Games

The Fantastical Librarian blog has posted an interview with myself about blogging, reviewing and so forth. Some interesting questions there on why I started the blog and why it has such a silly name :-)

A round-up of some recent news about Game of Thrones and the books it is based on. First up, HBO has found its Riverrun . With filming of Season 3 of the show now entering its second month, shooting is focusing on the ancestral castle of House Tully. Gosford Castle in County Armagh is standing in for the castle, apparently with both exteriors and interiors being filmed there. Looks like an excellent match for the castle from the books, though presumably the Red Fork and Tumblestone rivers will be added later with CGI. George R.R. Martin has also conducted an in-depth interview with the Spanish ASoIaF website Asshai.com . Martin's interviews for several years have focused on the TV series and very general questions, so it's good to see a plot and character-focused exchange like this one. Note that there will be spoilers for those who have not yet read A Dance with Dragons . In a separate interview Martin has also stated that he now has 200 completed and semi-finalised manusc...

This weekend I attended Eastercon 2012, the largest annual British science fiction and fantasy convention. This year it was held at a hotel adjoining Heathrow Airport. For the first time in its history, the convention was sold out in advance, likely due to the presence of George R.R. Martin (although having authors such as Joe Abercrombie, Adrian Tchaikovsky, Chris Wooding, Lisa Tuttle, Pat Cadigan and Cory Doctorow didn't hurt either). Finally! Time and budgetary constraints meant I could only attend for a few hours on Saturday and Sunday afternoons, though I did manage to catch the Game of Thrones TV panel, featuring actors Miltos Yerolemou (Syrio Forel) and John Bradley West (Samwell Tarly). Gethin Anthony (Renly Baratheon) and Natalia Tena (Osha) could also be found around the convention, though they didn't take part in the panels. This was followed by a Wild Cards panel where GRRM talked about the long-running shared world setting with John Jos. Miller, Pat Cadigan, Paul...

I recently interviewed R. Scott Bakker for the Orbit Blog . We talked about his epic fantasy sequence, the influence of George R.R. Martin and the prospects of a Prince of Nothing film or TV series appearing, as well as some info about his next book, The Unholy Consult (due for 2013 publication, it looks like).

Mark Lawrence, the author of Prince of Thorns and its forthcoming sequel, King of Thorns , has published an interview with me on his blog which may be of interest.