GAME OF THRONES premiere

To my great surprise, I was able to find episode one ("Winter is Coming") of Game of Thrones online last night only a few hours after the premiere time--kudos to whoever did that. No obnoxious and virus-y surveys attached, either. For those of you using the internet, you should be able to find it on any of the usual sites; if you need a recommendation for a site to watch, let me know in the comments and I will find a way to send you the info. I will not list sites here, as I would like to keep specific sites on the down-low.

A word on watching TV online: yes, it is illegal, even if you just watch it streaming and don't download (which is rife with virus problems in any case). It is not my preferred method of watching. If I had a TV, I would be willing to subscribe to HBO for the duration of the run of Game of Thrones in order to watch it legally. I do not have a TV, however, and HBO as yet does not have a way to watch its TV shows online legally/in a sanctioned manner. I found copies of the first episode, only a few hours after the premiere, in no fewer than 5 different places online. I would be willing to bet that in the next few days and weeks, hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of people, most of them my age or similar, will watch Game of Thrones online in such a manner. Watching TV or even feature films on compilation websites is an exceedingly common thing for college students and young professionals, just as listening to music uploaded to YouTube is very common, whether it is sanctioned by record companies or not. The most interesting thing of all is that my watching and listening to media for free, online, does not actually preclude my buying said programming later. If I really enjoy Game of Thrones, I will probably buy the DVDs. Similarly, I have bought several albums on iTunes after listening to different tracks, and really getting to know them, on YouTube. The trend nowadays is simply to only buy things you already know you like--by getting to know them first for free, online.

Now onto my impressions of the premiere. The rest of this post is spoilers--if you do not want to know the plot of either the book or the TV series, do not read any further.

This episode covers the events from, roughly, the prologue to "The things I do for love." I quite liked it, overall. Production value really is gorgeous, and the cast is very talented. There are many added or modified scenes as compared to the book, but I fully understand that television is a different medium from books and that changes in this way are often necessary. Very few of these changes bothered me--the only one that does with any regularity is the change of Cat from book to screen, which seems in many ways more of a whimsical character change than some of the other changes. In the book, Ned is the one who does not want to become Hand, guessing (correctly) that it is a dirty job with no thanks and believing (correctly) that he belongs in the wild north, not playing court games. Cat pushes him to accept, wanting (as always) to raise the position of her family in the eyes of the kingdom and to do her duty; her birth house's motto is "Family, Duty, Honor," and Cat fits that, in many ways, to a tee. It's only after Bran "falls" (read: is hurled from a window after discovering the twincest) that she suddenly understands the danger that the Lannisters pose and tries to convince Ned to stay. In the TV series Cat is, from the first five minutes, dead-set against Bran witnessing the execution and ferociously against Ned traveling south to become Hand.

Most other things were fine. I disliked Peter Dinklage's accent as Tyrion; he's American, and it shows. Just when you get used to it, it comes jarring back, straining the suspension of disbelief a bit. Otherwise, however, Dinklage makes a wonderfully Impish Tyrion, and from what I've read, he only gets better as Tyrion's role expands in later episodes. I do wonder how well newbies can keep up with characters and whatnot; it's quite a lot, in many instances, and I feel like some relationships are not quite fully explained in any sense, or are a bit clumsily explained by Arya in the king-meeting-Starks scene, which does not feel quite natural. These are all relatively small nit-picks, however, and now that some of the messy exposition has gotten out of the way, I will be interested in seeing how the series progresses in relation to the book and if it can remain as gripping and intense as the book is.

Poison

"Jon Arryn was a man of peace. Why kill him?"
"He started asking questions."



"I know the truth Jon Arryn died for."

And so will we, beginning next Sunday at 9/8 central. Some great shots here: Dany coated in blood, Varys, Littlefinger, Lysa Tully Arryn, Dothraki orgies, and more. 8 days until the premiere!

Jace of Televisionary gets in on the action

One of the better-known internet-based TV/film critics is Jace Lacob of The Daily Beast, Televisionary, etc. His review of what he's seen of Game of Thrones so far (the first 6 episodes that HBO sent to critics) is officially up and viewable here. He has read the books but watched the screeners with his wife, who has never read a word of Martin and was allegedly "entranced" by the visual ride HBO takes us on.

He summarizes the show thusly:

Based on the novel series "A Song of Ice and Fire" by George R.R. Martin, Game of Thrones arrives with its brutality and vision very much intact. Adapted by executive producers David Benioff and Dan Weiss, this is a staggering adaptation of a monumental literary achievement, a densely-plotted fusion of fantasy and potboiler political thriller with a deeply cinematic scope. 

Jace is clearly a super-fan, not only of the books but of the show. His language to describe the adaptation includes the words "insanely fantastic":

The first six episodes of Game of Thrones, provided to press in advance, are insanely fantastic, a groundbreaking work of television that's both visually engaging and thematically insightful. This is high fantasy done right, offering a wild and unrelenting plot about the games people play, the thirst for power, the ends men (and women) are willing to go in fulfillment of their own desires, and the things that we do for love. These six installments represent a crowning achievement for serialized television, its taut narrative the launchpad for dynamic conflict, copious bloodshed, and, yes, even a reflection of the mercenary times we live in.

He finishes it off with a sentence that will probably make every A Song of Ice and Fire fan's heart beat just that much more quickly:

This is the type of series that comes around but once in a lifetime, a groundbreaking and absorbing drama that is utterly unlike anything else on television today.

Gore, sex, love, lust, ambition, pride, children, adults, humor, "monsters," dwarves, booze, family, honor, duty, tomfoolery, and, yes, even heart-rending sorrow. Sounds about like the series we all know and love.

14:03 of GAME OF THRONES

It's here. The "exclusive sneak peek" of Game of Thrones premiered about two hours ago on HBO, and it's online for your viewing pleasure. This covers the very beginning, from the wilds beyond the Wall to Winterfell, roughly the prologue and Bran I from the book (minus the direwolves, fellow ASoIaF fans, sorry--that scene is probably right after the cut off).

Warning: This, and all of Game of Thrones, includes direct depiction of intense violence and bloodshed. HBO rates it as Mature Adult, and for quite good reason.





The production value is breathtaking. Looks so much more like film than TV. Also, the bits and pieces of the Stark children are wonderful; the added in bit with Arya (Maisie Williams) is the most impressive and true-to-the-spirit not-from-source-material-but-well-placed bit I've seen in an adaptation in a while. Starting off with a bang and following through; definitely addicting.

Two weeks until the premiere. April 17th, 9pm ET/8pm CT, HBO.

First real mainstream GoT review up

A few bloggers have been giving their impressions of Game of Thrones, but most of them are fantasy-niche and/or fans of the book series already. The Hollywood Reporter is neither niche nor previously familiar with the books, so far as I can tell, but their review (found here) is very positive and makes it sounds like GoT has definitely found the ability to attract the general public. Their remarks on how the immense complexity of ASoIaF translates to a miniseries are especially interesting:

...That kind of start to the 10-part series was essential because Game of Thrones is a complicated story with numerous characters and a dense, interwoven back-story. Though it demands attention, Thrones never once bogs down. It’s the kind of drama where, when the first episode ends, you wish the nine others were immediately available. And that validates HBO’s notion that television is the perfect medium for a fantasy series done right. Getting Martin’s Thrones, the gold-standard, could end up landing HBO its next franchise...What that means, essentially, is that there’s a tight grip on the storytelling and a real understanding of who each person is – traits that make the complexity easier to bear....What we have here is the successful pairing of an acclaimed collection of fantasy books with a television series that illuminates and expands what’s on the page. Worth the wait? Absolutely. And even if you have no idea what all the fuss is about, you should get in from the start absorb Martin’s fantastical tale.

Sounds like this is going to be good. Whether or not you're familiar with the books, definitely give this one a chance, and if you like to read and haven't checked out the books yet, what are you waiting for? Get your hands on the first book, A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin, and start reading now--it's a long journey, but one that rewards its readers a thousandfold for the initial investment you make. The other three published books in the series, in order, are A Clash of Kings, A Storm of Swords, and A Feast for Crows, and book five (of a predicted seven), called A Dance with Dragons, hits stores July 12th--now is the best time in ages to get involved.

GoT reminder: Sneak peak tomorrow

Just a reminder on the Game of Thrones/A Song of Ice and Fire front that tomorrow, Sunday 4/3, is the date that HBO shows the first 15 minutes of the first episode, directly before the continuation of their current miniseries Mildred Pierce. This sneak peak airs at 9pm eastern/8pm central, and according to HBO it will be made available online "immediately afterward" for those of us who are sans HBO/sans TV in general, presumably to try to get those who can to sign onto HBO. If you're a big ASoIaF fan or just a fantasy/medieval fan in general, I'd recommend getting HBO if you can, just for the next few months (the first season should end sometime in June) to watch the show, as all early reviews from critics (both those familiar and unfamiliar with the books) indicate that it will be splendid watching, and tell HBO why you're subscribing. Those of us who cannot subscribe to HBO (hey, fellow college kids/people sans TV!) can't monetarily support the show, and although we will find ways of watching, some explicit support is always helpful from those of you who can in order to keep HBO invested in continuing to produce the show.

Wonderfully creepy, my lord

Lots more Game of Thrones-related stuff has been announced in the past few days, but the highlight of what's been posted lately is this featurette of Petyr Baelish, also known as "Littlefinger," one of the courtiers in King's Landing. The master of treasury, Littlefinger is about as shrewd as they come, and he also harbors a long-smoldering obsession with Catelyn Tully Stark, the wife of Eddard Stark, who thinks of Littlefinger only as a little brother. In Catelyn's absence he sort of gloms onto her children, especially the older Stark daughter, Sansa, in his shrewd, awkward, and creepy way.

Littlefinger (Aiden Gillen) and Sansa Stark (Sophie Turner) turning on the creepy factor. Screenshot courtesy of Westeros.org

Littlefinger is definitely a love-to-hate type of character with a bizarre and slightly pathetic history, and that screenshot really captures the awkwardness and creepiness he seems to bring to just about every interaction he has with anyone, particularly anyone connected to his infatuation with Catelyn, doomed from the start due to his position as a relatively lowly lord and Catelyn's position as both a Tully (first lords of the Riverlands) and a Stark (the wardens of the north).

Vacation blahblahblah

Not dead, just on spring break. Which is of course delightfully un-full of things to do but which thus makes blogging about things less necessary. Blogging is often a procrastination tool for me, a way to settle my mind before moving onto something else, but there's nothing really to settle here or procrastinate doing. Except sleeping. Which I'm doing, for some reason.

I have A Game of Thrones back from my housemate, so I've been re-reading that. There are a lot of sneaky little details I missed the first time through--unsurprising, in a way, considering how quickly I usually read things. It just takes such a long time with ASoIaF since every book is at least 800 pages in mass-market paperback form, and at school I only read before going to sleep, which only allows for a chapter or maybe two a night (the chapters get really long as the series goes on, it seems). 20 pages or so a night, 50 if I really chug on through (but then I usually have trouble going to sleep afterward, so yeah). That means it would take 2-3 weeks a book to re-read at that pace.

I also have been reading Amy Tan's The Bonesetter's Daughter over the past week or so. It was pretty good. Totally, totally different from what I've been reading the past few months (fairly generic modern realistic fiction as opposed to epic fantasy and then trashy fantasy), but that's probably a good thing. Oh yeah, and all that reading I do for class, which for some reason I never really think about when I get to thinking about books I've read. Next quarter I'll have fiction to read for class; I don't think I've had that since last spring quarter, when I took a class on Shakespeare. Kind of looking forward to being able to write English-y style papers in addition to obnoxious sosc papers next quarter.

Being home is extremely, extremely boring in the sense that, well, there's not much to do. Almost none of my high school friends are also on break, so it's mostly just me and my family rattling around small-town New England, fiercely missing friends from school. It's also so transient--just over a week, just 10 days, three of which are now done--that it's hard to really bother settling into any sort of routine. I'm not sure where my suitcase is (I assume my mother took it and hid it from me), but my clothes are all in a laundry basket. No real point in putting them away, it seems, when a week from right now they'll be packed up and ready to read back to the central time zone.

Some more interesting stuff should be happening starting tomorrow, which I guess is good. Lazing around driving my mother crazy and being driven crazy by her is only entertaining up to a certain point, after all. :)

Total bonanza

First, and foremost: DONE WITH WINTER QUARTER. That's all, really, on that front. Back to New England tomorrow.

On the Game of Thrones front, there are so many videos out as to make your head spin. House features for Houses Baratheon, Lannister, and Targaryen, PLUS character features for many of the Starks and the key Lannisters and Targaryens. The character features are exclusively for Comcast subscribers, but they have already started leaking onto YouTube. Not all videos are yet on YouTube, but many are.

First and foremost, the feature of House Baratheon, the royal house of Westeros since Robert's Rebellion about 15 years previous to the start of the story. This features King Robert, a tiny bit of Cersei (she's featured in the Lannister video, of course), Joffrey/Tommen/Myrcella (the royal children), and Renly, Robert's younger brother. This is not yet on YouTube, but you can find it here courtesy of TV.com.

Now the YouTube videos, embedded below, beginning with House Lannister. Cersei, Jaime, and Tyrion are featured here, with new shots and interviews with the actors. There is also a brief shot of Tywin Lannister, the infamous house patriarch, in his glorious lion-themed armor, which is something fans have been clamoring about for a while now.



House Targaryen is the former royal house, overthrown in Robert's Rebellion. The two remaining heirs, Viserys and Daenerys, were rescued and taken to the far east, where they've lived with the wealthy merchant prince Illyrio Mopatis. As the series begins, Viserys and Illyrio are marrying Daenerys off to Khal Drogo, a khal, or warlord, of the nomadic Dothraki people, in exchange for Drogo's help in taking back Westeros for the Targaryens.



Now onto the character featurettes done in collaboration with Comcast, beginning with the Starks. First up is the patriarch Eddard (Ned) Stark, beloved friend of King Robert, father of five legitimate children and one bastard. Serious and probably the most rigidly honorable character in the series, he nonetheless has a great soft spot for his children, including his bastard, Jon, whom he has, unusually for a lord, raised alongside his legitimate children.



Next is Catelyn Stark, Ned's wife, originally from House Tully of the Riverlands region. She is devoted to her family and yearns to see them rise in the eyes of the king and would do anything for her children, but she also can be fiercely stubborn and determined when need be.



First up among the Stark children is Jon Snow, the bastard child of Ned Stark, who decides to escape the shadow of his bastardy and his famous family by joining the Night's Watch, an order that protects the Seven Kingdoms from the wildling invaders from the north.



After Jon is Sansa Stark, the eldest Stark daughter and second-oldest legitimate Stark child (the Stark heir, Robb, does not have a featurette). Naive and drawn to stories of knights and chivalry, she dreams of escaping the wilds of the northlands and joining the royal family after she is promised to the crown prince Joffrey Baratheon.



Next is Arya Stark, the second Stark daughter and third legitimate child overall. Much more tomboyish and wild than her sister, she yearns for adventure and has a deep bond with Jon, as both are rather different from their siblings.



Last is Bran, the second-oldest legitimate Stark boy and second-youngest child overall (there is a younger son, Rickon, who is not featured in these featurettes). Too young to be much of a player in the political arena, he mostly lives a good life running about the castle but worries Catelyn intensively with the hijinks he gets up to.



The Lannisters have three featurettes, beginning with King Robert Baratheon, who is not technically a Lannister but is married into the family. A great warrior in his day, Robert has a soft spot now for wine, food, and women and was a much better throne-winner than he is a throne-sitter.



Cersei Lannister is Robert's queen and the twin to Jaime Lannister (who, strangely, does not have a featurette). Stunningly beautiful, Cersei has great ambition and an unusually strong lust for power for women in the medieval period and is good at playing the game of thrones.



Tyrion Lannister is the younger brother of Cersei and Jaime. Born a dwarf, his mother died birthing him, and his father has never forgiven him for it. Although his relationship with his siblings and father can be very tense, he acts a lot like the other Lannisters: he is extremely clever and witty.



Last are the Targaryens and associates. Viserys is the older Targaryen child and the heir to the ruined Targaryen fortune, and he has never stopped obsessing over his lost kingdoms and plotting to win them back, even to the point of (quite literally) driving himself mad. He is extremely possessive of his sister, Daenerys, whom he likely would have married were the Targaryens still in power (the Targaryen custom is to keep their blood pure by marrying brother to sister).



Daenerys is Viserys's younger sister. She has no memories at all of Westeros, unlike Viserys, and is dependent on him to learn about their family and their right to rule the Seven Kingdoms. As the series begins, she is to be married to Khal Drogo so that Drogo will provide Viserys with an army to take back Westeros. She begins to learn the art of ruling at Drogo's side.



Khal Drogo is the vicious khal, or warlord, of a horde of the nomadic Dothraki people. Huge, strong, and intimidating, he claims to have never lost a battle and accepts Daenerys as his gift-wife from Viserys and Illyrio Mopatis but slowly begins to fall in love with the much younger, and much more fragile, Daenerys and helps to teach her how to rule.



And that's it for now--so many videos, but they're all so good! Great shots in each.

The Maester's Path: Link 3

The third link for The Maester's Path is up and rolling; I apologize for not getting info up earlier, but it did not get released until this afternoon when I was actually already in my astro final. C'est la vie. The theme this time is "sight," and in this link you take the black, metaphorically speaking, and try your hand at being a member of the Night's Watch keeping an eye out for wildling invaders. It's got a first-person perspective and is extremely graphics-heavy, as it does a beautiful 3D video-game-esque conception of the Wall and the land beyond, so close out other windows and applications running before trying. Maneuvering is done by mouse only, so if you're on a laptop with just a trackpad it can be a little precarious, but it's doable. For how-tos and general help, check out the comments on this page at fan site Winter Is Coming. It took me a good 15 minutes to get with my trackpad being annoying, but it's very interesting.

The reward this time seemed a little bit shorter than the others, to me, and not quite as intensely interesting, but all clips are good clips so far, at least as far as this series goes. The scene is not particularly momentous but features a character we've already seen, as well as some first glimpses of a few others, and gives us a glimpse at a locale we haven't seen too much of yet. Highlight or copy-paste into a word document to read a summary: Tyrion is at the wall, discussing the growing threat of the coming winter, with what appears to be Maester Aemon and Commander Mormont.

In other news, astro is indeed done, and it went as well as expected. 25% completion of finals! Tomorrow is the take-home art history final, and Wednesday is Italian and turning in my Foucault paper. The worst is basically over, however.

Finals update & GoT trailer bonanza

Just finished 5 pages of Foucault draft-ness, so I'm feeling pretty good. It's good to have a whole draft down and the next two nights to do rewrites (on top of the 3 other classes I also have stuff for between now and Wednesday morning). I was on a productive kick again last night, spending about 3 hours at Harper (the general 24-hour reading room with gorgeous Gothic architecture) plus four hours at Harper today to plan out the Foucault paper, make my study sheet for astro tomorrow (smallest handwriting ever on that one), and actually draft out Foucault. I've never spent this much time in libraries, and yet it really is not a lot compared to what most people do during finals week. I'm already tired of studying astro, but the exam is tomorrow at 1:30, so I'll probably wake up my usual weekday time at 9:30ish and study until it's time for lunch/class, and then that will be done. Forever.

My just-finished-5-pages good mood has only been enhanced by the wonders the internet has shown me as regards Game of Thrones; apparently two different trailer-esque videos were shown on HBO tonight, and both are now online. The first, called "Fear and Blood," is a generic dramatic 2:20 trailer, focusing on the legend of the Others (which HBO are calling "White Walkers"), some new shots of the far north/Castle Black, and some great Jamie/Cersei Lannister dialogue. It's not yet on YouTube, so I cannot embed it, but it can be found at the official HBO production blog Making Game of Thrones--check it out here.

The second video, embedded below, is a "Meet the Starks" feature, and it is easily my favorite video posted so far about Game of Thrones. It begins with some basic "this is Westeros" explanation by George R.R. Martin, seen before, but then it goes into some brief clips of Ned, Catelyn, Robb, Sansa, Arya, Bran, Rickon, Jon Snow, Benjen Stark, and the north in general, including some more Castle Back stuff. Clips from interviews with the actors, glimpses of Winterfell and more, our first times really seeing Rickon and Sansa, and so much more--a really awesome intro to the Starks. I hope they do similar videos in the next weeks for the Lannisters, the Baratheons, and the like; it's really very well done.



Tomorrow's Monday, so it's almost time for the third link for The Maester's Path, which I will also hopefully post about sometime in between waking up tomorrow and taking my astro final at 1:30. I'll also be getting my copy of A Game of Thrones back from the housemate I lent it to sometime this week before we all leave for break, so I can finish a reread of it before the show premieres on 4/17 and start my reread of ASoIaF in general so I'll be done by July, when A Dance with Dragons comes out. Things are going pretty well, all things considered, for finals.

The Maester's Path: Link 2

Link 2 for The Maester's Path, the promo website for Game of Thrones, is active, and it's much more intricate than the first link was. This time the focus is on "sound," specifically conversations at the Inn of the Crossroads that tell something about several of the great houses of Westeros. The conversations are pretty interesting but also sort of hard to hear, and the houses from them are mentioned indirectly. After listening to all 5 or 6 conversations, you go to a board where there are many sigils of bannermen houses; you're supposed to mix and match the sigils in the smaller red circles to create the great house sigils mentioned in the conversations. (One of the great house sigils you can make is a red herring and isn't actually mentioned in the conversations.)

The best source of help I've seen so far has been the comments of this post talking about it at fansite WinterIsComing. There's also a really cool heraldry section over at Westeros.org, but if you don't already know at least something about the great houses, it's hard to figure out where to start looking to find what sigil is what. The reward for this one is another 30-second clip from the series, featuring a character very well loved by the fandom (highlight or copy/paste into a word document to see what scene: Catelyn Stark is at the Inn of the Crossroads, being pestered by the singer Marillion, when Tyrion Lannister and company enter the inn end spoiler). Not quite as cool as the scene from last week but still interesting to get our first real sense of how these characters will work.

Overall The Maester's Path is very involving and intricate, and obviously the work HBO and their subcontractor Campfire Media have put into the site is impressive. Curious as to what will come in the next few weeks and of course very curious to see how the series looks and what the viewership numbers will be for the premiere on April 17th. Fans of the books are amped up, of course, but I'm interested in seeing what people who have never read the books think.

Again, if you'd like to join me as an acolyte, use the following link: http://itsh.bo/edmQfU. If you sign up after following this link to the website, I gain an acolyte; I'm currently 1/5, or 20%.

A programming note: on April 3rd at 9 PM eastern/pacific, HBO will air the first 15 minutes of the first episode of Game of Thrones as a sneak peak of the series, and it will make this 15-minute long clip available on HBO.com afterward.

This week should be relatively chaotic for me, with the end of classes, some events, prepping for finals for this quarter, and probably news on whether or not I was accepted into a study abroad program for next year, which then will prompt housing questions and all sorts of other complicated almost-real-life things. I'll keep posting whenever possible, however.

Sunday procrastination + GoT trailer

First off is the first full trailer for Game of Thrones, released last week and originally EW-exclusive, which is now on YouTube and thus can be embedded. Tomorrow a new "link" in The Maester's Path should be activated, which will bring more ASoIaF fun and hopefully a new awesome clip from the series as a reward for completion.



Besides that, there's no real news for anything going on; it's just another gray winter's day here in Chitown, spent writing a lab report about the cosmic microwave background and getting ready to start reading some Benjamin and Adorno for sosc on Tuesday. About 7 hours of class left this quarter and Wait, Wait Don't Tell Me on Thursday would make this a pretty good week, and it's certainly going to be better than next week, when finals doom is finally here, but the run-up to finals is almost worse than the papers and exams themselves.

I've been reading one of my Belmont used books now that I finished the first one, A Wizard of Earthsea. This one is called Mage Heart and seems like a bizarre little cheesy romantic fantasy; so far there's been illicit hallucinogen use, mentions of demons, slightly bizarre magic, and hints of good ole female homosexuality, along with lots of talk of breasts. It's interesting enough to make it worth reading, at least for now, but I don't see anything truly original or shocking or otherwise coming out of this one.

Bestsellers

 

On Amazon, as of 2:45 pm CT. And it doesn't even come out until July! Not bad.

If all of this wasn't enough... (new trailer)

This past week, ASoIaF fans have gotten the following:

1) Perfumery boxes sent out to bloggers
2) A new interactive website (The Maester's Path)
3) An extended Iron Throne trailer
4) House t-shirts from HBO
5) A release date for A Dance With Dragons (!!!!!!!!!!!)

and now, the first full-length (two minutes, twenty seconds) trailer for Game of Thrones, which includes the first glimpses anyone has seen of the Wall (a seven-hundred-foot-high wall of ice, thousands of miles long, that protects the Seven Kingdoms from the world to the north) in the very first seconds, as well as extended glimpses of Littlefinger and Varys and a very brief flash of what an Other (vaguely supernatural undead skeletal creature thing) looks like.

It's Entertainment Weekly-exclusive and thus not yet on YouTube, but it's pretty much awesome, so click here and scroll down to see the first true trailer for GoT.

Pretty much an awesome day.

July 12th, 2011

It's almost like I have magic publication-date-bringing powers or something.

According to Entertainment Weekly, there is a firm publication date for A Dance With Dragons, as confirmed by fan site Westeros.org and interviews with GRRM (the author). In both the US and UK, the book will be published on July 12th. Of this year. This is unusual, as his books are often published in the UK before they are in the US, even though Martin is American, since it's easier to do publication turn-arounds more quickly in the UK since the market there is notably smaller than in the US and fewer copies are printed. However, Bantam (American publisher) and Voyager (British publisher) are not messing around.

This is interesting as, per GRRM's latest update on ADwD a few days ago, he still is not finished writing. However, if the publishers are giving ridiculously firm dates like this, they are not messing around. Apparently this is real.

Really, really happy this week. Awesome, awesome, awesome ASoIaF news all around.

Edited to add: Official confirmation from GRRM on his website can be found here. Only about four months to go :D

New template up + HBO shirts

As is self-evident, a new template is up. As much as I enjoy winter, and as much as, per HBO and ASoIaF, "winter is coming," I wanted something a little less dark and dour. So I went for grays and browns and blacks instead of grays and whites and blacks. :)

I messed about a little with the dimensions, pixel-wise, so if anything isn't working in your browser or on your screen resolution, etc, let me know and I'll see what can be done. I can't promise miracles, since I'm no techie, but we'll see.

The final frontier currently on the update front is that I added "reactions" boxes for each post. I know I am a lazy blog-reader myself, rarely bothering to comment, but we bloggers do like occasional feedback from others (or else we wouldn't be talking like this into the internet all the time), so while comments are appreciated but not necessary, consider at least taking the opportunity to log in whatever first reaction you might have of the post, its contents, etc.

In ever-continuing HBO news, there are now house shirts up for sale at the official HBO merchandise shop for Game of Thrones. Yesterday and today apparently have been big days for the GoT campaign, what with new trailers, the opening of The Maester's Path, and now the show's first official merch release. I don't want or need $24.99 worth of a cotton t-shirt, but if you or a fan in your life are interested, there are general "Game of Thrones" shirts as well as house crest + words shirts for Houses Arryn, Baratheon, Greyjoy, Lannister, Stark, Targaryen, and Tully in both men and women's styles. Pick them up (or just gawk, as I did) here. The site also has the books available, including some sort of boxed set that looks like it will be coming out with the series's debut, but you can get those for just as cheap or cheaper at Amazon or, even better, any local bookstore with a decent selection; I got mine over the course of a few months for about 7 bucks apiece at 57th Street Books here in Hyde Park.

Now if we would only get a release date for A Dance With Dragons; the latest on Martin's blog is that he is finally wrapping stuff up with the last remaining characters to finish. He's said that many, many times over the last 5 years, but I think it may actually be real this time. If I had to guess, I would plan an ADwD announcement date for April 17th, the premiere date of the first season of Game of Thrones, or soon around there, to add to/build off the hype of the show, but Martin, as enthusiastic as he is about seeing his world come to life in the flesh and not just in his head, can be stubborn, so who knows.

Everything ASoIaF is, as the Tyrell motto says, "growing strong."

The Maester's Path: Link 1

Sorry for being so ASoIaF lately, but HBO is going wild promoting the series, which airs starting April 17th. Last week, many internet luminaries, TV bloggers, fan sites, and the like were sent a gorgeous perfumery box filled with different scents of different locales in the series, from the wilds of the Dothraki grasslands to the Stark stronghold of Winterfell in the far north. This morning, an interactive fan site for the series went live, named after the scholars and healers from the series called maesters, who are sworn to different lords to assist their households. The fan site is called The Maester's Path (click for link).

Each week through the end of March a new puzzle will appear. Solving the puzzle for that week gives you a metaphorical "link" in your maester's chain and access to a reward, which this week at least is a short clip of a very fan-beloved scene (to read which one, highlight or copy-paste into a word-document the following: Jon Snow, Eddard Stark's bastard, gives Needle (a sword) to Arya Stark, his tomboyish half-sister end spoiler); it's quite possible that each week will reveal a new quick, 30-second clip from the series. You also are supposed to try and collect 5 apprentices to join you on your journey; it's unclear when or how they'll be needed, but they may simply allow access to greater rewards, a greater final reward, or something of the sort.

This week, the key to solving the puzzle (which involves perfumes/scents like the box sent out to various bloggers) is knowing what symbols go with what locale; fan site Westeros.org had compiled a list of all the symbols in the cases bloggers were sent in case something like this came up, and if you'd like a guide, they have one up at their Maester's Path guide (once there, click the picture at the top of the page to enlarge it). Orange symbols are the Dothraki Sea, red symbols are the Free City of Pentos, green symbols are the capital city called King's Landing, blue symbols are the Stark stronghold of Winterfell, and purple symbols are the Inn at the Crossroads.

It's all very intriguing, and pretty smart marketing on HBO's behalf. Right now it seems as if the clips are sort of geared towards fans of the book series already, but it's not so complicated or spoiler-y as to be incomprehensible for people who have never read the books.

If you'd like to join me as an acolyte, feel free to click the following link: http://itsh.bo/edmQfU

Enjoy!