Westeros

“Lord Snow” aired last night in the U.S. and Canada (it’ll be on this evening in the U.K. and in much of Central Europe), and as always, we have an extensive episode guide with recaps, analysis, images, and more. Check it out at our site.

Right after that aired, HBO posted the preview for episode 4, titled “Cripples, Bastards, and Broken Things”. See below for the clip!

Almost three weeks after the premiere of HBO’s Game of Thrones, and the effect on sales of George R.R. Martin’s backlist is palpable. The New York Times Bestseller list features the series all over it:

• Paperback Mass-market Fiction: A Game of Thrones #3,  A Clash of Kings #13,  A Storm of Swords #19,  A Feast for Crows #26.
• Paperback Trade Fiction: A Game of Thrones #8.
• E-book Fiction: A Game of Thrones #7, A Clash of Kings #27.
• Combined Print & E-Book Fiction: A Game of Thrones #5, A Clash of Kings #26.

On Amazon.com, the series dominates 8 of 20 spots in the SF/F Bestseller list, with the four-book set also holding the #8 on the overall bestselling books list. And on the other side of the Pond, Amazon.co.uk features the series on its overall list, with A Game of Thrones currently holding the #2 spot, and A Clash of Kings and A Storm of Swords also in the Top 20.

Speaking of the U.K., A Dance with Dragons is now available for Kindle pre-ordering. We’re also regularly asked about digital downloads of the audio book, but we’re afraid there’s no information on that as of yet. You can, however, order the audio CDs from Amazon.co.uk, which are imports from the U.S.

Just two days away from Episode 3, titled “Lord Snow”, and HBO has set out some excerpts from the epsiode to whet the appetite. First up is Jon Snow training at Castle Black with his future sworn brothers, followed by an excellent scene between Jaime and Eddard that has certain resonances for events at the end of Robert’s Rebellion. Enjoy!

Pearson Moore, who’s contributed a number of featured articles in our Features section, has published a book “Direwolves and Dragons”, collecting his current essays related to Game of Thrones, plus some additional articles published exclusively in the book.

See below for more details, including a brief description for each essay included in the e-book. With his unique insight and his experience in examining television narrative (gained through his exceptional series of posts concerning Lost as well as Mad Men), this is sure to contain some thought-provoking material for fans of the novels and/or the hit HBO series.

As we’ve previoiusly reported, HBO is making great strides in expanding the coverage of HBO GO—its online, subscriber-only streaming service—among cable providers, and it’s recently been announced that Suddenlink and (most recently) Comcast Xfinity now also offer the HBO GO service. This means that fans of Game of Thrones and many other shows (HBO’s placed over 1400 titles on the service so far) will be able to stream the show from their computers.

Because they weren’t happy with the quality of that first video, Del Rey Spectra took it down ... and put up a brand new one! It features more snippets of text, which we’ve placed below. To see fans speculating on these, visit the spoiler-filled A Dance with Dragons section of the “A Song of Ice and Fire” Forum, and this particular thread.

See blow for a run down of the new lines.

NOTE: This video has now been removed. However, discussion of the spoilers contained in it can be found here. A second video has been posted, see our next post.

Anne Groell, editor of A Dance with Dragons (US, UK), has shared a video where she shows off the massive, massive ADwD manuscript—all 1547 pages of it. And, best of all, she reads tiny little snippets from it at random, giving a taste of what’s to come. See below for some spoilers!

HBO has been keeping busy with the HBO Store, adding new shirts, jewelry, steins, and more in the last month. We’ve compiled most of these at our store page (which benefits the continued maintenance and operation of Westeros.org), but two new items have cropped up that might be interest. First, there’s an awesome new shirt featuring Needle and the text, “Stick Them With the Pointy End” (that’s going to be popular!), and a poster map featuring the Seven Kingdoms and a bit of the coastline of Essos.

Have at them!

Varese Sarabande, leading publisher of soundtracks, has announced that the Game of Thrones soundtrack by Ramin Djawadi is on its way! Due June 14th, there’s no more information about just how many tracks there’ll be, but we can be sure that the title theme (and perhaps one or two variations) are going to be a part of it.

With the big announcement today of the completion of A Dance with Dragons (preorder: US, UK), it might be easy to forget that just last week GRRM was named on the Time 100 list. Last night, Parris and GRRM attended the gala event for those honored on the list, and NY Magazine’s Vulture has an exclusive conversation with GRRM from the gala.

Featured in it? The fact that he and Carlton Cuse (of Lost) fame had a chat about George’s remarks concerning the show’s finale which started a “feud” with Damon Lindelof. Sounds like it went quite well. Also notable is the fact that Amy Poehler (Parks and Recreation) is a fan of Game of Thrones, and in particular of Emilia Clarke as Daenerys Targaryen. To quote the article:

So suggests George R.R. Martin’s latest “Not a Blog” post! Titled, “twas beauty..” and then followed by a picture of a dead King Kong, it’s clear “Kong”—A Dance with Dragons (US, UK)—is down for the count!

UPDATED: And just to hammer the point home, series editor Anne Groell confirms it also.

A Dance with Dragons is due to hit bookshelves in North America and the United Kingdom on July 12.

Sky Atlantic’s Thronecast has been a terrific approach by the broadcaster to making the show accessible to fans, especially viewers who’ve never read the novels before. Professional produced, each episode (which goes up each Monday after the show airs in the U.K.) offers pointers, brief guides, and more. And, yeah, it includes Linda and I doing brief segments (Linda really is a lot better at this sort of thing than I am!).

On top of all that, Sky’s also releasing interviews with the cast each week. First up was Mark Addy, and now Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, who particularly impresses us with his handle on the character. And, to gild the lily a bit more, Thronecast is also available via iTunes, and there they’ve released the BAFTA Screening Q&A with members of the cast and crew: Sean Bean, Harry Lloyd, Mark Addy, and production designer Gemma Jackson.

Now, I’ll wait for this iTunes download to crawl along so I can check it out…

Linda and I have again joined with Tom and Daniel of MTV Geek to discuss last Sunday’s episode of Game of Thrones, “The Kingsroad”. We spend some time discussing the difficulties in conveying the passage of time in the story, the use of the direwolves, and mention some of the things we’re most looking forward to in the next episode.

You can find it in our “The Kingsroad” episode guide in MP3 downloadable and streaming format,

An article in the U.K. film and television industry trade website, Broadcast Now, notes that Northern Irish companies are gearing up for the return of Game of Thrones to production. While a representative of HBO has indicated that it’s premature to say that any locations have been set in stone, I think we can say that odds are extremely good for Northern Ireland again being the headquarters for the production.

And of note? A “late July” start has been stated by the production. This fits with what we’ve heard elsewhere. Some may find it a bit surprising that they’ll start that long after the greenlight, especially with the difficulties this past autumn and winter caused for them due to weather, but it seems like the production is very comfortable with this date.

Late July causes another question, though. That’s when San Diego Comic Con takes place. Is HBO skipping out on it? We find that incredibly unlikely, and just as unlikely is their giving the show a presence there but not having key cast members on hand for the inevitable, massive panel. So we’re going to have to suppose that “late July” could mean some time after July 24th (the final day of the convention).

The L.A. Weekly’s “Squid Ink” page, which focuses on “Food in Literature”, discusses the George R.R. Martin unofficial fan club, the Brotherhood without Banners, in relation to the traditional “quest” GRRM assigns fans at various conventions around the world. A leading light of the fandom, David McCaman (who really was the driving force behind the creation of the group) explains the origins of the quests, and gives some examples of past events.

But why is it on “Squid Ink”? Because the quests have inevitably involved tracking down some particular item of food, usually a local delicacy. Those who succeed in the quest—whether it was collecting burnt ends in Kansas City, tasting lamprey pie in Toronto, or finding haggis in Glasgow—were “knighted” by GRRM into a special order. It’s great fun. To add a bit of local color, David notes that at the Worldcon in Anaheim scores of fans participated in getting a hold of hot dogs from Pink’s Hot Dogs. The writer, Margy Rochlin, noted that that was a 70 mile round trip. Now I know why Linda and I didn’t tag along with anyone on that particular quest…

The next change to get knighted by GRRM? Renovation, the 2011 World Science Fiction Convention, held in Reno, Nevada. Having attended two Worldcons, if you’ve any interest in genre literature, or want a great opportunity to meet George and fellow fans, Renovation is going to be a great opportunity. And, you know, the knighthood ain’t bad!

To learn more about the Brotherhood without Banners, feel free to visit the forum at westeros.org