Games

This one is about war : Season 3 begins airing on 31 March in the USA and the day afterwards in the UK.

Bantam Books have released more info about The World of Ice and Fire , the companion guide to A Song of Ice and Fire . The book is due for publication on 29 October 2013 and will be 288 pages in length. They have also published several sample pages from the book. The blurb: With all new history and material from the maester himself, The World of Ice and Fire is a must have for both long-time fans, new readers, and viewers of the HBO series, Game of Thrones . This lavish, fully illustrated, full-colour book will be the comprehensive guide to the mega-bestselling world that George R.R. Martin has established in his Ice and Fire books. This will be the comprehensive guide to all things Game of Thrones and beyond. From the pre-history to the coming of the First Men, through the reign of the Targaryen kings and Robert's Rebellion, this guide-co-written by George R.R. Martin and the immensely knowledgeable founders and keepers of the www.westeros.org site-will tell se...

HBO have released an extended version of last week's Game of Thrones trailer. This version contains a few more shots and some additional dialogue, as well as glimpses of more characters (established and new). Look out for Paul Kaye as Thoros of Myr intoning the R'hllor speech and our first glimpse of the 'bear and maiden fair':

One question about the Game of Thrones TV series has reared its head with increased frequency over the last few months. That question is fairly straightforward: will we see this story end on TV before author George R.R. Martin can deliver the final novel in the series? This is a valid question. The Game of Thrones TV series began in April 2011, at roughly the same point in time that Martin was delivering the manuscript for the fifth novel in the Song of Ice and Fire book series, A Dance with Dragons . Dragons was published in July 2011 and Martin reported that he had started work on the sixth and planned-to-be penultimate novel in the series, The Winds of Winter , using roughly 200 manuscript pages' worth of material as a springboard to write the next book. Like A Dance with Dragons and A Storm of Swords before it, Martin plans for The Winds of Winter to come in at around 1,500 manuscript pages in length. Martin wrote A Storm of Swords (the third novel in the series, publish...

Eight of the ten episode titles for Season 3 of Game of Thrones have been announced. These are as follows (with airdate and writer/director information): Paul Kaye as Thoros of Myr 301: Valar Dohaeris Written by David Benioff and D.B. Weiss Directed by Daniel Minahan Airdate: 31 March 302: Dark Wings, Dark Words Written by Vanessa Taylor Directed by Daniel Minahan Airdate: 7 April 303: Walk of Punishment Written by David Benioff and D.B. Weiss Directed by David Benioff and D.B. Weiss Airdate: 14 April 304: And Now His Watch is Ended Written by David Benioff and D.B. Weiss Directed by Alex Graves Airdate: 21 April 305: Kissed by Fire Written by Bryan Cogman Directed by Alex Graves Airdate: 28 April 306: tbc Written by David Benioff and D.B. Weiss Directed by Alik Sakharov Airdate: 5 May 307: The Bear and the Maiden Fair Written by George R.R. Martin Directed by Michelle MacLaren Airdate: 12 May 308: tbc Written by David Benioff and D.B. Weiss Directed by Michelle MacLaren Airdate: 19 ...

George R.R. Martin has signed a two-year development deal with HBO. The deal includes extending his 'executive producer' credit on Game of Thrones for another two seasons and also gives HBO exclusive rights to any TV show ideas he creates in that time. "So, Tyrion and Bronn bromance series?" Development deals, out of favour in Hollywood during the financial crisis, have recently come back into vogue. J.J. Abrams has such a deal in place, allowing him to develop or produce new shows for several networks (two pilots based on his ideas have been greenlit for later this year). Abrams's deal allows him to develop TV projects whilst working elsewhere: he has been working full-time on his second Star Trek movie for the past eighteen months or so, and is about to plough into working full-time on Star Wars: Episode VII for anything up to three years. On that basis, fears that this deal will delay The Winds of Winter (the sixth and currently-planned-to-be-penultimate S...

In an interview with Empire Online to publicise his new TV show, The Following , James Purefoy has confirmed that he will not be appearing in Game of Thrones due to lingering annoyance with HBO over how they ended Rome , and that his co-star Kevin McKidd is of a similar mind. According to Purefoy, he and McKidd decided on this commitment over lunch: McKidd and I had lunch the other day, and I said to him, "Have you been asked to do Game Of Thrones?" And he said, "I'd never do it. Because they stole our fucking show." He worked out that if Rome had run for the entire seven seasons that it should have run, we would only have finished it last year. And he feels that HBO did Game of Thrones instead of us, so they stole our show. I kind of agree with him. I won't be doing Game Of Thrones, even if they ask me. Context: James Purefoy played Mark Antony on HBO's Rome , with McKidd playing the role of Lucius Vorenus. Rome ran for two seasons, airing in 20...

HBO have released another promo video for the third season of Game of Thrones . This one is a general look at Season 3 from the actors and producers, and features glimpses of new characters and actors:

This is slightly different, showing the three-eyed crow flying across 'our' world to herald the arrival of Season 3 of Game of Thrones (which debuts on 31 March). We likely won't see the first 'proper' trailer, featuring a decent amount of new footage, until next month, but there's another behind-the-scenes featurette airing in the States on HBO next week.

HBO has aired a preview of the third season of Game of Thrones , which will start airing on 31 March 2013. The video gives us our first good glimpse at a number of new characters in costume and make-up (screencaps from Westeros.org ): Clive Russell as Ser Brynden 'the Blackfish' Tully, Catelyn's uncle.  Tobias Menzies as Ser Edmure Tully, Catelyn's younger brother and heir to Riverrun. Nathalie Emmanuel as Missandei, a translator from Astapor. Dame Diana Rigg as Lady Olenna Tyrell, the 'Queen of Thorns'. Richard Dormer as Ser Beric Donarrion (replacing David Michael Scott, who played the character in one episode of Season 1). Ellie Kendrick as Meera Reed, whose father was one of Ned Stark's oldest and closest friends. Another shot of Meera, this time with her brother Jojen, played by Thomas Brodie-Sangster. Looking pretty good so far. The promos also confirm that, after a lot of hand-wringing last season, Daenerys looks like she'll be kicking some backsi...

A teaser trailer for Season 3 of Game of Thrones . I believe the voice-over is by Tara Fitzgerald, who is playing the role of Selyse Baratheon.

Okay, this is going to be a bit of a non-review because you probably already know if you are going to be getting this or not. Basically, it's a collection of full-colour maps of Westeros and Essos, the two continents which form the setting for the Song of Ice and Fire novels by George R.R. Martin. Either you're going to go, "Hey, awesome! I'm all in!" or be running away screaming for fear of being infected with Nerditis. The map collection comes in a smart but somewhat non-durable folder. Don't put anything on top of it for long, as it really cannot support much in the way of weight. There's a single pull-out piece of paper with marketing speak on it (more or less the same as the blurb on the back ) and that's it for any kind of textual accompaniment. Those familiar with John Howe's excellent Tolkien maps, or the maps accompanying Terry Pratchett's Discworld books, will likely find this disappointing as those maps were accompanied by small bo...

Something that may be of marginal interest. A size comparison of various fantasy worlds that I created: At top-left is Westeros/Essos (the HBO version of the latter) from George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire . Next to it on the top line is J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle-earth, with Ansalon from the Dragonlance world next to that. Below them is Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time map (which was tricky to get right, as the distances given in the books are sometimes contradictary). At bottom-right is Raymond E. Feist's Triagia (on the world of Midkemia), the setting for most of his Riftwar fiction. At bottom-left is Faerun, the principal continent of the Forgotten Realms world. Something that is surprising here is how small Middle-earth is compared to these other, later-created fantasy worlds.

The Lands of Ice and Fire , a companion volume to A Song of Ice and Fire comprising a dozen large poster maps, is now available in the USA. Its official UK release date is 8 November, but don't be surprised to see some early copies slipping onto shelves before that date. Qarth and the Jade Gates, featuring the hitherto-unmentioned island of Great Moraq. The forested region just to the east is the kingdom of Yi Ti. The map collection features the first canon-for-the-books maps of eastern Essos, including the Jade Sea region. These maps introduce a whole host of new locations to the world of Westeros and Essos, some of which may be referenced in future books.

The Lands of Ice and Fire - a collection of poster maps depicting the world of A Song of Ice and Fire - will be published next week. io9 have released some more sneak peeks of the collection, including our first-ever canon glimpse of Asshai and the Shadow Lands: Readers of the books know that Asshai is a highly mysterious city located in the far south-eastern corner of the explored world, on the eastern shores of the Jade Sea, five thousand or more miles from Westeros. Beyond Asshai lies the even more enigmatic 'Shadow Lands', the home of mysterious people who always go masked in public (such as Daenerys's sometimes-ally Quaithe). Asshai was first mentioned in A Game of Thrones (published in 1996), but this is the first time it's been officially depicted visually in any form.

The Lands of Ice and Fire - a tie-in map book for A Song of Ice and Fire - arrives at the end of October and the final cover art for the book has been unveiled: Nothing too surprising, with a map of Westeros and some heraldic symbols forming the front cover to the book (though clearly the Tyrells and Martells annoyed someone).

Locus has published its publication list from now until next summer, revealing some interesting information: Expect the new Dunk and Egg story in 2013. George R.R. Martin and Gardner Dozois's anthology Dangerous Women , including the fourth Dunk and Egg Song of Ice and Fire prequel novella, is now listed for release in May 2013. Amazon Germany is reporting that the book collecting all four Dunk 'n' Egg novellas into one volume will come out in May 2014. Whilst we have to take that with a grain of salt, that does tie in with the new story having a 12-month exclusivity contract before it can be reprinted anywhere else. The same list confirms that the third Dagger and Coin novel by Daniel Abraham will be called The Tyrant's Law and that both it and Ken Scholes's long-awaited Requiem will be out in June 2013. Meanwhile, Pat Rothfuss has sold a new fantasy trilogy to DAW Books. Despite speculation that this might be the rumoured sequel series to The Kingkiller Chr...

From readings at two conventions, George R.R. Martin has revealed the full story of Aegon the Conqueror's invasion of Westeros and the subjugation of the Seven Kingdoms. This material (not yet 100% finalised) will form a small part of The World of Ice and Fire , due out in late 2013.   Rhaenys, Aegon and Visenya Targaryen, with their swords Blackfyre and Dark Sister. Before the Doom The Valyrian Freehold expanded into the western coastal reaches of Essos some two centuries before the Doom. They colonised the island of Dragonstone in the Narrow Sea, establishing a stronghold there (presumably from which they could trade with the Seven Kingdoms). The Freehold was ruled by the Lords Freeholder, powerful noble families. The most powerful of these were the Dragonlords, those families which controlled and rode dragons in battle. The Targaryens were Dragonlords, but far from the most powerful. Dragonstone, the island stronghold of the Targaryens. Twelve years before the Doom of Valyria, L...

Mors Westford is a former knight in the service of House Lannister. For refusing to take part in the mission to kill Princess Elia Martell and her children during the Sack of King's Landing, Mors was declared a traitor. He escaped punishment by taking the black and now serves on the Wall as one of the Night's Watch's finest trackers and soldiers. When wildlings cross the Wall and hole up in the abandoned castle of Icemark, it falls to Mors to flush them out. After this mission Mors encounters a young woman on the run and discovers a labyrinth conspiracy originating in King's Landing. Meanwhile, Ser Alester Sarwyck returns home to his castle of Riverspring (near the source of the Blackwater Rush) upon learning of the death of his father. Riverspring is in danger of falling into the hands of Alester's brutal bastard half-brother, Valarr, so Alester travels to King's Landing to win the support of Queen Cersei in his attempts to succeed his father. He a...

A good while ago, an interesting app appeared on iTunes. The app was an interactive map of Westeros, the setting for the Song of Ice and Fire novels and Game of Thrones TV show. Users could search for obscure locations from the books and scroll around the map. As a free app, it was pretty good, although it was very heavily based on the same art style as the official map created by HBO for the TV show. The guy who created it, one Sergey Rekuz, posted on the Westeros.org forum and, given its usability, handiness and noted non-profit-making stance, he was allowed to advertise his product. Tear's famous map of Westeros, still the definitive online map of the setting (and not at all affiliated with the iTunes app). However, a few months ago something more dubious happened. The app was expanded with several modules that had to be paid for. The first such module was a map of Essos, the continent to the east of Westeros. This was then expanded by a 'cities map' and a 'coat of...