Westeros

HBO UK has sent out a reminder that February 16th (17th in the US) will see the release of Game of Thrones Season 4 on Bluray (Pre-order: US Bluray, US DVD, UK Bluray, UK DVD).

Once again, here’s the full release concerning the contents, and the differences between the DVD and Bluray editions:

HBO has finally revealed the premiere date for Game of Thrones, season 5: April 12th, anchoring the back-to-back-to-back premieres of itself as well as comedies Silicon Valley and Veep.

The full press release is below:

We’ve just received a press release from HBO regarding the popular, Game of Thrones traveling exhibition which notes it will include “select never-before-seen pieces from Season 5 premiering in April 2015”. The exhibition—besides it’s usual U.S. appearance—will be appearing in the UK, Sweden, Israel, Spain, Holland, Germany, and France with more locations to be decided.

You’ll find the full press release below:

In an interesting, and unusual step for a television show, Game of Thrones will be featured on IMAX screens for a one week engagement beginning January 23rd. During that time, the final two episodes of season 4—“The Watchers on the Wall” and “The Children”, episodes known for their cinematic spectacle—will air… as well as an exclusive, sneak-peek trailer for season 5. Much as we speculated, season 5’s first trailer was due in January.

Now the question is, will this trailer also be released online, either concurrently with IMAX’s exclusive or following the end of the run? We’ll have to wait and see…

Those who pore over the channel listing information over at HBO have finally hit on the first hint of new Game of Thrones content this year: Game of Thrones: A Day in the Life, a featurette due to air on February 8th at 7:30PM (Eastern). What’s it about? No one knows, but its 28 minute running time suggests it’ll be a lengthy behind-the-scene look at the show. Much of it, we suspect, will focus on what’s come before… but it’s certainly likely we’ll also get a good look at the 5th season, as well.

Now, where’s that season 5 trailer fans have been waiting for? If HBO sticks to last year’s road map, we should be seeing one somewhere this month…

As is traditional, at the end of each year HBO releases a year-in-review video which also then looks ahead to what’s coming next year. This year is no different, as at the 1:38 mark we get four quick glimpses of four of the show’s central characters: Cersei, Jon, Tyrion, and Arya. These are so swift that I’m not sure we’d consider them spoilerish… but just in case, lets just say there are spoilers:

Over at EW, James Hibberd reveals a design for Arya Stark’s brand new costume for the upcoming season of Game of Thrones. With quotes from Maisie Williams, the article notes it’s a radical new design for Arya who has spent most of the past four seasons in androgynous clothing, and now has something a bit more feminine with which to blend in in the Free City of Braavos.

She also teases an upcoming scene, one that has to do with her previous clothing, which sounds like it may be drawn from a sequence in A Feast for Crows.

With the holidays here, it’s time to start considering gifts for friends and family. And what better gift for a fan of George R.R. Martin’s work than something that appeals to their fandom? There’s many options out there, from books to toys to jewelry and more!

To help with some ideas, here’s a curated list of items we think any fan might enjoy:

• 
  House Plaques: They’re only available in the UK right now, but these house crest plaques from the Noble Collection look amazing: Stark, Lannister, Targaryen.

Over at Deviant Art, Aesara and Thelma—two fans of the A Song of Ice and Fire novels and the artwork that they’ve inspired— have begun a regular series, Illustrating Westeros, in which they talk with artists about their work in the setting. In a very special edition, however, they chose to talk to Linda and I about the artwork in The World of Ice and Fire. It’s a wide-ranging interview, discussing the history of the artwork in the book, the areas where George R.R. Martin was particularly heavily involved in making sure things were as close to his imagination as possible, and our own personal favorite works. It’s a lengthy read, richly illustrated with examples of the art from the world book. You can find it here.

Today marks the release of Telltale Games‘s Game of Thrones game, featuring the company’s well-known focus on story and character combined with the Game of Thrones license and participation from several of the actors from the TV series. We’re looking at getting a review of our own out in the coming days, but here’s a few from the gaming media across the web:

• IGN gives it an 8.0.: “Tough decisions, well-acted original characters in interesting situations, and a strong, provocative ending kick off Telltale’s new Game of Thrones series in a great way. Its nature as a side-story to the HBO show means we won’t get to decide the fate of Westeros, but this introduction is convincing evidence that the future of House Forrester puts enough at stake to make choices matter.”
• Polygon gives it a 6.5: “Which is the problem with “Iron from Ice”: We have no idea how these decisions will pay off or punish us down the road. It feels like a slow episode of the show, and although the story could go into a few interesting directions, as it stands it often feels like you’re simply standing on the periphery of much greater struggles.”
• Total Biscuit shows the first few minutes of the game as he discusses it’s pluses and minuses. He notes that the play time is 2-2.5 hours for this first entry in the episodic series.

The end of Thanksgiving tonight will mark the beginning of “Black Friday” in the U.S. (and anywhere else that has decided to follow American consumer mania)... but a few locales have, of course, jumped the gun and started their sales now. And as it happens, The World of Ice and Fire has been chosen by the powers that be to be a loss-leader for a couple of major players in the U.S. retail market.

First off, The World of Ice and Fire has been deeply discounted in its Kindle edition at Amazon US (here), bringing it down to $7.81, while Google Play has the book down to under $ (here). Perfect opportunity for those who own the hardcover to add an e-book edition to carry around on heir phone or tablet, right?

And Amazon’s gone a step further with a 30% reduction on its current, already-reduced price by using the special promotion code “HOLIDAY30” (valid on any physical book, by the way, not just TWoIaF) at checkout (here). That code is one-use only, by the by, and the offer runs out on November 30th. Just in time for sorting out gifts for the holidays…

An interesting viral marketing campaign from HBO for next year’s Game of Thrones has hit the web: Three-eyed Raven is a new site that allows users to sign up for Twitter or (in select countries) SMS notifications of “the sight”, short (and by short, we mean very short) teaser videos that provide a brief glimpse at the upcoming season. The first video—which you’ll receive a link to after signing up—features Arya and a hint of a location she’ll be spending a great deal of time at.

Doubtless more teasers will drop in the coming months.

As the title says, Telltales Games has released the first teaser trailer for Game of Thrones: Iron from Ice, an episodic adventure following the lives of members of the northern House Forrester of Ironrath in a sort of side-story that fits along with the continuity of HBO’s Game of Thrones. The game promises to have appearances from notable characters from the series—including Cersei and Tyrion Lannister, and Ramsay Snow—and it seems the actors will be voicing their characters. Here’s the trailer below:

Alongside this, Telltales has sent character images and brief details to a number of gaming and media sites, which have been very helpfully compiled over at IGN. These short profiles reveal thirteen original characters who’ll appear in the game, although there’s no sign which of these will be among the five playable characters.

The first episode is set to release before the end of the year.

The Dangerous Women anthology (US, UK) edited by George R.R. Martin and Gardner Dozois and containing (among other things) George’s “The Princess and the Queen”, has just been announced as the winning anthology at this year’s World Fantasy Awards. The awards are determined by a jury, drawing from a selection of nominees drawn in part from the jury’s own selections for consideration and by nomination from attendees. With a strong field, including entries by perennial favorites Ellen Datlow (recipient of a Lifetime Achievent Award at the convention) and Terri Windling, Jonathan Strahan, and more, this is a particularly noteworthy win for the anthology.

Many hearty congratulations to George and Gardner, as well as to all the contributors to the anthology!

It’s been a hectic three days since the release of The World of Ice and Fire, and Linda and I are only just now getting a chance to catch our breaths. Below, we’re going to give a run down of what we—and George—have been up to in terms of appearances, interviews, and more that have been released surrounding the book.

First, the morning on the 28th opened for Linda and I with the realization that the book was #1 on Amazon.com—that was pretty amazing in and of itself. But we couldn’t sit and marvel at it because that was the morning of our marriage, as well. For those who knew about it, many thanks for your felicitations and support! We’ve been engaged *ahem*sixteen*ahem* years and for various reasons we never quite pulled the trigger on it… so lets just say we’re glad it’s done, once and for all.

No honeymoon for us, however: later that day we had our very first signing of the book, at Gothenburg’s own SF Bokhandlen. A good time was had, as we answered questions and chatted with fans. We signed a few additional copies that should be on the shelves, for anyone looking for a copy with our scrawls in it. Linda will be appearing tomorrow at Comic Con Gameex outside of Stockholm tomorrow to sign more books at SF Bokhandlen’s booth, between 2PM and 4PM.

We’ve done various interviews as well: a two part Reddit AMA (part 1, part 2) was the first big thing we did, although it was just prior to the release of the book so stays more general. A post-release interview followed shortly after, however, at the Podcast of Ice and Fire where we discuss certain new details offered up in the book with host Amin Javadi. We’ve been guests on the podcast several times before, and it’s always been great fun.

More interviews are forthcoming, but in the interim, there’s of course all the things George R.R. Martin has been up to in the run up and following the release. George appeared at Brown University with Tor publisher Tom Doherty to recieve the Harris Literary Award; there they talked about a variety of things, from Robert Jordan to The World of Ice and Fire, the future of publishing, and more. Then George appeared at the 92Y where he spoke at length about the book, followed by an appearance two days later on Late Night with Seth Meyers (where Meyers was knighted in the fine tradition of the Brotherhood without Banners fan group).

With our editor Anne Groell, George discussed the world book further for a promotional video, as he did for HarperCollins Voyager. Most recently, George appeared at the WSJ Cafe for a private appearance where interviewer Christopher Farley asked a number of very interesting questions about George’s career. George notes at his Livejournal that more interviews are to come, and we’ll be sure to share them at the So Spake Martin collection when they’re published.