Westeros

With all the attention on Game of Thrones, it seems this great talk at the Jean Cocteau Cinema between George R.R. Martin and noted literary novelist (and now fantasist, with his Black Leopard, Red Wolf) Marlon James, moderated by Dr. Andrea L. Mays, slipped under the radar. While we’ve added it to the So Spake Martin collection, it’s worth having a post of its own so we’ve embedded it below.

The amazing Unseen Westeros art exhibition, which we reported on and which I attended during its preview opening in Berlin, has in collaboartion with Adobe decided to provide a unique VR look at just a fraction of the gorgeous artworks created by the talented professional concept and matte artists (many of whom have worked on Game of Thrones). You can see the VR experience here on Youtube:

Below is the press release as well as details for the nine images shown:

Pyrrha, who have held a license to produce Game of Thrones jewelry using its unique wax seal technique since 2014, are celebrating the final season of the show with the release of four brand new talismans.

You can see the press release below:

The Glass of Thrones campaign website has launched, and it’s quite an impressive thing featuring 3D renderings of the stained glass monuments inspired by the houses of Game of Thrones. It’s a nice way to experience them virtually, but it sure seems like nothing beats actually seeing them in person.

The first monument, dedicated to House Stark, is placed outside of Belfast’s City Hall.

The second episode of the final season of Game of Thrones has aired, and Linda has put together some information on the Episode Guide including links to post-episode materials such as the pleasntly surprising release of Florence + the Machine’s rendition of “Jenny of Oldstones” (we’re big fans). Below, however, we’ll link Linda’s post-episode livestream in which she shared her thoughts and answered questions from viewers:

You’ll find the the preview for next week’s episode below:

Linda’s just finished the first ever Westeros.org livestream review, and we’ve updated the episode guide for the episode—titled “Winterfell”, per HBO—with that video as well as the extras HBO has released. Linda will add more to the page at a more sane hour, but until then, you can see the review video below:’

After that, you can check out HBO’s preview

Given the momentous final season (and the fact that Linda is booked up with a bunch of interviews the morning after the show airs), we’ve decided to do something new: a livestreamed commentary by Linda on our Youtube channel shortly after the episode airs (she thinks she can get going about 15 minutes after the episode airs.

We’ve tested out the tech and think we’ve the kinks worked out. It’ll be pretty bare bones to start with, but if it’s a success we’ll see about sprucing it up. One thing that we’ve brought out of retirement is our Sony camcorder, which we used for many of our early videos as well as our segments on Sky Atlantic’s Thronecast—turns out it outputs an excellent image for streaming compared to our DSLR!

Linda’ll post the stream here when it goes live, but if you want to hear about it as soon as possible, be sure to subscribe and request notifications over at Youtube.

With the final season of Game of Thrones just around the corner, Tourism Ireland is again teasing what has become a yearly tradition as they invite fans the world over to think of Northern Ireland as the “Game of Thrones Territory”. Carved doors scattered among historic pubs, limited edition stamps, an enormous pictorial tapestry—each of them has been a spectacular way to promote tourism for those who are interested in visting the land where the series has been based from the very start. This new campaign seems to be no less interesting, as this teaser video suggests:

The video may seem a bit mysterious to start with, but we think by the end what they’re hinting at is clear as glass.

(Disclosure: Linda and I have known Raya Golden since she she gave us a ride to and from the Chateau Marmont for a party during the 2006 Worldcon in Anaheim. Surviving the inevitable L.A. traffic jam and wondering who that starlet who passed us at the entrance was was a bonding experience never to be forgotten.)

Starport, a massive 272 page graphic novel, is Raya Golden‘s adaptation of George R.R. Martin‘s unproduced pilot script of the same name. Featuring the travails of Chicago’s police force and the many different alien species who come to visit its starport (one of three built on Earth by the league known as the Harmony of Worlds). Martin himself pitched it to studios as “Hill Street Blues meets aliens”, while Golden has suggested more contemporary pairings—“Brooklyn 99 meets Babylon 5... the cast of NYPD Blue on acid, playing laser tag with Alf,” and those are all pretty apt comparisons for the tone of this adaptation. Humor comes first, but as with all of Martin’s work there’s other elements—drama, romance, and even a wee bit of horror.

The A World of Ice and Fire app (iTunes, Google Play), the only official app companion to George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series, has received a complete refresh providing a snappier user interface, new maps from The Lands of Ice and Fire, and additional as well as updated entries. Behind the scenes, the app also has had some changes to how data is stored which will make it much easier and quicker for future updates to take place.

Those who already own the app can just update it via the appropriate store, and once you’ve opened it you’ll get the option to restore any of the packs you’ve acquired to extend the information in the app.

Linda and I have worked on this ever since its inception—when it started from the seed of the 70,000 words of “Who’s Who” material we had written for the 50,000 word-contracted The World of Ice and Fire (oops!)—and think Random House has done fine work integrating dynamic map markers and character portraits to give it that much more appeal and usefulness.

Ahead of the Game of Thrones final season, Random House Audio has for the first time released A Game of Thrones—Juego de tronos—as a Spanish-language audio book for the Latin American market. The rest of the series, as well as Fire and Blood (Fuego y sangre) will be released from now to September 2019.

Juego de tronos has released today, and is available at a number of vendors—most notably Audible.com, which gives new members two free audio books when they sign up for a membership.

You can read the press release below, which reveals that all the books will be read by famous Mexican voice actor Víctor Manuel Espinoza, the voice of Homer Simpson for millions of Latin Americans:

The Hollywood Reporter has published an interview with George R.R. Martin from the red carpet of the Game of Thrones premiere.

Musing on how time has flown since the series started, he also briefly has time to talk about the forthcoming pilot for a successor show, which GRRM has dubbed “The Long Night” despite HBO’s insisting that that’s not the official title.

Per the interview:

The Folio Society, famous for its bibliophile-oriented hardcovers with beautiful binding and interior illustrations, revealed last month that they were working on a new edition of A Game of Thrones with this tweet:

Today, they’ve now released a sneak peek at four of the eight chapter headers their as-yet-unnamed artist has created. Each represents a specific character, and draws from the heraldry of their families.

From the preview e-mail they sent out:

No release date has been announced as of yet, but the Folio Society has set up a dedicated page where there’ll be new information, as well as a way to sign up for e-mailed updates.

The pop culture mash-ups of Game of Thrones continue, with HBO now collaborating with hamburger chain Shake Shack to produce two show-themed menu items, the Dragonglass shake and the Dracarys burger. There’s a twist, however: you can only order them by speaking Valyrian!

Fortunately, Shake Shack has helpfully provided a guide to placing an order with pronunciation guidance and all. Question is, will the employees at the till (or the customers behind you) have the patience to let you stumble through it all?

Note that this is only at a sole location in NYC, and for a limited time only as noted by the restaurant:

Back in September, it was revealed that a Game of Thrones Legacy project was in an explortary phase to set up a permanent exhibition at the Linen Mill Studios. That exploratory phase is done, and the Game of Thrones Studio Tour is announced for a Spring 2020 opening. The plans sound ambitious, as the images and the press release below reveal!