Westeros

Ted Nasmith, one of the “Big Three” Tolkien artists (along with John Howe and Alan Lee), turned his hand to depicting castles of the Seven Kingdoms for the World of Ice and Fire worldbook, which ended up being published in the 2011 A Song of Ice and Fire Calendar. But that was, we knew, not the last work of his we would be seeing for the world book… not least when it was announced that he had been hired to produce the art for the new limited edition of A Game of Thrones.

So it was with some pleasure that it was pointed out by Finnish fan raijap that there was a new entry in his gallery of George R.R. Martin. It is, I think, now one of my very favorite depictions of the Wall, right up there with his Castle Black painting. I believe this piece is also intended for the World of Ice and Fire.

Over at Not a Blog, George R.R. Martin revealed that he had a holiday gift up on his site for fans: the first sample chapter from The Winds of Winter, the sixth novel in the “A Song of Ice and Fire” series! A very pleasant surprise, to say the least, and it has some juicy details that hint towards some of the upcoming events Martin has hinted at.

Although this is the first sample chapter he’s posted at his official website, he has read one chapter at a convention, a detailed report and discussion of which can be found at the A Song of Ice and Fire forum.

It goes without saying that there are spoilers. For extensive discussion and speculation, see this thread over at Westeros.org’s A Song of Ice and Fire forum.

Today, two columnists for the UK’s The Guardian newspaper have named HBO’s A Game of Thrones among 2011’s best dramas (as well they should)... but it was a third article referencing A Game of Thrones that caught our attention.

Irish correspondent Henry McDonald writes that the Northern Irish film industry is “booming”, and that it’s fuelled predominantly by HBO’s series choosing to film there. It’s an interesting look at the industry side of things, and some impressive numbers are thrown around.

And then, at the end, this:

Selected for the TIME 100, named one of EW’s entertainers of the year, and so on and so forth—it’s been a banner year for George R.R. Martin and his “A Song of Ice and Fire” series. And as we come to the close of 2011, another plaudit: USA Today has named Martin their Author of the Year, citing the booming popularity of the novels and the success of HBO’s adaptation. Congratulations to GRRM!

USA Today has been quite interested in the series, having published a cover feature back in July just before A Dance with Dragons hit the shelves.

Amazon.com is offering quite a few deals on downloadable games, and this one caught our eye: A Game of Thrones: Genesis from Cyanide Studio for just $10, a 75% saving!

For those who don’t mind paying more and prefer Steam, the game is also available there at a more modest 50% off as part of the Steam daily holiday sales. The Steam sale price ends tomorrow, but we’re not sure how long the Amazon.com sale lasts.

Atlus USA doesn’t do things by halves. Yesterday saw the release of this trailer for Cyanide Studio‘s Game of Thrones: The Roleplaying Game (preorder: XBox, PS3), combined with heaps of new information coming out of Paris thanks to Focus Home Interactive (the European publisher)... but it turns out that Atlus had more up its sleeve.

First, here’s a trailer ocused on the Wall, and features James Cosmo as Lord Commander Mormont and some bloody action when wildlings attack:

But wait, there’s more!

We’ve already posted extensively about the single-player Game of Thrones: The Roleplaying Game, and we’ve also reported on the development of a licensed MMO and Facebook social game.

However, for various reasons, some fans have been disappointed, having really hoped a really large, well-known studio tackled the license. But not necessarily for lack of interest. EA and Bethesda have considered it at some point… and now we learn that BioWare did as well.

Like clockwork, yesterday’s post with detailed information regarding the officially licensed Game of Thrones: The Roleplaying Game has been followed up with the serendipitous arrival of a two minute long trailer, which you can see embedded below courtesy of German gaming site GameStar:

And that’s not all, folks, because it turns out that French site Fantasy.fr was also present at the presentation in Paris… and got to record it! See below for those videos, which show off some of the gameplay and cutscenes and locations, and a synopsis of additional details from them. Note that the video presentation is all in French.

This past Saturday, HBO snuck out a brand new behind the scenes video that, so far, has been exclusive to HBO and HBO On Demand. However, it’s wormed its way out there to the Internet, and we thought we’d share it with fans. Lots of neat bits—including our most extensive glimpses of Brienne of Tarth, Melisandre of Asshai, and Stannis Baratheon, three of the primary characters added to this season (don’t worry, there’s a bit of Davos as well!)

We’ve already captured key images for our Behind the Scenes gallery, starting here with this image of Audley’s Castle which serves as the location of Robb Stark’s war camp. As usual, we identify characters and locations, and discuss various details that may be of interest.

We should note that, technically, some of these shots might be considered spoilers—so if you really don’t want to know anything about what’s going to be happening next season, best skip it.

This is nifty. With the end of the year on us, Random House—the largest publisher in the world, of whom Bantam is a subsidiary—posted its list of best-selling ebooks in various categories. And if you scroll down to the top-selling science fiction and fantasy titles…

Well, it starts to feel a bit deja vu-like, because the first six entries are all A Song of Ice and Fire novels by George R.R. Martin—A Game of Thrones followed by A Dance with Dragons, then A Clash of Kings, A Storm of Swords, and A Feast for Crows rounding out the top 5… and the four-volume e-book set holding the #6 spot. Rather dominating, to say the least!

This past Thursday, the French media received the first official presentation of Cyanide Studio‘s Game Of Thrones: The Role-Playing Game (published by Atlus in the US and by Focus Home Interactive in Europe).

Some members from the French George R.R. Martin fan site called La Garde de Nuit were invited to attend, and have prepared the following report, which LGdN’s Evrach sent to us in translated form with permission to repost (many thanks to him, and LGdN!):

Over at his website, author Daniel Abraham shares a his 5 minute presentation from a recent Ignite New Mexico event. There, he provides a useful insight into the basics of his adaptation of George R.R. Martin’s A Game of Thrones into comic book form for Dynamite and Bantam, in their George R.R. Martin’s A Game of Thrones comic series. As noted, the plan is to adapt the first novel over the course of two years and twenty-four issues, a page count that’s actually slightly longer than that of the first novel, but (as Abraham explains) there’s a lot of places where the shift from a written to a heavily visual medium (like comics) means a great deal of changes.

Quite interesting, and as we said, it’s brief at just 5 minutes. Issue 3 of Dynamite’s series has just hit shelves. The first six issues will be collected and published by Bantam, and will feature a striking cover.

Back at the start of December, we shared this missive from Lord Varys, courtesy of HBO, in which Westeros.org was named honorary members of House Lannister and promised some secretive information in weeks to come regarding the Blu-Ray and DVD season 1 box sets due March 6th, 2012.

Well, the time for waiting is over, as we received something sent by special courier from the distant ... ah, lets say Oldtown, where one might suppose the city and suburbs of the greater Los Angeles area might be.

Canadian journalist Chris Lackner has a terrific report from what I believe to be an international press junket to Belfast in November or perhaps October. Some excellent quotes from the producers, as well as Emilia Clarke, Charles Dance, and Kit Harrington as they discuss their experiences on the show and in filming the second season.

The best quote of the article comes from Charles Dance:

See the article for more, and thanks to thremnir for pointing it out.

About a week and a half ago, we saw a tweet from someone who worked at the same building in which Audible.com is housed who noted that they had gone downstairs to the cafeteria and found George R.R. Martin holding forth. We had figured it was something to do with the A Feast for Crows audio book being re-released with Roy Dotrice reading it, but had assumed it’d be something included in that.

In fact, Audible’s released it straight to Youtube, and we’ve embedded it below. As well, we’ve linked it over at the So Spake Martin section of the Citadel, which collects interviews, correspondence, and more from GRRM.

We were waiting for one of these end-of-year lists discussing the most illegaly torrented programs, and TorrentFreak has come through with their report.  Just pipped by Dexter, HBO’s Game of Thrones is said to have scored 3.4 million downloads to secure second place, making it a more popular download target than uber-popular comedy Big Bang Theory, venerable medical drama House, and surprise cable success The Walking Dead.

I wonder if Game of Thrones would have surpassed Dexter, if HBO Adria and Sky didn’t air the series almost simultaneously with the U.S. airing, cutting down on the incentive for subscribers to pirate the show…

In any case, it’s a dubious honor, but at least it can be said to provide yet another piece of data revealing that there’s a great deal of interest in the show.

The HBO Store has recently added quite a few new items… in the form of laptop, netbook, tablet, phone, and MP3 player skins featuring the words and heraldry of the various great houses. Have to say, the Baratheon iPhone/iPod

“phone and MP3 player” skin is actually quite striking. We’ve also added links to the heraldic coasters and a mug set in the last few days.

Presently, the store also has a free shipping offer going on if you use the code FREESHIPDAY at check out.

Although the CDs won’t be out until next year, you can already download the newly re-recorded, fully unabridged A Feast for Crows, read by actor Roy Dotrice who has previously recorded all the other books in the series. And all this, thanks to popular demand by fans, who repeatedly ask the publishers both in the U.K. and U.S. to get Dotrice—who missed recording the book the first time around because of a tight deadline and an on-going theatre committment—to read it.

The book can be found at Amazon.com, and Audible.com is listing the book as well, and offering it for free for a 30-day trial membership.
For those in the UK, we expect Amazon.co.uk will soon list it.

Via EW, we have the full television nominees for this year’s Golden Globes. As many predicted, Game of Thrones joins HBO sibling Boardwalk Empire, along with Showtime’s Homeland (which has been wrongfully overlooked this season, IMO), Starz’s Boss, and FX’s American Horror Story. And of course, Peter Dinklage scores another best supporting actor nod for his role as Tyrion Lannister, joining three other actors nominated for their work in HBO productions (Paul Giamatti, Guy Pearce, and Tim Robbins).

Linda and I will be in transit when the Golden Globe nominees are announced shortly, but chances are pretty good that Game of Thrones is going to get some attention. With the international cast, the big production values, the buzz, commentators and fans alike expect several nominations are possible. Will it happen? We’ll have to see. CBS will be providing a live stream, though, which we’ve embedded below and which should be on the air shortly.

Came across this new interview with George R.R. Martin at Scotcampus, which we’ve added to our collection of correspondence, interviews, and signing reports. There’s some good remarks on episode 9 of this new season of HBO’s Game of Thrones, and a bit of speculative fodder for fans of certain elements of the A Song of Ice and Fire series.

The Screen Actors Guild Awards have just been announced for film and television, and HBO’s Game of Thrones is among the nominees! The first announcement regarded the stunt team being nominated for Outstanding Performance by a Stunt Ensemble in a Television Series.

After that, it was the main acting awards for primetime television… and Game of Thrones did pretty well for itself, scoring a nomination for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble. Congratulations to all the actors, and of course the producers, writers, and crew who gave them the material to work with!

The awards will be presented on January 29th, and will be broadcast on TNT.

This interview is rather neat. George has been in New York City since the start of December, doing all sorts of things (including signing books at the HBO Store and a B&N, and recording some sort of Q&A for Audible.com, which we suspect ties into this news)... but he has to kick back and relax at times, right? And in this case, this life-long fan of the New York Jets and New York Giants took the opportunity to watch a home game of one of his two favorite teams (and had the pleasure of seeing the Jets trounce the Chiefs, by the way—alas, that I can’t say the same for the Dolphins…)

While he was there, the official NY Jets site took the opportunity to conduct a celebrity interview. It must have been a chilly day, looking at that fur cap on George’s head. Naturally, he finished it off with a rally cry: “J-E-T-S, Jets, Jets, Jets!”, but in between he answers a couple of questions about the inspiration for the series and what fans can expect for the second season. Nothing we haven’t heard before, but it’s nice to see George getting a chance to be in the stands for a game.

Wow! Fans have been asking for years for the publishers to consider re-recording A Feast for Crows, the fourth novel of the A Song of Ice and Fire series…. and Random House and HarperCollins Voyager has listened! Roy Dotrice has already recorded the book (sneaky, sneaky!) and it will be available as a digital download via Audible.com and Audible.co.uk on December 15th, with a CD set due March 2012.

Roy Dotrice,  but the fans have been wanting to hear him on it enough that they’ve decided to go ahead and re-record. Fantastic news, suffice it to say! A veteran, award-winning actor, Dotrice became acquainted with GRRM from playing the role of Father in Beauty and the Beast, and the two have been friends ever since. Dotrice was initially cast in the role of Grand Maester Pycelle in HBO’s Game of Thrones, but health issues forced him to withdraw; he was cast as Hallyne, a wisdom of the Guild of Alchemists, for season 2.

Here’s an excerpt:

Download MP3

This teaser was solid—some nice images reacquainting ourselves with a number of characters from the first season, and prominently featuring a brand new one in Stannis Baratheon—but it was definitely a tease.

Still, we’ve extracted all the most notable images from the teaser, and have them up at our Previews gallery, with our usual commentary. Most of the comments are quite brief—what’s left to be said, right?—but we do have some thoughts on Stephen Dillane as Stannis, and some guesses as to what scenes are being shown in some cases. Check it out!

Here it is, the newest teaser for season 2 of HBO’s Game of Thrones!

Annotated screencaptures to follow. We’ll post when they’re ready.

A great article by Amy Chozick about how the Dothraki language—created by David J. Peterson—and other created languages are helping make fictional worlds seem more real. Some excellent details from Peterson and others. Favorite part? Peterson recorded translations of various phrases, which provides us the Dothraki pronunciation of Brooklyn and their version of, “Fughedaboutit!”

I’m not ashamed to say it: this parody music video from @WinterSpringPro is rather addictive!

Great work by the duo and their crew. Particularly love the snow-Ghost. Very cute!

The prestigious American Film Institute, which among other things selects ten films and television programs each year for outstanding achievement, has announced this year’s honorees. And, as you might guess, Game of Thrones is a winner!

This year’s honorees were selected by a jury, the full list of which can be found here, but includes producer and writer Steven Boccho, critics James Poniewozik, Maureen Ryan, and Matt Rousch, and more.

Our hearty congratulations to HBO, the cast, and the crew!

Ahead of tonight’s Game of Thrones teaser, the Making Game of Thrones official production site has a new interview with a member of the crew. This time, it’s on-set VFX co-ordinator Niall McEvoy, who worked on the first season of the show as well as this second season (which is due to wrap filming today—the last footage is being shot in Iceland at this very moment).

HBO‘s dropped us a note to let us know that before the finale of Boardwalk Empire on Sunday, there’ll be a brand new teaser for Season 2 of Game of Thrones. The finale airs at 9PM Eastern, so make sure to tune in before that. And if you don’t have HBO? It’ll be online, and we’ll be sure to embed it when it’s available.

Here’s a hint of it, though: the teaser has a title: “Cold Wind”. Brrrr.

Tv.com is running their Best of 2011 awards, and of course Game of Thrones and its actors have taken quite a few places. Here’s the list:

• Best Overall Series of 2011
• Best New Series
• Best Drama Series
• Best Dramatic Actor (Sean Bean)
• Favorite Kid Character (Arya Stark)
• Favorite TV Couple (Khal Drogo & Daenerys Targaryen)
• Biggest Badass (Daenerys Targaryen)

Voting is open for 23 more days, with final results on January 3rd.

EW’s latest issue has hit shelves, with its main feature being their listing of their Entertainers of the Year. We had an inkling of the fact that EW considered George R.R. Martin among that number… and this confirms it, as popular comedic actress Amy Poehler of Parks and Recreation writes about GRRM and the novels, which she’s halfway through at present.

We’ve previously reported on the benefit auction for writer Terri Windling, with contributions of rare and signed items from various authors, artists, and more, including George R.R. Martin. Some more GRRM-related material has come in—including an original piece of art from the Subterranean Press limited edition of A Feast for Crows, drawn and donated by artist Thomas Canty (one of our very favorite artists, BTW!) so we’d thought we’d provide links to all the relevant items to make it easy to find:

• Signed Double Volume Book, Starlady/Fast-Friend
• Signed Graphic Novel, Doorways
• Signed Graphic Novel, Fevre Dream
• Signed Hardback Wild Card Novel, Busted Flush
• Signed Hardcover Wild Card Novel, Inside Straight
• Limited Edition Signed Box Novel, Tuf Voyaging
• Signed OOP Book, Nightflyers
• An Original Illustration From A Feast For Crows By George R.R. Martin, Thomas Canty

There are many, many other things in there, from prints from Alan Lee to signed books by Neil Gaiman, and much more. All for a good cause!

The latest Making Game of Thrones update is out, and it’s a good one, as we see stunt supervisor Paul Herbert discuss the fight scene coordination for this season. Some great shots… including a glimpse of Brienne of Tarth in action! See below for the video:

Those who’ve been waiting patiently for Amazon UK to allow preordering of the Game of Thrones season 1 DVD and BluRay sets have seen their patience rewarded, as the DVD boxset and Blu-Ray boxset are now listed.

Interestingly, while other regional retailers are saying the date is March 19th for the release in the U.K., Amazon itself is pegging it at March 5th. Much like the Amazon US BluRay, the UK BluRay edition come with an exclusive bonus disc, “Creating the Visuals”, which covers VFX for the series. Of course, HBO US has its own bonus disc for direct orders through their store, while we’ve heard another UK retailer, Play.com, is offering an exclusive photobook.

So, pick your poison as far as what bonus exclusive sounds the most interesting to you!

Two august television- and film-producing bodies, the Producers Guild of America (PGA) and the Writers Guild of America (WGA), have released their shortlists for their annual awards… and Game of Thrones has scored places on both!

No, he’s not become an Elder God, passing through strange aeons. But the conquests continue, nevertheless, and this time it’s TIME’s “Top 10 of Everything 2011” list where he reaches the summits.

A Song of Ice and Fire has taken New York City by storm, A Dance with Dragons has pummeled its way to the top of the Goodreads Choice Awards... and now it’s TIME magazine critic Lev Grossman has named ADwD his top fiction novel of the year.

His colleague James Poneiwozik tries his hand at list-making as well, and has put forward his view of the year’s best television and episodes, and Game of Thrones ranks #5 in his top 10 television programs, with episode 9, “Baelor” taking the #10 spot in Best TV Episodes of the last year. Well-deserved… and I really need to get around to watching Breaking Bad and Justified, it seems.

First he’s named Best Supporting Actor at the Emmys… and now he’s GQ’s Stud of the Year!

We first learned about this last month, but had forgotten to keep an eye out for when they posted the article yesterday. Now it’s up, and it’s rather amusing. As he holds forth on Game of Thrones and his alleged studliness (or lack of same), he’s surrounded by a bevy of models in a rather distracting photoshoot.

Thanks to feistyflo for the reminder about the article.

Thanks to IngvarSk68, fans have been turned on to the fact that Icelandic television station Rúv has a long piece  featuring Game of Thrones (roughly 9 minutes long), and it’s a treasure trove of little details. But the one most fans will go crazy for? The fact that Rose Leslie is seen in costume in the role of Ygritte at the 7:10 mark or so (UPDATE: The video has been put back online… but with the closest shots of Leslie removed, which makes us think that HBO didn’t like that being aired at requested RUV edit it out)! For those who’ve not read the novels, the glimpse may be slightly spoliersh, so beware.

The quality is not of the best, alas, but it gives a sense of things, in any case.

... and it’s not just New York City where George R.R. Martin has been causing a stir. The Goodreads Choice Awards wrapped up recently… and the result are already in!

A Dance with Dragons won the Best Fantasy category, narrowly beating out Erin Morgenstern’s The Night Circus—just 11 votes separated them! And, look at that—ADwD also managed to place as #3 in the Favorite Novel category as well.

Tip of the hat to author Mark Lawrence, writer of Prince of Thorns, for pointing out that the results were in at the A Song of Ice and Fire Forum. His own novel was #10 in the Best Fantasy category, a good showing from a first-time novelist.

According to this article from the New York Post titled, “The Pen is as Mighty as the Sword”—and, anecdotally speaking, from various tweets I’ve seen over the last months—it seems that Game of Thrones and A Song of Ice and Fire mania has had a grip on New York City of late.

Amazon.co.uk has provided the next piece of the puzzle in regards to the full details of HBO’s DVD and Blu-Ray plans. Their listing for the DVD and BluRay provides a break down of content, including the full list of participants in the commentaries. “Audition tapes” are clearly noted, something not made clear with previous information. The producers had mentioned plans for having them in, so it’s good to see they’ve made it in.

Below you’ll find the details, both for DVD and BluRay, due March 6 in the U.S. We’ve highlighted those features which are BluRay exclusives.

Focus Home Interactive will publish in Europe Game of Thrones, the RPG based on the bestseller series of novels by George R.R. Martin, which has recently been adapted into a TV series by HBO®.

Game of Thrones is a big role playing game based on the famous series of novels by George R.R. Martin, which has already sold over 15 millions unit around the world, and which HBO has recently adapted into a critically-praised TV series. This is the most ambitious project of Cyanide Studio. Developed on Unreal Engine 3 and written under the supervision of George R.R. Martin, “Game of Thrones” will allow fans of the series, and more generally adepts of role-playing games, to live an exceptional adventure in one of the most finely-worked universe from the medieval fantasy literature.

The HBO Store has just sent the word that there’s a special, 20% off deal for today only, if you input the code HBOGOT20 at check-out. For those who complained about the store offering the DVDand Blu Ray at the store when we learned that the store was including an exclusive bonus disc with the preorders, that should make the option much more interesting.

The DVD and BluRay sets of Game of Thrones Season 1 will become available on March 6th. For more Game of Thrones items at the store, visit the store directly or try our own store portal.

UPDATED: See the video of the interview, for that extra bit of Charles Dance.

An interview with Charles Dance, who plays Lannister patriarch Lord Tywin, provides the first reference we’ve seen to when the prospective season 3 will air, as well as a spoiler for those who’ve not read the novels.

Though largely focused on his appearance in SyFy’s miniseries event, Neverland, it does turn to Game of Thrones where he says the following (minus the spoiler):

There’s a new post from Cat Taylor at Making Game of Thrones. The content of it has to do with the practical clothing choices one must make when working on location—as she presently is, in chilly Iceland—but what piques our interest is the image accompanying it.

And it’s at Making Game of Thrones, HBO’s official production site. It’s brief, but it features Maisie Williams discussing her “new look” as Arya Stark for season 2 of the series. Find it embedded below:

George R.R. Martin is among many other artists and authors besides have made contributions to Magick 4 Terri, a fundraiser to benefit artist, editor, and writer Terri Windling who’s hit a rough patch for herself and her family.

Windling has been a key player in pushing forward the writing of mythic fiction and taking inspiration from fairy tales. The Fairy Tale series of novels which she originated have seen some fantastic novels, such as Pamela Dean’s Tam Lin, Tanith Lee’s White as Snow, and Steve Brust’s The Sun, the Moon, and the Stars, while the many collections she’s co-edited with Ellen Datlow have been a showcase for many great stories both in the areas of mythic fiction and general fantasy and horror. Her role in founding Endicott Studio, which includes a diverse set of members from artists Thomas Canty, Alan Lee, and Charles Vess to writers Neil Gaiman, Jane Yolen, and Ellen Kushner, has helped foster the mythic arts in a wide range of mediums.

So far, it looks like GRRM has contributed three items to the auction, signed copies of Starlady/Fast-Friend, Fevre Dream #1, and Nightflyers. Possibly others will be added later. Items from Neil Gaiman will soon be added, to join the many amazing bits of art, rare books, crafts, manuscripts, tuckerizations, dedications, personalizations, and more.

It is a very good cause, and there’s bound to be something of interest for everyone, so please visit the Magick 4 Terri site.

With the wealth of new information on the March 6th release of the DVD and Blu-Ray Season 1 sets of Game of Thrones, including the fact that the HBO Store is offering an exclusive companion disc for those who order the DVDs or Blu-Rays via their store (which is presently offering $10 off a $100 order if you use GOTAFF20 at checkout).

And now… there’s more. Or at least, the promise of more.

Valyrian Steel, official producers of replica weapons inspired by George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series, have had a few updates of late that are worth noting.