A Song of Ice and Fire/Game of Thrones Spoiler-Filled Discussion

[Evil Twin]

Well, this is normal, we always get our new books in a week or two beforehand, but we keep them in the processing area and don't put them out on the shelf until the actual release date.

[superdeluxe]

Not liking what I am hearing in those books.

[Out Of My Vulcan Mind]

The comic book adaptation of A Game of Thrones launches in September. It's from Dynamite Entertainment, with Daniel Abraham scripting from the novel. Interior art is by Tommy Patterson and the variant covers are by Alex Ross and Mike Miller.

[Evil Twin]

Wait... What are all those things around Ned? I don't think I've ever seen them on the show.

[Kegg]

Evil Twin wrote:

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Wait... What are all those things around Ned?

Wait, Sean Bean's in that picture? Where?

[Canadave]

Evil Twin wrote:

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One thing I will say right off the bat though, the maps have all been beautifully redrawn, AND we finally have an official map of the Free Cities and western Essos. Huzzah!

As a map nerd, this makes me happy. The maps in past books were decent enough, but I never felt that they conveyed information as well as I wanted them to.

[Brendan Moody]

I was one of the ones who managed to get a copy of A Dance with Dragons from Amazon.de. It arrived yesterday, and after a long, nausea-inducing day of reading, I've finished it. I won't, of course, offer so much as a hint of a spoiler here.

The new maps are beautiful, but if anything I find them less readable than the earlier ones because of the elaborate font. Still, others may disagree.

[Skywalker]

I just put in my pre-order for A Dance with Dragons, along with Ghost Story by Jim Butcher (which releases on July 26). It's gonna be a good month.

[Colonel Midnight]

Brendan Moody wrote:

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I was one of the ones who managed to get a copy of A Dance with Dragons from Amazon.de. It arrived yesterday, and after a long, nausea-inducing day of reading, I've finished it. I won't, of course, offer so much as a hint of a spoiler here.

The new maps are beautiful, but if anything I find them less readable than the earlier ones because of the elaborate font. Still, others may disagree.

How about (not really a spoiler question) -- "Was it worth the wait?"

Or even a generic thumbs up / thumbs down?

Cheers,
-CM-

[Brendan Moody]

Sure. I know there are people out there who don't even want to see non-spoiler reviews, so I'll stick it behind a cut for those people, but again, there are no actual plot spoilers in the comments.

When I was asked the same question a couple days ago on another site, I wrote:

"I liked it a lot. The middle does drag a little, with some atmospheric world-building and set pieces that are very effective, but perhaps not worth inclusion in a book that's very long, and focuses on only half the characters to boot. (Some of what seems irrelevant may turn out to be important later, of course.) But the beginning is strong, with some real surprises, and the ending has even more, capped by what I regard as the best final chapter to date. The Winds of Winter seems likely to offer a return to the full-on action of Clash and Storm, and I'd say things are moving along at a good enough pace for the series to be finished, as planned, in two more long books. (I also hope that, now the agonies of resolving the five-year gap and the Feast/Dance split are behind us, the author will be able to manage a slightly faster pace of writing for those two books, but I'm not going to hold my breath.)"

If people really disliked the pace and style of Feast, they probably won't love Dance, which is mostly that book's rather-more-eventful other half. But if you disliked Feast because of the absence of particular characters, Dance may be more fun.

Personally, I loved it, and admire it more the more I think about it. But I also liked Feast, which had some excellent sequences and which I thought was the best book it could be under the circumstances.

[Colonel Midnight]

^ Thanks, Ser Moody!!

Cheers,
-CM-

[Brendan Moody]

Lots of reviews of A Dance with Dragons are popping up online, with varying degrees of spoilers. There's a list of them, with notes on how spoilery they are, at Westeros.org. My own review, which includes a spoiler-free modified version of the comments I posted above, and a more formal review with a few mild spoilers, is here.

[superdeluxe]

Reviews are coming out

Time says ADWD is a "Masterpiece worthy of Tolkien", while the Daily Beast states "Machiavelli, you have met your match in Martin"

Time: http://www.time.com/time/arts/articl...081774,00.html

Daily Beast:
http://www.thedailybeast.com/article...re-series.html

[superdeluxe]

Casting News:

http://winter-is-coming.net/2011/07/...two-cast-leak/

Logan Kerr is (potentially) Mathos Mallarawen:

http://www.spotlight.com/interactive/cv/M138769.html

[Pseudo]

superdeluxe wrote:

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Casting News:

http://winter-is-coming.net/2011/07/...two-cast-leak/

Logan Kerr is (potentially) Mathos Mallarawen:

http://www.spotlight.com/interactive/cv/M138769.html

Gemma Whelan is Yara (formerly Asha) Greyjoy.