Westeros

The latest anthology edited by George R.R. Martin and Gardner Dozois, Old Mars, has hit shelves. With a fine group of contributors—including award-winning authors such as Ian McDonald, Michael Moorcok, Mike Resnick, and Howard Waldrop—the collection presents science fiction tales inspired by the classic depiction of Mars as a place of ancient alien civilizations and great canals.

Over at Tor.com, Robert Bedford provides a review of the anthology, highlighting several notable original stories.

The New York Comic Con has opened, and with it Dark Horse has revealed a brand new series of Game of Thrones figurines that will soon be on sale. The three new figures will be joining the Jon Snow and Daenerys Targaryen figures that Dark Horse announced back in July. And who are these three figures? None other than Tyrion Lannister, Ned Stark, and Khal Drogo.

The full press release, and additional images from Dark Horse, can be found below the cut.

A role introduced in A Dance with Dragons, that of the wealthy and influential Meereenese nobleman Hizdahr zo Loraq, has been cast, according to EW’s James Hibberd. Filling the role is British actor Joel Fry, who has largely featured in British television programs, but has made appearances in Roland Emmerich’s 10,000 BC, as well as Tamara Drewe. Fry is also a musician, one of the lead vocalists for Animal Circus.

While the role is being introduced earlier than in the novels, it makes sense to present some Meereenese characters earlier on who will then have more of a role later on.

In yet more app-related news, a big update has taken place for the official A World of Ice and Fire app (Download: iTunes, Google Play), which Linda and I have worked on.

The latest update brings Jonathan Roberts‘s The Lands of Ice and Fire (Order: Amazon US, Amazon UK) maps to the app, including the map of the Known World which depicted the world in unprecedented detail for the very first time. All of these maps are based on George’s hand-drawn maps, and were made with his direct oversight.

As it’s now been running live for a week without incident, we thought we’d share the news that those of you with mobile devices—Android or iOs (and soon Windows Mobile)—who’ve enjoyed the Flipboard app’s presentation of personalized magazines filled with the latest content from around the web now have one more magazine they can add to their collection: The World of Ice and Fire, curated by none other than… well, me. Launched in collaboration with Random House (publisher of the A Song of Ice and Fire series) and Flipboard, I’ll be currating content, leading fans of ASoIaF and Game of Thrones to the latest news and tidbits that might be of interest, as well as some of the more wonderfully interesting fan writing, artwork, and more.

Feel free to subscribe, share, and comment

Today marks the 65th birthday of George R. R. Martin, and of course fans across the Internet are showing their appreciation—there’s even a #HappyNamedayGRRM hashtag on Twitter. For our part, we were invited by Tor.com to write up a brief appreciation for George, part of a regular series of “On this Day” posts that the site (highly recommended for fans of SF/F/H) runs. We give a brief—all too brief, for a career that spans over 40 years—rundown of his beginnings as a writer, his rise to prominence, his time in Hollywood, and of course the massive success of A Song of Ice and Fire.

Have a good one, George—may there be many, many more to come!

This summer, Amazon announced the formation of a new imprint dedicated to the publication of graphic novels: Jet City Comics.

With this news came the announcement of the initial slate of comics that would be published by Jet City, a slate which featured the works of George R.R. Martin quite heavily. First up among them is Meathouse Man, adapted by artist Raya Golden from Martin’s disturbing science fiction tale in an imagined future where corpses are reanimated as the servants, and playthings, of men. That’s due in October…

... but for fans of A Song of Ice and Fire, it gets better: Jet City will be republishing The Hedge Knight graphic novel (adapted by Ben Avery and Mike S. Miller) in November, and following that up with the republication of The Sworn Sword by the same team in January.

And then, to cap it off? The third Dunk & Egg story, “The Mystery Knight”, is due to finally be adapted to comics—once more by the team of Avery and Miller—for Random House, publishers of the A Song of Ice and Fire series and—with Dynamite—of the comic book adaptation of the same.

Given the news that Mark Gatiss will be playing a character introduced in A Dance with Dragons in the upcoming fourth season, it is perhaps no great surprise that another character from a novel that goes mostly beyond the point of season 3 has been cast. Winter is Coming’s tipsters discovered the CV of British actor Rupert Vansittart naming him as playing the role of Bronze Yohn Royce, a lord of the Vale of Arryn. The character does, actually, get mentioned at a couple of points in the first novel as someone who is present in KIing’s Landing for Robert’s tournament—and, perhaps more interestingly, as the father of Ser Waymar Royce, the ranger killed way back in the prologue of the first episode of the show.

But what will his role be in this season? While we can just imagine that he could just appear quite late in the season, to coincide with his A Feast for Crows appearance, we’re going to guess the show will want to bring him on stage earlier.

Below is a showreel put together by Vansittart’s representatives—several years old now, but features some interesting scenes, including his appearance in Four Weddings and a Funeral:

James Hibberd at EW has the exclusive news that critically-acclaimed Icelandic band Sigur Rós will be making a cameo appearance in the fourth season of Game of Thrones, an appearance they’re already filming in Croatia. Hibberd seems to know what their role is, but isn’t sharing… but we’re guessing it’s tied into their occupation as musicians, to say the least.

Though we can’t embed it, here’s the video to “Ekki múkk”, one of a number of experimental short films the band has made; you’ll find the narrator quite familiar, Game of Thrones fans.

Though HBO has officially refused to comment on the role that writer/actor Mark Gatiss will play, the Curtis Brown Agency website’s CV for their client now includes the name of his role: Tycho Nestoris, an emissary from the Iron Bank of Braavos.

What’s interestingx is that this character is introduced in A Dance with Dragons, well after some key events that have yet to play out in the show and may well not take place until late in the forthcoming fourth season. This may portend that his role will be somewhat different, or at least expanded, from what it is in the novel.

Some speculation below.

This year’s Hugo Awards have been announced at LoneStarCon 3, the site of this year’s Worldcon, and it turns out that the George R.R. Martin-penned “Blackwater” took the Hugo Award for best, short-form dramatic presentation. This is something of an upset, breaking the lock Doctor Who has had on the category for the last three years; three separate episodes of that series were among the nominees.

Game of Thrones‘s first season carried away the 2012 Hugo Award in the long form category, with all episodes being treated as part of a single, unified work.

Update: HBO informs us that key production personnel know nothing of Fortuna’s involvement in the series. Does this mean he’s not part of the production whatsoever? Not necessarily, as it’s quite possible that extras or featured extras are something that higher level production members don’t necessarily keep track of. But even if he’s a featured extra, it’s not much to get excited about.

Following the recent news that Michiel Husman has stepped into the role of Daario Naharis, a character introduced last season and then played by Ed Skrein, word has come out that another role—a somewhat less prominent one—has been recast: Gregor Clegane, the Mountain that Rides, will now be played by Hafþór Björnsson, an Icelandic strong man and past contender for the title of World’s Strongest Man. At 6’9” and 440 lbs., the athlete will certainly look the part. The role of the Mountain has been played by two previous actors, with Conan Stevens originating the role and Ian Whyte filling Gregor’s giant shoes for the 2nd season.

It’s also been revealed by Indewire blog Shadow and Act, that Angolan actor Hoji Fortuna—whose English-language credits are fairly brief, but he has appeared in a number of Portuguese films, as well as more recently in the since-cancelled TV series Pan Am—has been cast in an unnamed role. Given that filming is currently taking place in Croatia, it seems quite clear he’ll be appearing there (a notion further given weight by the actor’s own tweets hinting he was going to that country). One might speculate as to his role, but one obvious possibility is the role of Brown Ben Plumm, a sellsword captain. In the novels, Plumm became the captain of the Second Sons following its joining Daenerys; on the TV show, the Second Sons and another company, the Stormcrows, were combined, so this may not quite work… but they could easily have Plumm be captain of a second company, or perhaps make him Daario Naharis’s new second in the command.

Last season, fans of Game of Thrones were introduced to the cocky, dangerous sellsword Daario Naharis, played by Ed Skrein. Now word is out that the role has been recast—no reasons stated, but they can be quite mundane—and stepping into the role is another HBO alumni accorrding to the Hollywood Reporter. Daario will now be played by Michiel Huisman, a Dutch actor and musician who’s been featured in HBO’s Treme (aside: a show I very highly recommend!).

For a taste of the actor’s work, below you’ll find a brief clip from the BBC’s Rudolf and Margot, where Huisman plays famed Russian ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev:

We’re very happy to report that the Shire Post‘s effort to create real gold dragon coins, using Kickstarter to raise the seed funding to acquire the necessary gold, is now a reality! Today, the Kickstarter crossed its $10,000 goal. Many congratulations to Tom at Shire Post, and to those who’ve contributed towards making this happen.

Last year, George R.R. Martin and Subterranean Press revealed that the new, limited edition of A Clash of Kings was to feature the art of noted artist Richard Hescox. With this year’s Worldcon approaching, Hescox has noted that he’ll be in attendance and will be displaying some of his artwork for the limited edition at the convention…

... but he’s shared a sample of that work, over at his gallery page for the book. The gallery features over a dozen artworks, both in color and black and white, out of the total of sixteen paintings and over sixty black-and-white illustrations that he’s provided for the book.

Pre-orders for the book began in July, with exclusive rights to pre-order to those who’ve purchased A Dance with Dragons previously. As noted by Subterranean, this limited edition release actually precedes the planned A Game of Thrones limited edition, as the artwork for that one has not yet been completed. Pre-orders on remaining, unclaimed volumes of A Clash of Kings will take place in October.