Westeros

Worldcon 76 is coming to San Jose in August, but a couple of days prior to this the SF in SF organization has put together a special event: an evening with George R.R. Martin and award-winning artist John Picacio.

Organized as a benefit for Locus Magazine, the chief trade magazine of SF/F publishing, the event promises to feature “a discussion on literature, art, and life” between the famed writer and artist. Signed copies of their works will be available for purchase.

The event takes place at the Fox Theatre in Redwood City on August 14, the Tuesday before Worldcon. For more information, see the event site.

Amazon is now listing the Game of Thrones season 1 4K, Ultra HD, HDR Blu-ray set.  It was announced earlier this month.

See our post at the time for more details, including commentary on the resolution the show was shot at across different seasons to have a better understanding of the source they’ll be working with. Of course, a 4K release will mean one big advantage: a higher bitrate, which will mean a lot more detail perserved even in the case when they’re upscaling from 1080p.

Culturefly has unveiled their second subscription box in their Game of Thrones series, as well as its theme: the North and the Lands Beyond the Wall.

You can glimpse hints of what exclusive items the box will contain at ”>their page, which seem to include the inevitable Stark-branded item, as well as what we’re guessing are artworks depicting giants and wights, and what may be a sculpted weirwood.

A couple of months ago we had the pleasure of unboxing their first entry in the series, which you can see below:

Over at the new “Not a Blog”, George R.R. Martin has announced the completion of Fire and Blood.

One of the details that we learned not long ago—but couldn’t share—is that the book was going to be illustrated throughout by a single artist, Doug Wheatley, who had contributed some of the art of The World of Ice and Fire.

As fans will notice, this book is big—listed as 640 pages on Amazon! George goes into some detail on what will be contained, largely expanded material that had been initially written for our book, but a great deal is brand new in the form of material concerning Jaehaerys I the Conciliator. Having read it through, we can say there’s a deal of very interesting details revealed therein. (And, yes, we’ve helped George sort out a few inconsistencies that had appeared in “The Sons of the Dragon”, “The Princess and the Queen”, and so on!)

The book is due to launch in the U.S. and U.K. on November 20th, and will likely see simultaneous release in some other regions.

A press release from HBO announces that for the first time ever, Game of Thrones will get the 4k treatment. Available from June 5th, the first season of Game of Thrones will be available to be purchased as 4K Ultra HD Bluray or 4K digital download. Bonus features all sound like the same from the original season 1 DVD release.

We’ll have the full text below, but it’s worth noting that the first season was recorded to HDCAM-SR tapes in high bitrate 1080p. The next two seasons were also shot at 1080p, and only the fourth and following seasons were shot at the 2880p resolution. So far as we know, VFX for at least the first four seasons were all done at 1080P as well, and it’s unclear if that has ever changed.

Long and short of it, this and any future 4K Ultra HD Blurays are going to be upscaled to 4K rather than be native resolution, although they should gain substantially from the higher bitrates the media allows.

Here’s the press release below:

In his latest “Not a Blog” post, George R.R. Martin has posted a cryptic message featuring Froggy the Gremlin, which means he’s having fun presenting a puzzle to fans. Given the television tag in the post, and the reference to the dragon having three heads, thoughts certainly turn to his presenting some new information regarding HBO’s follow-ups to Game of Thrones.

As we know, originally four concepts were being developed by Max Borenstein, Jane Goldman, Carly Wray, and Brian Helgeland—but early on George hinted at a 5th pitch, which came to pass when HBO announced that Game of Thrones writer and producer Bryan Cogman was also working on a proposal with George.

That seems to easily explain the first two sets of images: Four series became five. As to the rest?

SyFy has released the first look video for their forthcoming Nightflyers science-fiction horror series, based on George R.R. Martin’s novella “Nightflyers”. Watch it below, including comments from GRRM himself about the story:

Certainly seems like the producers have gone for a very cinematic look, and have spared no expense in terms of the sets they’ve built to represent the ship.

Reports in the entertainment press have brought attention to remarks from HBO executives at the INTV Conference that have touched on Game of Thrones. Variety reports that Francesca Orsi—the HBO’s senior VP for Drama—promised that the final season of the show will be a satisfying climax, including the anecdote that cast members at the table read of the six scripts openly wept and that there were “15 or 20 minutes” of applause when the last page was read.

To benefit Whale and Dolphin Conservation, the leading charity to protect whales and dolphins around the world, Jerome Flynn—everyone’s favorite mercenary sellsword, Bronn—will join a lucky winner on a trip to Iceland to tour various of the locations featured in Game of Thrones... as well as some extra treats.

The fundraiser, hosted at Prizeo, is a sweepstakes where every $1 donated gets one entry in a draw (minimum donation is $10).

Read Jerome’s message to supporters explaining the details:

The WDC fundraiser ends on April 23rd.

As previously reported, SyFy has moved forward on a series order for Nightflyers, based on George R.R. Martin’s award-winning science fiction horror novel focused on a scientific mission to explore a mysterious, space-faring object. Last week, Irish press shard the news that production had begun at Troy Studios in Limerick shortly. Casting calls for extras—an interesting detail in and of itself, as the original novella only features a limited number of characters—went out late last month.

Thanks to the forthcoming show, the Nightflyers novella that started it all is being republished—not once, but twice. On May 29th, Tor will be publishing the Nightlyers & Other Stories collection that was first published in 1985. The five other stories are “Override” (the second of “Corpse Handler trilogy” of stories), “Weekend in a War Zone”, “Nor the Many-Colored Fires of a Star Ring” (the 2nd of two “Star Ring” stories), “And Seven Times Never Kill Man”, and “A Song for Lya” (these last, with “Nightflyers”, fall within the Thousand Worlds setting, the most substantial future history Martin created).

And then, most surprisingly, Bantam will be publishing Nightflyers: The Illustrated Edition on May 29th as well, which (per GRRM) will be expanded version of the novella (which has a complicated history) with 15 interior illustrations and 2 endpapers from artist David Palumbo. Palumbo has recently come into Martin’s orbit as an artist, providing the cover for the reprint of the Wild Cards book One-Eyed Jacks.

Big news out of Lucasfilm, as their official Star Wars site announces that David Benioff and D.B. Weiss are planning to go to a galaxy far, far away. Per the announcement:

From Benioff and Weiss’s statement, they plan to jump into this as soon as Game of Thrones is done, meaning they’re keeping themselves quite busy as they’re also supposed to be executive producing the controversial HBO project Confederate.

After a long trip through Swedish customs, CultureFly’s Game of Thrones Box has arrived for Linda to unbox. The very first entry in a quarterly series of boxes, which can be bought individually or subscribed to annually, is inspired by the noble houses of Westeros and features a number of exclusive items that will only be found in this limited edition box. See the video for the unboxing!

Intrigued? Put in WESTEROS20 when ordering—yes, they do ship internationally, though bear in mind import fees may apply—and get a 20% discount!

More videos to come…

Over at “Not a Blog”, George R.R. Martin’s assistant has revealed the cover of the A Song of Ice and Fire 2019 Calendar, with art from the great John Jude Palencar. This continues the trend of award-winning artists gracing the calendar series, making it one of the most vividly illustrated literary universes since Tolkien’s Middle-earth.

Interestingly, Palencar seems to have not done much SF/F genre work for the last four or five years—we’re going to guess he’s done personal projects and private commissions in the interim—so this calendar will mark an exciting return for the artist.

According to Amazon, the calendar has a July 17, 2018 release date.

A brief press release from HBO has confirmed what has long been understood: the final, 6-episode season of Game of Thrones will not air until 2019.

Here’s the press release in full:

Back during the 6th season, the UK’s Royal Mail and Tourism NI collaborated on a series of 10, limited edition Game of Thrones stamps. Now to start off the New Year, the Royal Mail has announced a brand new series of Game of Thrones stamps featuring characters and notable creatures and items from the series:

The ten set of individual stamps feature popular characters such as Arya Stark, Daenerys Targaryen, Jon Snow, and Cersei Lannister, while an additional sheet of stamps feature “the Night King and White Walkers; Giants; Direwolves and Dragons, as well as a stamp of the contested Iron Throne.”

The stamps can now be pre-ordered at the Royal Mail shop, ahead of the January 23rd release date; fans in the UK can visit any one of 7,000 Post Office branches across the UK to purchase them directly, or they can call the Royal Mail at 03457 641 641 and order stamps over the phone.

There’s a dizzying variety of options to choose from for collectors and fans, including some collectable covers and other items that are apparently limited editions with no more than 1,500 copies to be made.