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:
Game of Thrones
Get More: Comedy Central
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!