Westeros

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.