Westeros

On October 25th, The Rise of the Dragon: An Illustrated History of the Targaryen Dynasty, Volume One hit shelves. Based on Fire and Blood by GRRM, the book provides a more condensed account of the events documented in that work of “fake history” while providing over 180 new, full-color illustrations (some were shared in the recent, all packaged in a similar format to The World of Ice and Fire. As we said when the book was first announced, the book is for a very particular set of audiences—those who were daunted by F&B’s size but are interested in something more concise, those who love the artwork, and those who are collectors and completists. If you or someone you know fits that, however…

Ahead of the release, George is holding a couple of events, including one that will be livestreamed for those who purchase a ticket. See more details below, as well as an opportunity to get copies with a different set of autographs entirely… !

One of the many new pieces of art Rhaenyra and Daemon Targaryen racing their dragons, Syrax and Caraxes, between High Tide and Dragonstone. By Nutchapol Thitinunthakorn

We’re back to discuss the third episode of House of the Dragon, titled “Second of His Name”. As usual, we discuss some changes from the source material, provide some additional background information for things touched on only lightly in the episode, and finally some dragon facts (quite brief ones, in this case!)

Just two months away from the release of The Rise of the Dragon, a book we’ve co-authored that takes Fire and Blood, boils it down to the essentials, and fills the rest of the pages with over 180 pieces of glorious, all-new artwork from artists both familiar and brand new to fans of A Song of Ice and Fire. Random House has started the wheels rolling promoting the book by releasing this video with George R.R. Martin where he talks about the book and its connection to House of the Dragon:

A pleasant surprise today, as the official Game of Thrones channels dropped a new video, this time a rather unique one as it had George R.R. Martin narrating the history of the Targaryens (as well as the Hightowers and Velaryons) that leads up to the time of The House of the Dragons, with animated graphics from none other than artist Doug Wheatley, the illustrator of Fire and Blood.

Very interesting that the Hightowers get a little bit of focus in this video. The Velaryons are to be expected, of course, although an interesting thing we noticed about this video is that it only mentions the marriage of Corlys to Rhaenys as one of the ties the families have to one another, when of course Aegon the Conqueror and his sisters had a Velaryon mother. It’s a short video, but since Aegon and the Conquest was mentioned, it seemed like a detail they could have slipped in there if they wanted to.

As promised, we can now discuss in more detail our forthcoming book, The Rise of the Dragon, as it has not been posted about at Not a Blog. The book will hit shelves in October, both in the US and in the UK as HarperVoyager announced they’ve picked up the rights (and shown off their own cover).

US Cover of The Rise of the Dragon, by Ertaç Altınöz

Deadline Hollywood has the scoop: Amanda Segel (Person of Interest, Helstrom) is tackling 10,000 Ships, one of several Game of Thrones successor-shows that HBO has in the works according to reports from March. This project would feature Princess Nymeria, the legendary leader of the Rhoynar who led them from their flight from the conquering Valyrians and their dragons and ultimately established a new home when she wed Lord Mors Martell and unified Dorne. Notably, due to the death of many the men among the Rhoynar in Garin’s war, Nymeria’s fleet of ships was dominated by women, suggesting this show’s cast would be the most likely to be predominantly-female.

Most of what we know regarding Nymeria and the Rhoynar comes from our own The World of Ice and Fire (affiliate link).

After a deal of footage has made its way to the internet from photographers with long lenses, HBO has now released to media images of some of the costumed lead performers from House of the Dragon. These feature Emma D’Arcy and Matt Smith as Rhaenyra Targaryen and Daemon Targaryen, Steve Touissant as Corlys Velaryon, and Olivia Cooke and Rhys Ifans as Alicent Hightower and her father Otto Hightower. See the images below, with some comments.

Emma D’Arcy as Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen” and Matt Smith as Prince Daemon Targaryen. Typical Targaryen looks, as expected. Rhaenyra’s costuming fits the description of her preferred colors and textiles such as maroon and velvets. Her long braid is also drawn from Martin’s description.

The second in the series of travelogue videos we’ve made in collaboration with Random House—you can see the first here if you missed it—is now out! Leaving the far North, Linda and I now discuss the royal city of King’s Landing, with some notes on notable architecture and cuisine!

Three more to come in the coming weeks!

Before Linda and I headed out on vacation, we were approached by our publisher to record a brief series of travelogue videos focused on The World of Ice and Fire. The first of these was very recently unveiled, highlighting the people, sights, and cuisine of the North:

A few more of these to come in the coming weeks!

Mashable has the exclusive news that explains just what this was about: Random House is publishing an official companion app for the A Song of Ice and Fire series, beginning with A Game of Thrones and including additional content to go through the rest of the series to date.

It’ll be hitting the Apple iTunes app store tomorrow (November 27th), while a version for the Nook (not Android, as the Mashable piece says) is coming in the near future. A demo version will be available to just give you a taste of the entries, which cover characters and places, and includes interactive maps to help orient you. It’s all quite lovingly put together… and as you may notice from the lead image, it seems there will, indeed, be art to accompany entries (those two particular pieces of art are by the amazing Michael Komarck for the sadly-hard-to-get Dabel Brothers 2009 A Song of Ice and Fire calendar).