The So Spake Martin collection has been updated with a number of reports from the recent Days of Ice and Fire event. You can find them here, under the section for reports from signings and events.
Suvudu’s Villains Cage Match continues, with the Mountain that Rides against victorious after having smashed Gaius Baltar’s head in for him. Now his next challenge: the Terminator (T-800 model)! Suvudu’s own experts have made their prediction that the Mountain will prevail… but only votes from fans and readers can really decide the outcome, so vote now!
Our gallery has been updated with 34 new screencaps from three of the four Artisans behind the scenes videos released via HBO’s Making Game of Thrones website. We have added our commentary when we have something substantive to remark in, such as how certain costuming choices reflect Martin’s descriptions, details of heraldic depictions, or how architectural elements can be placed to specific historical architectural styles.
We hope to add the fourth of the Artisan’s video shortly.
Reports from Fantasy Flight Games‘s Days of Ice and Fire event, featuring GRRM, have started to come in thanks to Ice and Fire forum member the Mastiff. First off, we have non-spoiler Q&A discussion, with some amusing anecdotes. This will be added to the So Spake Martin collection soon.
And then… big, honking spoilers here, because this is an exhaustive report of GRRM’s reading of a chapter from A Dance with Dragons, featuring the onion knight, Davos Seaworth: Davos 2.
Thanks to the Mastiff, and everyone else who is likely to put in additional reports both from the event and the Brotherhood without Banners lunch with George.
Set decorator Richard Roberts provides a look into a particular sort of cuisine: prop cuisine, sometimes real food, often not. This new video at Making Game of Thrones is particularly rich in visual details, featuring images from the feasting tent at the tourney grounds outside King’s Landing, the Red Keep, Winterfell, and Castle Black. Having had a chance to visit the Castle Black set two weeks past, I have to say these shots of the mess hall and the courtyard outside capture spot-on the flavor of the locale. Particularly noteworthy for us is the description of King’s Landing as being towards a Mediterranean climate and cuisine, which while not strictly in keeping with the novels is certainly not very far off the mark. We’ll just imagine that couscous dish is a Dornish speciality that someone at court has a liking for (paging Ser Aron Santagar…)
For those interested in a look at food as described in the novels, check out this section of our Concordance, a project of ours that attempts to catalog every factual thematic detail revealed in the published books and stories so far.
Fans of the A Song of Ice and Fire series around the world have found inspiration in GRRM’s series, whether it leads to cosplay, fan art, game mods, and more. One area fertile for inspiration are songs inspired by the novels, and certainly several metal bands have taken up the cause, as have instrumental composers.
Songs directly taken from the novels, on the other hand, have been less common. Presented below are two very fine examples, however. The first, from the second Belfast Moot (my report on it can be found here), is a rendition of “The Last of the Giants” from A Storm of Swords, by Brotherhood without Banners and A Song of Ice and Fire forum member lilsisorcha:
When she started singing, I have to admit, the emotive lament of the song sent a shiver up my spine. Beautiful.
The next is a truly amazing rendition of “The Bear and the Maiden Fair” ... but in Spanish! It’s a remarkable version, not least because it’s such a lively song that seems absolutely right for a crowded feasting hall, with men and women slamming their fists down in time with the jaunty tune:
Have pointers to any other songs developed directly from lyrics in A Song of Ice and Fire? Note them in the comments!
In his latest “Not a Blog” post, George R.R. Martin reminds us that the anthology he’s co-edited with Gardner Dozois, Songs of Love and Death: All-Original Tales of Star-Cross Love, should be on bookstore shelves very shortly. Among contributors are Jacqueline Carey (with a story about Anafiel Delauney and Prince Roland, from her Kushiel series), Tanith Lee, Neil Giman, Jim Butcher, M.L.N. Hanover, Robin Hobb, and more. Martin provides a foreword.
In a similar vein, Tor is releasing a new edition of Wild Cards with a gorgeous cover by Michael Komarck. The first novel in a seminal shared-world anthology series created by GRRM and fellow writers, this new edition features three all new stories by Carrie Vaughn, Michael Cassutt, and David Levine.
There’s a couple of Game of Thrones relevant articles out of the U.K. press this morning that may be of interest. The first, reported at 4ni, covers a set visitmade by Northern Ireland’s First Minister and Deputy First Minister. Naturally, it refers to the economic value of having the production in Northern Ireland, but adds the detail that the production could be present for as long as a decade if it’s a success (this is probably drawn from GRRM’s remarks to UTV, and so were just off the cuff). Some of the other details—such as the reference to a move to Malta “soon”—are erroneous.
Besides that, the Essex Echo has an article about muscian Wilko Johnson, who was cast in the role of Ser Ilyn Payne, the King’s Justice. The article states:
Thanks to ninepennyking for the pointers.
Here’s a different sort of Malta report from Ty Franck, George R.R. Martin’s assistant. In it he discusses the things in his life that are, from his perspective, quite surreal in part due to his association with GRRM, including his trip to Malta. Drinking and having lunch with actors, discussing Converse shoes with an award-winning costumer (Michele Clapton), looking at hundreds of years old plate armor, and the following which he describes as the most surreal thing he experienced while there:
Franck’s debut novel, Leviathan Wakes (co-written with Daniel Abraham, under the shared pen name of James S.A. Corey) is due to be published in June of next year.
For fans in Minnesota, Fantasy Flight Games’s upcoming November 12 - November 14 “Days of Ice and Fire” event will be a great chance to meet George. A schedule has been published, including signing sessions on Friday and Sunday, plus a reading, seminar, and panel on Saturday including fellow authors (and Wild Cards collaborators) Melinda Snodgrass and Ian Tregillis.
Members of the Brotherhood without Banners have been working to organize a get-together at the event, more details of which can be found here.
HBO’s Making Game of Thrones website has been updated with a few choice quotes from the set, provided by Bryan Cogman. Among them is a new phrase in Dothraki (without a translation) and some corpse feng shui. Only on a set!
Suvudu’s latest cage match series focuses on villains, and representing George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire is the Mountain that Rides, Ser Gregor Clegane. He’s defeated Dracula and Morgan le Fay in his last two matches, but now he faces his biggest challenge yet:
Gaius Baltar, the sleazy, self-aggrandizing celebrity scientist of Battlestar Galactica.
Voting on the result of the cage match continues through Thursday. The winner of this contest—and we’re sure it’ll be the Mountain, right?—will go on to face the winner of the contest between the T-800 Terminator and Fenris the Feared. The Terminator seems to be winning that one handily, but if you have the time to vote, we urge you to vote for the Feared, one of Joe Abercrombie‘s more memorable villains.
In any case, go and vote for the Mountain!
Stuart Levine at Variety interview HBO’s co-president Richard Plepler and programming president Michael Lombardo (who’s been a good source for Game of Thrones information) about their programming plans. Much of it deals with the challenges of programming when they have so many high-quality original series, mini-series, and documentaries, and having to turn away interesting, high-quality projects because they simply don’t have the room in their schedule.
They do discuss Game of Thrones to some degree towards the end of the interview, where they confirm it will air in the 2nd quarter. Here’s a few quotes:
RP: I would just say this: While it is a different genre, the storytelling piece, meaning the themes that it takes up—power and strife and people vying for their piece of the crown, metaphorically—those are themes that have been all over the network for years. And David Benioff, who’s the creator, had a wonderful line at the very beginning of this project. He said, “You’ll quickly forget where you are, because the themes are universal.” Having read all the scripts, I think that’s absolutely true.
ML: At this point, we have not seen any cuts. All we have seen are dailies.
RP: And the pilot. It’s beautiful.
And sci-fi fans and fantasy who have been very satisfied with “True Blood” are probably willing to give you the benefit of the doubt.
ML: You know the interesting thing about this show is I am not a sci-fi fan, and this show really transcends the genre. When we first read the pilot script, there is nothing that really gives you a full hint of the magic in the Martin books. It’s a bunch of compelling and well-crafted stories. There are such interesting and complex characters that we were excited by the drama, not by the genre. I hope people don’t look at this as a genre play and refrain from taking a look at it, because I think it is much more than that.
RP: I think it’ll satisfy the passion of its natural fan base, but also intrigue and satisfy those people who might not typically be connected to the sci-fi genre. That would be fantastic for us, and I think that’s really likely.
Three new pieces of casting have been confirmed by HBO. First up, they have confirmed that Brian Fortune has been cast as “Night’s Watch Officer”, but that his role will basically fill that of the First Steward, Bowen Marsh, from the novel. Fortune has an official site here, and a showreel .wmv file here.
Besides this, the roles George had hinted at as being near to being announced—the wildling Stiv and Ser Kevan Lannister—are now filled. Stiv is played by Stephen Don, a Northern Irish actor. As to Ser Kevan, the younger brother and right-hand man to Lord Tywin, he’s played by Ian Gelder, who U.K. viewers may recognize from a number of genre TV show roles such as Torchwood and Robin Hood.
Here’s Gelder in a tribute video to his notable turn as Mr. Dekker in Torchwood: Children of the Earth:
ETA: Oh, and missed one, Hugo Culverhouse is cast as a stableboy. One with a brief, but rather final, scene.
Just have word in from HBO that the focus groups, which were scheduled to assemble next week, is now postponed. Everyone who has been scheduled to participate will be on the top of the list to be contacted to see if they’re available on the new date. So, if you’ve been selected, hang tight and wait to hear back from the market research group.