Westeros

Thanks to HBO‘s usual end-of-year recap video, which looks at what the cabler has aired over the past year… and then gives a taste at what’s to come, we finally have our first video footage of season 4 of Game of Thrones! In the video below, starting at the 1:38 mark, a handful of quick glimpses from the highly-anticipated fourth season gives a taste of what’s to come. Of course, there are some spoilers herein, so view at your own discretion!

For some discussion of what we’re seeing, see below the cut.

Via George R.R. Martin, we learn that Dangerous Women (Order: US, UK) has been an absolutely smashing success for an original fiction anthology, placing on several bestseller lists. Most notably, the December 22nd edition of the New York Times hardcover fiction list, where it reached the extended list’s 18th position. As Martin notes, the book has also placed on the Ingram’s and USA Today lists.

Many congratulations to Martin and fellow editor Gardner Dozois, as well as all the involved authors, and the publisher, Tor Books!

As rumored, Spike’s VGX awards became the outlet for Telltale Games to announce that they are, indeed, creating a Game of Thrones game due out in 2014:

At the 1:48 mark of the program video, VGX hosts Geoff Keighley and Joel McHale interview Telltale Games developers about the game, drawing out a few more details. Chief among them is that, contrary to some speculation, the game is based on the TV license. The books are a resource, but it will be visually dependent on the show, and the developers hope to have some of the TV show’s actors involved in voicing the game. It is too early in the development process for them to discuss plotlines or characters, but it’s safe to say the game will be in a similar mold to Telltales’s award-winning The Walking Dead game, which was specifically cited as an influence in HBO’s decision to agree to the game.

This is still not 100% confirmed, but according to CVG, the earlier reports that Telltale Games was preparing a Game of Thrones game appear to be true. CVG’s reporter was among those watching the rehearsal broadcast of Spike’s VGX Awards, and in the course of it it was revealed that Telltale was going to discuss the new game. Other announcements meant for tomorrow’s live broadcast also slipped through into the rehearsals, until the award show’s producers pulled the plug on the rehearsal stream.

The VGX awards will be streaming tonight, so we’ll be keeping an eye on it to see if the report holds true.

The Dangerous Women anthology, edited by George R.R. Martin and Gardner Dozois and containing stories from Martin, as well as the likes of Joe Abercrombie and Brandon Sanderson, has been released in the US. The highlight for fans of A Song of Ice and Fire is Martin’s novella “The Princess and the Queen”, telling a part of the tale of the destructive civil war called the Dance of the Dragons, 170 years before the time of the A Song of Ice and Fire series. Filled with intrigue, family feuds, murders, and many, many dragons in violent, deadly battle, it reveals just how powerful and dangerous dragons (and Targaryens) truly were.

The anthology has received a starred review in Publisher’s Weekly, while “The Princess and the Queen” has been separately reviewed in Entertainment Weekly.

There’s a lot to be said about the novella, as our spoiler-filled discussion thread on the A Song of Ice and Fire forum reveals. Linda and I intended to have a video ready to discuss it—including its connection to the World of Ice and Fire that we’ve co-written with George—but winter has heralded a distinct lack of snow for us (so far)... but a cold did come to pay a visit. So we’ll have to wait on that until we’re less under the weather.

Until then, get the book, ready the novella, and share your thoughts!

George R.R. Martin is one among a number of notable SF/F authors—including Neil Gaiman, Harlan Ellison, Joe Haldeman, Michael Swanwick, and Jone Yolen—who have contributed rare books, memorabilia, and other items to the Pearl Foundation, a non-profit organization founded by award-winning musician Janis Ian that funds scholarships for returning students. The biggest item going right now in their present auction? That would be a script from the first episode of the first season of Game of Thrones, signed by all the Stark actors. Notice the blades symbol under Sean Bean’s signature—he really is a a hardcore fan of Sheffield United!

With 4 days left to go, the script has encouraged 34 bids, and is presently sitting at a whopping $3,750. Also of note is a signed presentation copy of the limited edition of A Dance with Dragons with art by Marc Fishman, and a full set of the A Song of Ice and Fire novels signed by Martin.

The Pearl Foundation is definitely a worthy cause, so examine what’s on offer and see if anything might be of interest ... or just go ahead and make a direct donation!

IGN has reported that “multiple sources” have informed them that Telltale Games is “developing a game based on George R.R. Martin’s Game of Thrones.” While still a rumor—one that Telltale refuses to confirm at this juncture—the notion of Telltale, who has recently won a great deal of acclaim for their The Walking Dead adventure game (Order: Amazon US), creating a game based on the setting will certainly set many gamers to eager expectation.

Interestingly, IGN emphasizes that it’s not clear whether this rumored title would be based on the television show, or if in fact it’s based on A Song of Ice and Fire. However, given our understanding of the licensing arrangements between Martin and HBO, it seems extremely likely that the basis will be the television adaptation; the two previous computer games made by Cyanide were licensed prior to the HBO deal, and “grandfathered” in (and even then, the RPG worked out a license with the TV show to use its visuals and include vocals from actors), but going forward we believe HBO has exclusive rights to computer games.

It is, of course, a rumor, even if it comes from multiple sources. But IGN makes a case—if one reads between the lines—that Game of Thrones could well be the “dream IP” that Telltale executives have hinted at.

(Many thanks to @realcozur for the tip.)

George R.R. Martin has been visiting the lands Down Under, and in the course of it has met thousands of fans and signed thousands and thousands of books for said fans. But he’s been doing something else: giving interviews to the eager local media who seem as excited as the fans to have the creator of A Song of Ice and Fire and Game of Thrones on their shores. We’ve been dutifully collecting the interviews as they appear over at the So Spake Martin collection, but we’re going to include some of the more interesting ones below.

For fans of Game of Thrones. undoubtedly the most interesting will be Martin’s appearance with Lena Headey and Michelle Fairley at the Sydney Opera House. Martin enters at about the 34 minute mark, before which the actresses have the audience eating from their hands:

Another interview, from SBS 2, is shorter—but include Martin’s remarks on the Game of Bones pornographic parody film, as well as a reference to yours truly here at Westeros.org:

A previously noted casting—that of child actress Octavia Selena Alexandru—has now had her role attached to it, revealed online via her agency. But for those who’ve not yet read A Dance with Dragons, lets just say her role is something of a spoiler… and so we’ll be sticking it below the cut.

HBO has sent out a press release containing a host of new details for the Season 3 Boxset (Pre-order: US Bluray, US DVD, UK Bluray, UK DVD), setting its release date as February 18th.

The press release details start below, including an exclusive sneak peek by way of USA Today:

Via James Hibberd over at EW, fans have learned that Russian actor Yuri Kolokolnikov has been cast in the role of Styr, the Magnar of Thenn. “Magnar” is a word in the Old Tongue of the First Men, meaning “lord”. The Thenns are an isolated group of wildlings from the far, far north of the inhabited lands beyond the Wall, and in the novels they treat the Magnar almost as a deity. The character is introduced early in A Storm of Swords—in fact, Jon at first mistakes him for Mance Rayder—but obviously the show trimmed the character from the corresponding season…. and now he’s back. It will be interesting to see his role, given his later introduction, but it’s likely a safe bet that he’ll be involved in the penultimate episode of season 4, directed by Neil Marshall.

This week has seen two books hit shelves that fans have been waiting for. Notably, the U.S. mass market paperback x of A Dance with Dragons (Order: Amazon US) was at least released after the hardcover had an astounding 88 week run on the NY Times Bestseller list.

For those of you who’ve been waiting for the paperback to read the book, now’s your chance. And for those of you who’ve already read it? You’ll find at the back of it a never-before-published chapter from The Winds of Winter. For those who bought e-book editions, there are some reports that the iBooks edition has been updated with the excerpt, so fire up your iOs device and check that out (no word yet as to whether the Kindle edition has been similarly updated).

Besides that, fans in the US will be able to get their hands on The Wit and Wisdom of Tyrion Lannister (Order: US, UK), a slim volume of Tyrion’s aphorisms illustrated by noted British cartoonist Jonty Clark. It will be available next week in the UK, as well.

Over at the official Making Game of Thrones production blog, Cat Taylor shares a scene from early in the fourth season filming, when the production put together some tests to simulate visual effects for the dragon flames that will be seen this season. Here’s an excerpt, right from the end:

For more, visit the blog!

This past weekend, George R.R. Martin was the guest of honor at Capclave 2014, an annual SF/F convention in the Washington D.C. area. Besides hanging out with fans and signing books, Martin had not one, but two reading sessions. Thanks to fans on the scene, we’ve a number of reports from the event. On the first day, Martin read from “The Princess and the Queen”, his contribution to the Dangerous Women (Preorder: Amazon US, Amazon UK) cross-genre anthology that Martin has co-edited with Gardner Dozois.

Word’s out that an actor has been cast in a role that is, frankly, something of a spoiler… so see below the cut for the relevant information