Westeros

Well, things are finally heating up on the casting front. After Natalie Dormer was announced as Margaery Tyrell, we had all expected roles to be noted one after another… but it was strangely silent. Word from HBO was that they weren’t really going to try to hide casting information as deals were made, but it seems that isn’t wholly right, since it seems two roles have been cast: Spotlight.com indicates that a Kerr Logan has been cast as a character named “Mathos”. This led to speculation that he’s playing Mathos Mallarwan, one of the Pureborn of Qarth, but word that that role hadn’t been cast and the fact that a Matthos Seaworth is one of Davos Seaworth’s sons makes us think that’s the role.

More notably since then, Spotlight has yielded up Gemma Whelan as “Yara Greyjoy”, which as Winter is Coming notes was the name of the role given to Theon’s sister in a casing call sheet that was shared at our A Song of Ice and Fire forum. It seems the aversion to having characters with similar names—hence Jhogo being renamed to Rakharo to avoid confusion with Drogo, and Robert Arryn to Robin Arryn—strikes again, given the similarity of Asha to Osha. Hrm…

And, last but not least, what seems to be a brand new clue from George, titled “I’m Blue”, which suggests we’re looking at Brienne of Tarth:

For what it’s worth, Isabella of France—wife of Edward II, mother of Edward III—was called the She-wolf of France. And the Barbican happens to be a noted theatre in the U.K., so we suspect we’re looking for an Isabella/Isabelle who’s performed at the Barbican, at present….

UPDATE:

Okay, we’re pretty sure we’ve figured this one out: Gwendoline Christie, a 6’3” actress and performer. In her association with musician Patrick Wolf, she shot the video for “Damaris”... which had a B-side titled “Queen Isabella”. She’s performed at the Barbican in the role of the Queen in Cymbeline, and she was photographed as Playboy Bunny by an Australian artist.

If this is so, we’re very happy indeed. She first came to our attention in November of last year when she tweeted that she really wanted the role, something we noted back then. From the talk on Twitter, it sounds like she was made aware of the role by fan Paul Gude, so good on him!. She’s remained our favorite choice for the role all this while, so if this is true, we’re pleased as punch.

The review embargo for A Dance with Dragons is lifted, and the reviews are now appearing. First out of the gate was James Hibberd with his not-quite-review for EW, which we linked here and gave our own, brief take to. Now there’s a number more, and we expect to say yet more in the coming days. Here’s a list:

• Tor.com: Author Jo Walton takes a look at the book in a spoiler-free way. She’s One Of Us in a way most professional book critics aren’t, so fantasy fans may find this the most interesting of the reviews.
• The Daily Beast: TV Critic Jace Lacob, a fan of the novels and the TV show alike, gives his views. It’s a very positive review, in which he closes by stating it, “might also be Martin’s finest work yet, a taut and relentless masterpiece…” For those who have avoided learning who new POVs in the book are, though, you’ll want to avoid this one as he names one of them.
• Time.com: Reviewer (and fantasy author) Lev Grossman writes a long and very positive review, although there’s a minor POV spoiler embedded in it (and, yes, Lev mixes up the number of novels in the series, though I expect that will be corrected in short order). He says, “Martin has produced—is producing, since the series isn’t over—the great fantasy epic of our era.”

We’re told the Daily Mail has also published a positive review of the book, but it doesn’t seem to be available on-line as of yet.

Not quite a review, but James Hibberd at Entertainment Weekly shares a few thoughts on the book in the course of answering 10 questions about the book. The spoilers are mild, but they’re there, so don’t click through if you don’t want to see it!

The Hastings store chain —with more than 100 locations—appear to be the first large chain bookseller to announce a chain-wide midnight release of A Dance with Dragons. According to their press release:

The praise for Game of Thrones over at Salon.com continues, with the series being placed on their “2011 - Best So Far” list. Critic Matt Zoller Seitz—who has thoroughly lauded the series —writes a brief comparison to AMC’s The Killing, how differently the two shows were received by critics to begin with, and how superior the show was to its time-slot competitor on AMC. Here’s the closing sentences:

We recently noted on Twitter that the New York Times weekly column on their bestseller list, “Inside the List”, mentioned George R.R. Martin and A Song of Ice and Fire, as the novels held four of the top ten positions on their Mass Market Paperback list.

Well, the New York Times bestseller list has been updated, and fully fifteen years after it was first published A Game of Thrones is now the #1 best seller, while the rest of the novels still hold positions on the top ten. It’s quite an amazing achievement, probably last matched by Charlaine Harris and the boom in sales that her Sookie Stackhouse have enjoyed after True Blood became a phenomena. A Game of Thrones is also #1 on the Publishers Weekly list for the first time, to our understanding, with two other books in the series in the top six.

Congratulations to George and to Bantam (as well as to Voyager in the UK, who’ve seen similar rises in sales), and a big thank you to HBO and the cast and crew of Game of Thrones, who helped kick the doors wide-open for hundreds of thousands new fans!

Thanks to olafkeith for the tip!

These are handy for the summer, to say the least: the HBO store now has Game of Thrones caps (at present featuring the logo, plus three of the major houses). You can get over to them here, or check out the Westeros.org store!

And, by the by, look at the top of the HBO Store: a 20% sale on all items, not just Game of Thrones, with the use of the SAVE20 code.

What are you waiting for?

John Picacio speaks with Tor.com about the 2012 A Song of Ice and Fire Calendar which he’s illustrating. There’s some insights into his process, and sneak peeks at a number of images (including the latest one he’s teased, his painting of Melisandre of Asshai), so check it out!

Canadian bookseller Chapters is sitting down with George R.R. Martin for an exclusive interview prior to the release of A Dance with Dragons, and they’re soliciting questions from fans! Questions must be submitted before 9 AM on July 4th.

Questions can be submitted at Chapter’s post or their Facebook page. (And just to be clear, those question will only be taken there; posting them in comments here will not help!)

Thanks to HarperCollins Voyager, there’s now an A Dance with Dragons app for those with iOs devices! According to the description, the app contains an extract from the novel, a quiz to sort you into a noble house, a chance at a prize draw, and more.

The official release date is July 12th, with Kindle and Audiobook editions being released simultaneously. Some more information, and pre-order links, can be found here.

According to this very interesting article from The Bookseller, a U.K. publishing industry website, HarperCollins (of which GRRM’s UK publisher, Voyager, is an imprint) has hit a milestone with 1,000,000 copies of the A Song of Ice and Fire series available in the U.K. and 100,000 copies of A Dance with Dragons printed in ahead of the July 12 release date.

There’s some rather amazing statistics, including the fact that this last week has seen more copies of the novels sold than in all of 2010, and that that figure is 6,120% higher than in the same time period last year, and that sales this year to date are already up 1,660% over last year.

The Waterstone’sPiccadilly store will have a replica of the Iron Throne from HBO’s Game of Thrones  on display from the 9th to the 14th as promotion for the release of the fifth novel begins.

One of the internet awards for television that we think are among the best known and are the most representative of a certain sort of audience, Television Without Pity’s Tubey Awards are now up-and-running, and as you might expect, Game of Thrones is very well-represented indeed. The polls are open, and below we provide a handy guide to the categories in which the show has nominees, and who those nominees are.

It’s that time again—each summer we run a bit of a fundraiser to help pay back our wonderful host, Rachel (aka Sparks), for giving the community a place to hang out. It’s been especially challenging this past couple of months, with activity surging thanks to the TV series and now the imminent release of A Dance with Dragons. Sparks has worked like a trooper to keep everything running, and is in the early stages of moving things to a more powerful server.

I don’t even want to think about how many words have been written on the site, how many hours have been spent on it, how many people have made new friends—it’s the finest forum I’ve ever been part of, and that’s because of the community of fans who’ve helped to shape it.

So, if you can spare a few dollars, please contribute! You can pay directly via Paypal, or use any major credit card (sorry, we have no alternative payment options). And if you’re concerned about privacy, there’s an option to donate privately, we believe.

Thanks for taking the time to read this and to consider contributing. We appreciate it!

Anticipation for A Dance with Dragons is reaching a fevered pitch. An accidental, early release from Amazon.de has caused a flurry of activity, including on our forum (we broke our concurrency record because of it). But before you go seeking out spoilers, heed these words from U.K. publisher HarperCollins Voyager…

And let us add our own thoughts on this. Yes, Linda and I have had the privilege of reading the book awhile ago. Yes, we knew some of what the contents were, from early chapters George had read or which we had early access to. But a great bulk of it was entirely new to us… and the pleasure in the reading was greatly heightened for us by not knowing what was coming. There are some amazing, jaw-dropping moments in this book. If you can at all help it, don’t ruin the shocks and surprises, so you can get the maximum effect out of them. GRRM’s labored six years on this book, trying to get it “just so”; what’s holding out two more weeks, to make sure you can read and judge his efforts with fresh eyes and an open mind? And don’t worry, we’ve put extreme spoiler protections up on the forum, so it should remain a relatively safe place on the relatively-lawless internet (and we’ll note, word is there’s a number of major forums where spoilers—fake and real alike—are flying like mad, so keep your head down!)

Now, that Amazon.de error is fixed, and any new orders placed via Amazon.de will provide the appropriate shipping date. There are rumors of stores in Australia, Sweden, and elsewhere claiming early release dates, but Bantam/Random House is on the case, double-checking all the international distributors and major chains to make sure that the global July 12th embargo is respected.

So, if you haven’t pre-ordered the book yet, what are you waiting for? It’s now two weeks to go! Here’s a handy list of links:

• A Dance with Dragons, US editions: Hardcover, Kindle, Audiobook
• A Dance with Dragons, UK editions: Hardcover, Kindle, Audiobook

Just about two weeks away from A Dance with Dragons (US, UK) landing on bookshelves in the U.S., and Suvudu has the full details of George R.R. Martin‘s signing tour. So far, nine locations are planned, though we wouldn’t be surprised if a couple more get added.

Signing locations include Burlington (MA), New York City, Indianapolis, San Diego (right around San Diego Comic Con, where both Bantam and HBO will have a big presence, and which GRRM will be present for), Los Angeles, Redwood City, Seattle, Denver, and Lexington. Rules for each signing event are spelled out, which will be very important for those wanting to get their books signed. Read them carefully!