Westeros

We’ve put together a comprehensive list of air dates, covering every country we have an inkling of(or think we soon ought to have some knowledge of) in regards to the air date for Game of Thrones. We’ve broken it into several sections, from those that have locked in dates all the way through to those we have no information about at all. Each section is alphabetical (except for the first, where the U.S., U.K., and Canada are given precedence), in the hopes it will make finding a specific country easier.

If you have any corrections, clarifications, or additional information regarding broadcasters or air dates, please feel free to comment or to e-mail us directly.

For those who are Kindle fans, Bantam and Amazon.com now have the Kindle edition of A Dance with Dragons available. It’s just $14.99 now, lower than the hardcover. I’m told that if you pre-order, it will automatically download to your device when it is available. Like the hardcover, it will be available on July 12th.

Although there’s no word yet on the U.K. Kindle edition, we can’t imagine Voyager will let the opportunity slip. As we’ve reported, A Dance with Dragons is already available for pre-order in the iBooks store, for those who prefer to use native apps for their Apple devices.

Screen captures from the latest trailer are now available, starting with the gorgeous image of the Wall you’re seeing to the right. Big, isn’t it? Some other exciting images are a glimpse of the silhouette of Winterfell as seen from a distance, and the (rather controversial) first look at an

white walker. I expect April 3rd’s 15 minute sneek peek from the 1st episode will convince those who are dubious that that really is an Other.

If anyone wants to try and estimate how large Winterfell is supposed to be from that image, by the way, please feel free to add a comment onto the gallery page for the image. I’m stumped as to whether it can be estimated in any reasonable fashion.

After the recent word that A Dance with Dragons (US, UK) had reached #4 at Amazon.com’s bestseller list, we decided to drop by today and see if it had fallen… and quite the contrary, it’s risen to the #2 position, making it Amazon’s #1 fiction title. It also seems to have somehow been in their top 100 list for 256 days, which we can’t quite make sense of given that pre-ordering had been disabled until recently, but there you are.

A hop over to their Science Fiction & Fantasy bestseller list also reveals that A Game of Thrones has been on the Top 100 list for over a year. Pretty amazing!

In other news, the audio book is now being solicited for a release on the same day as the hardcover. I’ve recently heard that there hasn’t quite been a decision yet as to who will be reading it, but Bantam’s aware how much GRRM and the fans would like to see Roy Dotrice reprise his reading from the first three books. We’ve also heard, just yesterday, that the health issues the led him to having to leave his role as Grand Maester Pycelle have largely resolved themselves, which is something we were very pleased to learn.

A report earlier in the day noted that HBO Canada stated that April 17 would see Game of Thrones premiere on April 17th. This caused a great deal excitement, especially as it seemed likely the U.S: would do the same… but it turns out it was an error. HBO Canada’s listing was incorrect. HBO has confirmed that HBO Canada will only be running one episode on April 17, and has corrected its listing to reflect that. HBO in the United States will also be premiering with just the first episode.

The penultimate part of my Belfast set visit report is now posted, featuring my tour of the production offices, where I saw a great deal of art.. Just one part left, covering my trip to Magheramorne, the site of Castle Black. Enjoy!

HBO has just sent out a press release revealing that there’ll be a 15-minute sneak peek of Game of Thrones on April 3rd! We had an inkling that something was up, but we had no idea it’d be this. It’s a great piece of news for the fans eagerly anticipating the show. You can find the full release below the cut.

Fans who’ve been able to make it out to Belfast while Game of Thrones was filming have had the pleasure of taking part in the Belfast Moots with GRRM, Parris, and many of the actors (see my report from the second Moot). They’re terrific events, and many have hoped another Moot would be possible, but various uncertainties—such as when, or even if, Game of Thrones would be filming a second season—has led to the realization that a third Moot simply isn’t something that can be arranged well in advance.

So, instead, the Brotherhood without Banners, Studio NI, and The Others (a Belfast-based SF fan group) have decided to put together TitanCon. Here’s their announcement:

I’m not one to prognosticate, but I would guess that even if Game of Thrones were to fail to get a second season, it seems fairly probable some of the local Northern Irish and Irish cast and crew members may still be on hand. And, who knows? If there’s a second season, there might be an even more significant presence… The cost is very reasonable indeed, at just £10 for a full membership or £5 for a supporting membership.

With the big announcement, now’s a good a time as any to get your pre-orders in on both sides of the Pond, as both Bantam and Voyager UK intend to publish A Dance with Dragons on July 12th. Amazon has now made it possible to pre-order ADwD here, and Amazon.co.uk offers pre-orders here.

Currently, pre-ordering the Kindle edition is not yet an option. However, the big news out of Apple—that Random House was joining iBooks—means that you can now buy the whole series (including pre-ordering A Dance with Dragons) if you’re an owner of one Apple’s fine gadgets such as the iPad, iPhone, or iPod Touch.

This is a busy, busy day—and though I’m still sick as a dog, I just had to share this,  a full trailer for Game of Thrones which is an EW Exclusive. A lot of great things here, including some dialog from a Littlefinger and Varys scene that we haven’t seen before, and a very brief glimpse of the Wall in its full majesty—this is the bit Linda and I saw in the 15-minute-reel, and we’re pretty sure everyone’s going to be very pleased with how it looks here!

By the way, for those wondering, no, this trailer does not feature final music by composer Ramin Djawadi—it’s stock or sourced from a third-party music composition group, as with previous trailers.

A brand new video from the Making Game of Thrones site, this time featuring Paul Inglis, the supervising art director, and a great deal of concept art:

Right after the announcement of the A Dance with Dragons release date went up, the main question we received was when it would be published in the U.K. Thanks to Voyager, the UK publisher, we now know: July 12, 2011, as well.

For those in the U.K. and Europe, you can pre-order at Amazon.co.uk.

No, the book isn’t quite done… but George and his publisher now feel they can give an absolutely firm publication date for the novel: July 12, 2011. Preoder today! As we’ve previously noted, the book is very large, possibly the longest novel in the series.

Now, it’s just a matter of time for GRRM to announce that he’s wrapped up the final chapter and has sent it on to Bantam.

Over at his official site, GRRM also updates, indicating that short of world wars, asteroid strikes, or tsunamis, this date is locked in!

The next part of my set visit report is up in the Features section, featuring a great deal of armor geekery, a visit to the throne room, and more. Pictures courtesy of HBO and Parris McBride.

I hope to get the next part out tomorrow… but I am coming down with something and so may have to delay it a day. Fingers crossed.

HBO has released a fantastic new series of T-shirts at their HBO Shop storefront, and suffice it to say, we’re pretty excited (and somewhat sad—U.S.-shipping only right now). Male and female designs cover a range of houses with their mottoes: Lannister, Targaryen, Stark, Baratheon, Arryn, and even Tully and Greyjoy(!)

Our personal favorite is the Targaryen dragon, we think, especially since they have corrected it from their initial filming, possibly because we noted the fact that the dragons are in fact supposed to have two legs.