. Entry is free, but places are limited—first come, first served! The two episodes will be shown at Bio Filmhuset Victor, starting from 6 PM. This sneak preview—which Linda and I will unfortunately have to miss—leads in to Wednesday’s premiere of the first episode of Game of Thrones on Canal+, Sweden’s leading premium channel.

We’re going to be very interested in hearing from Swedish fans after it airs!

“Lord Snow” aired last night in the U.S. and Canada (it’ll be on this evening in the U.K. and in much of Central Europe), and as always, we have an extensive episode guide with recaps, analysis, images, and more. Check it out at our site.

Right after that aired, HBO posted the preview for episode 4, titled “Cripples, Bastards, and Broken Things”. See below for the clip!