Westeros

A brand new calendar has been announced for 2023: the World of Fire and Blood 2023 Calendar, a departure as it focuses on characters and events first described in The World of Ice and Fire and expanded on in Fire and Blood. Another departure: where previous calendars were single-artist affairs, this one will feature multiple artists, including prior calendar artists Marc Simonetti and Magali Villeneuve, as well as artists new to the calendars such as Chase Stone and René Aigner

Aegon the Conqueror and Balerion destroy Harrenhal, by Marc Simonetti. (This post contains affiliate links to Amazon.)

James Hibberd has another scoop, reporting that HBO Max has ended development of the previously reported series focused on Flea Bottom. But it also is developing two new animated projects to join a previusly announced animated show, and one of them is based on Yi Ti, an ancient and high civilization far to the east of the Seven Kingdoms that is inspired by Chinese history and culture. The World of Ice and Fire is the source of much of what we know of Yi Ti, including its people and their descent from the Great Empire of the Dawn who may have had a role in the Long Night.

Artist’s conception of the imperial capital, Yin.

The artists behind 2019’s very successful Unseen Westeros art exhibition—a collection of artworks from some 40 artists inspired by The World of Ice and Fire—have gathered together to launch a second exhibition of artwork, this time dubbed Unknown Worlds. Taking place at Frankenstein Castle overlooking the city of Darmstadt in Germany, the art exhibition will take place from July 15th through July 18th. Entry is entirely free.

Full details below!

Continuing the series of guides to various regions of Westeros, made in collaboration with Random House, we’re back with a new one: the Iron Islands. We draw from The World of Ice and Fire, of course, but you’ll see images and details drawn from The Lands of Ice and Fire map collection and the A Feast of Ice and Fire cookbook. Enjoy the video below:

The previous two entries were the North and King’s Landing. And we’re not quite done yet—keep an eye out in the weeks to come!

Exclusive word from Entertainment Weekly, who has the scoop that HBO is “nearing a pilot order” for a second prequel, this one with a script written by Ryan Condal (who is noted to be one of several writers who have worked on it). And the subject of that prequel? The Dance of the Dragons, first described in detail in The World of Ice and Fire and then expanded upon in even greater detail in Fire & Blood.

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:

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:

As promised, Linda and I are very pleased to present a second excerpt from The World of Ice and Fire  (Pre-order: Amazon US, Amazon UK), following George’s excerpt from last month. Our own excerpt features the beginning of “The Ten Thousand Ships”, the section devoted to the events leading to the arrival of the Rhoynar in Westeros, beginning with the relationship—and eventual conflict—between the people of the Rhoyne and the Valyrians. Those of you who’ve looked at the other available glimpses of the book know, the book’s richly illustrated with beautiful artwork from many artists. Below, you’ll find one of those pieces of art, a depiction of Princess Nymeria by artist J.K. Drummond.

And as an added bonus, at the end of the extract is a video Linda and I recoreded from our Youtube channel, discussing the origins of the book, the writing process, and going over some of its content. Enjoy!

The Ten Thousand Ships

The last of the great migrations into Westeros happened long after the coming of the First Men and the Andals. For once the Ghiscari wars had ended, the dragonlords of Valyria turned their gaze toward the west, where the growth of Valyrian power brought the Freehold and its colonies into conflict with the peoples of the Rhoyne.

The mightiest river in the world, the Rhoyne’s many tributaries stretched across much of western Essos. Along their banks had arisen a civilization and culture as storied and ancient as the Old Empire of Ghis. The Rhoynar had grown rich off the bounty of their river; Mother Rhoyne, they named her.

We’ve been receiving questions lately regarding The World of Ice and Fire, as there has been a shift in the publication schedule which has led to it being pulled for pre-ordering from Amazon and other retaliers (for now). We’ve made a few remarks on the forum, but it seem that George himself has discussed the book at his appearance at the ConQuest convention in Kansas City (we’ve one report—more coming—at the So Spake Martin collection from Professor Henry O. Jacoby, who edited the Game of Thrones and Philosophy), and provided some of the details we’ve been sitting on. In fact, the interest must be pretty high, because even the Guardian—one of the leading papers in the UK—has devoted some time to covering the book.

German booskeller Olaf Keith brought to our attention the fact that The World of Ice and Fire—the work we’ve been co-writing with George R.R. Martin, providing a look at the history and lands of the setting of “A Song of Ice and Fire”—has made its first appearance on Amazon.com for those who’d like to pre-order it. We can’t remark on the publication date, page count, or even the price point at this time, but at least there’s now an ISBN and a chance to pre-order. It can also be preordered at Amazon Germany, for those who use that service.

This book is distinct from the A World of Ice and Fire iOS app from Random House, which we also provided the content for, although they both share some common origins.

Over at “Not a Blog”, George R.R. Martin has posted the fact that he and co-editor Gardner Dozois have delivered the cross-genre anthology, Dangerous Women. He has provided a full list of contents, and there’s a surprise in there for fans of the series:

Emphasis mine, for those looking for details on Martin’s story.

We thought we’d provide a little background to the iOs app that Random House released, titled A World of Ice and Fire, for those who’ve been peppering the forums and ourselves with questions about them. We’re very pleased at all the excitement, to say the least! First up, here’s the official press release that followed the app’s release: