Game of Thrones - You Win or You Die

This is awesome! Benioff, Weiss, Kit Harington, Emilia Clarke, Peter Dinklage and more talk about the show, the books, the politics and for some reason, even though they're just retreading the usual (but just the first half), it seems more exciting this time. :D

Happy Valentine's Day - Game of Thrones Style

Hodor's is probably my favorite. Check out io9 for more. Oh, and Happy Valentine's Day.

It's News To Me #27 - Writing Advice and Game of Thrones

There's more that I found this week, but I can't seem to remember where I placed them. I really need to write things down. :)

Writing advice: Lauren Beukes gives links to some really good writing advice (so I hear) including this interesting/hilarious article by Chuck Wendig.

Why Game of Thrones is the best: Goes without saying...


10 Debut Science Fiction and Fantasy Titles that Took the World by Storm: Interesting who the newest addition is (Hint: Not JSaMN).


7 Publishers choose their top 5 of 2012: Fantasy Faction got together with top publishers and the result is a great article.

Goodreads Top 100 Fantasy Books List

I don't know what it is, but I'm a huge fan of lists. Maybe I just like really boring things...I mean I am in law school.

That means, of course, that any type of top 100 book list is right up my alley. (NPR ring a bell)

After weeks of nominations and voting to narrow down the list, the Goodreads group, Fantasy Aficionados, has posted their final list for “An Aficionado’s Guide to the top 100 Fantasy Books of All Time”.

Obviously, a lot of the regulars made the cut - like A Game of Thrones and Lord of the Rings:


Some newbies, interestingly, made the cut - I've not read any of the Iron Druid Chronicle so I guess I can't really say:


Some oldies as well - I was really happy to see Moorcock, but I don't get why both Homer's Iliad and Odyssey made the list as two separate entries while other series were combined:


Overall, it seems to be a pretty good list covering both old and new and I'm glad it's not completely filled with the textbook classics that everyone's read and therefore gets votes for that reason alone.

How does the list measure up to your expectations?

It's News To Me #20

I had to post this bit of news immediately as Sub Press is giving Deadhouse Gates a new cover already. Plus, I started a new update feature if you're interested.

New cover art for Sub Press Deadhouse Gates: It's perty. Better than the last even.


Game of Thrones Pedicab: Now that's riding in style, Seven Kingdoms style.

This Guy Loves Game of Thrones

This guy is a newbie to the whole Game of Thrones epic and I think we have a new fan. This is a 20 minute review of the show and most of it is just him gasping in amazement. It's also pretty infectious:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3UA8swJtPsQ

Game of Thrones - 2nd Season!

HBO has renewed Game of Thrones for a second season!

From George's Blog.

From Winter is Coming.

The gross audience from Sunday night was 4.2 million viewers. Not the best ever, but I guess it was enough and I'm sure it will grow. It's that good. Not that I need to tell you. :)

Making of - HBO's Game of Thrones

Yup, I will not be holding back when it comes to Game of Thrones news. I'm way too excited about this.

Game of Thrones - 15 Minute Preview

I know, I know, everyone's posting this, but how can you not? This is one of the most beautiful things you'll ever see. :D

Beware, you will want to see the rest and the wait might just kill you (beheading style).

Game of Thrones Exclusive Preview

HBO's Game of Thrones and Storm of Swords Reviewed

I know, about every other blog has become unofficial (and unpaid) marketing centrals for HBO's and George R.R. Martin's Game of Thrones. Then again, this series deserves it whether you love George or hate him - it still comes down to the fact that A Song of Ice and Fire is an amazing series.

Here's the latest Poster:


If that doesn't get you excited for the series, I don't know what will. :)

Also, as mentioned in the title of this post, Tor.com has been reviewing the reader-voted, best SFF novels of the decade and A Storm of Swords gets a review. My thoughts coincide very much with what's said here.

It's News To Me #7

This just blew my mind:



There is no possible way for this to fail. Love it.

And that's the news...at least to me.

It's News To Me #3

I have a ton of reviews to catch up on and I will be working hard on those this weekend...as long as everything goes as planned. That and applying/interviewing for internships. I look forward to only one of those.

Why You Should (or Shouldn't) Read 'A Game of Thrones' Before Watching the TV Show: This is a great article and I just have to add, I recommending reading it before, but at least a year before so you forget most of the details and you're only reminded of things. I fully realize my option is no longer in play.

Goodreads: Basic Premise - "Killer Unicorn" books should have Killer Unicorns on the cover. Here's the facetious review and here's the author's commentary. Me likey. :)
Pat Rothfuss Interview by Suvudu: Pat lets us know a little about the extremely long wait time between The Name of the Wind and Wise Man's Fear. Interesting that the first draft he submitted back in the day had things like, . I think we'll all be glad for the wait in the end. :)

2010 Comic Con Patrick Rothfuss Interview from Suvudu on Vimeo.

James S. A. Corey Interview by Orbit: I have to admit, when I first heard about Daniel Abraham collaborating with Ty Franck for Leviathan Wakes, I thought Daniel Abraham was doing all the work with Ty Franck jumping on the boat. Not so, it's definitely a joint effort. Ty Franck had the entire world laid out and let's be honest, Daniel Abraham is an amazing writer. Parts II and III are on Youtube.



And that's the news...at least to me.

It's News To Me #1

I'm going to make a few changes to this year's It's News To Me series of posts. I've been going back and forth, back and forth on this and I think I finally have a solution. I enjoy posting about the news, but, and you may be amazed... very amazed, it takes quite a bit of work to put together a decent weekly news update.

In lieu of a weekly update, I will begin to post much more condensed updates as the news comes up, so this could happen on any day of the week. This may in fact mean more It's News To Me, but some weeks it could mean less or none.

I guess we'll find out at the end of the year if it does in fact mean more posts. :)

I wish I had more time to keep this up, but I think this new schedule will work a bit better with my hectic schedule.

New Cover: Game of Thrones [US - old cover] [UK - old cover] by George R. R. Martin (and new title too I guess).

This cover update coincides with the very little known fact that an HBO series will be based on this book - while independently significant, A Game of Thrones made it on the NYT bestseller list recently. :)

New Trailer: HBO's Game of Thrones - Premiere Date: April 17th (Whoot!)



Can't say I'm much of a fan of this trailer. It almost looks cheap to me. Maybe I'm not artistic enough to get it. Still extremely excited for the series.

And that's the news...at least to me.

It's News To Me #36

Finals are here and blogging has become difficult, hence these sorry excuses for a weekly wrap-up. I promise, once I'm done with law school I'll have plenty more excuses for slacking.

Cover Art


Not as big of a fan of the cover for Pyr's US edition of The Scarab Path (Shadows of the Apt 5) [US] [UK] as the earlier volumes, but at least I hear the book's pretty good. :)

News

Adventures in Reading has The Top Ten SF Novels of the Last Decade, Written by Women (and which I have read).

Movies/TV/Videos

This is a beautiful thing (HBO's Game of Thrones):



And that's the news...at least to me.

It's News To Me #35

It's that time again, finals start next week and I make no promises as to how many reviews I'll get out nor how many links will be included in the news segment. Because all of my classes are depending 100% on my final exams, I get a bit stressed at this time of year/semester. Just ask my wife, or better yet don't. :)

Cover Art

Covers like these make me want to read a book (Swanland is my hero):

Surrender to the Will of the Night (Instrumentalities of the Night Book 3) by Glen Cook [US] [UK]

Elfsorrow (Legends of the Raven Book 1) by James Barclay [US] [UK]

News

Brian Ruckley "Answers 8 Rad Questions" that aren't rad and can barely be considered questions. But he's a writer I guess, and of fantasy, so he's good at making things up. :D

The Nook Color is reviewed at Genre Reader. I probably won't get a reader for a while, but Jeff does a great job laying it down with his eReader reviews.

Sarah asks what was your "Gateway Drug" into Speculative Fiction - meaning that book that got you loving the genre, which you'll always love, but which in reality probably isn't the best book ever put to paper.

There's an exclusive excerpt of Orson Scott Card's new book (first in a trilogy), The Lost Gate. (thanks Yagiz).

I've been keeping up on Patrick Rothfuss's Worldbuilders project through donated, signed books and I think it's a great way to make this world a better place. If you have even a little to give, this is a great way to go.

On that note, Pat (Hotlist) is donating all proceeds from his links to Breast Cancer Research. You don't even have to do anything but buy your gifts through these links and you can help.

Oh, and he's not done...and others have things to say about that.

Movies/TV/Videos

I'm obsessed with Game of Thrones on HBO, I'm sure you can't tell, so here's a teaser trailer and if you follow this link, there are 9 other short clips to get you excited:

Clip Preview

And that's the news...at least to me.

It's News To Me #26

Has it already been a half year for It's News To Me? I've had a good time and hope you have too.

If there's anything I should add/subtract to make it better, please let me know. In the words of Aldous Huxley, "There is only one corner of the universe you can be certain of improving, and that's your own self."

Cover Art

Mark Charan Newton is having fans vote for the cover of his next book The Book of Transformations:

Count me in with the left cover. The close up just looks so much better although the best cover is still the US edition of Nights of Villjamur. I do have to admit, I typically don't like real people in my covers.

Interviews

Neal Asher "Answers 8 Crappy Questions" at SFFnews.com. Asher's an author I've become more and more interested in reading. I already own Gridlinked so it's only a matter of time.

Neal: My next book is The Departure, which is a title full of double meanings. It is a departure from the Polity in that I am telling the tale of the early years of the ‘Owner’ who will be found in short stories in my collection The Engineer ReConditioned. It comes out next August...

Pat's Fantasy Hotlist, whether he'll be staying around or leaving, has a few more interviews for the rest of the year. Most recently Jasper Kent is up, and yet another author I've only heard good things about. Hmm...

- Can you tell us a little more about the road that saw this one go from manuscript form to finished novel?
Once I was happy with the text I started sending it directly to publishers (reasoning, wrongly, that it would be easier to get over the single hurdle of being accepted by a publisher than having to face being accepted first by an agent and then by a publisher). All the feedback that wasn’t cursory was pretty positive in terms of the content, but at the time publishers couldn’t really find much of a place for horror. Peter Lavery at Macmillan was particularly enthusiastic and suggested I contact John Jarrold as a literary agent. John managed to get it seen by more publishers, but still without a bite.

Peter F. Hamilton talks about his Void trilogy, with more parts to come:


Movies/Videos/TV

We have another featurette from HBO's Game of Thrones (still can't get used to that instead of A Game of Thrones) this week. From the artisans:

The Artisans: Gemma Jackson

Top 3 Book Reviews

I know it was 5 last week, but I realized that 3 is much more elite. :)

3. Kamvision: Shadowrise by Tad Williams - I still need to read Tad Williams. I own Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn and will (hopefully) very soon get into this and someday get to the Shadowmarch quartet. Someday.

2. Graeme's: Night of the Living Trekkies by Kevin Anderson and Sam Stall - Have to say I was surprised by how high of a rating this got.

1. A Fantasy Reader: The Black Prism by Brent Weeks - Yup, this book was number one last week, but this one's more positive. Seems like it's a bit of a split opinion.

And that's the news...at least to me.

It's News To Me #24

Some of my favorite authors are doing some great slash silly things this week, from Brandon Sanderson to George RR Martin and HBO (some day it will be for the book) and even Peter V. Brett. Now I only need more reading time.

And then there's some (possibly) big-ish news from the blogosphere. I'll explain down there.

Cover Art


Another novella from Peter V. Brett is coming out from Subterranean Press called Brayan's Gold. From the SubPress website:

Return to the world of The Warded Man and The Desert Spear in an illustrated new novella by Peter V. Brett.

Humanity has been brought to the brink of extinction. Each night, the world is overrun by demons—bloodthirsty creatures of nightmare that have been hunting the surface for over 300 years. A scant few hamlets and half-starved city-states are all that remain of a once proud civilization, and it is only by hiding behind wards, ancient symbols with the power to repel the demons, that they survive. A handful of Messengers brave the night to keep the lines of communication open between the increasingly isolated populace.

Arlen Bales is seventeen, an apprentice Messenger in brand new armor, about to go out for the first time alongside a trained Messenger on a simple overnight trip. Instead Arlen finds himself alone on a frozen mountainside, carrying a dangerous cargo to Count Brayan’s gold mine, one of the furthest points in the duchy. And One Arm, the giant rock demon, hunts him still.

But Brayan’s Gold may offer a way for Arlen to be free of One Arm forever, if he is willing to wager his life on the chance.

News

An interesting point was brought up by ChrisW at sffnews about the split of the final books of The Wheel of Time. He makes the point that we were told the book had to be split because it was getting too big for this publishing world we live in...and then comes The Way of Kings, a doorstop by a Balrog's standards and published by the same people. Hrmmm?? Thoughts?

Chris also has some inciteful comments about the whole Postmodernism in fantasy, Brandon Sanderson, Jeff Vandermeer kerfluffle. Gave me a few chuckles.

Short version:

Vandermeer: Brandon is clueless.
50 other random dudes: Hear here!!
Brandon's side kick: You misunderstand him.
Sanderson: Damn, you got me, I'm a simpleton but in my defence I wasn't really trying to define it.
Vandermeer: No worries mate, not everyone can be as smart as me. I can jog and text at the same time!

Speaking of Brandon Sanderson, Pat's got a great Brandon Sanderson interview up at the Hotlist put together by Pat himself and friends. Seriously check it out, I mean it, it's really great. Here's a snippet:

When I approached writing the Stormlight Archive--when I approached creating Roshar--I very consciously said, “I want to create something that feels new to me.” I’m not the only one who does this, and I’m certainly not the one who does it best, but I wanted a world that was not medieval Europe. At all. I wanted a world that was its own thing. I started with the highstorms and went from there.

On that note, Pat just announced that may be bowing out of the game. The Fantasy Hotlist was the start of my blogging addiction, so it'll be sad to see one of the pioneers leaving.

And then here's Larry's parody of said announcement. And then the defense of said parody.

Movies/Videos/TV (or Everybody's Doing It #2)

Things seem to be moving along with A Game of Thrones on HBO. There's a Making Of blog and this exiting look at the show, including short interviews from the extremely excited George RR Martin, Sean Bean, and writers E.B. Weiss and David Benioff:



Here's another teaser trailer, "Raven":



Winter is Coming, the blog following production of HBO's A Game of Thrones since 2008, also has some great production stills. Yes, I'm salivating. (Thanks A Dribble of Ink)

This one cracks me up:

Arya and Bran look happy to be there. I'm guessing they still don't know what's about to happen to them.

And that's the news...at least to me.

It's News To Me #20

Anyone have any crazy book reading habits? I've been thinking about this lately and I have a few that I've been able to stop, a few I still can't give up, and a few I don't want to give up.

I used to have this really insane one where at the end of reading a book, I had to read the first word/sentence of the same book. It started because I would look at the beginning to see how my perspective changed throughout the book... and then my OCD turned on. :) But, I'm proud to say I broke it, it can be done.

Leave a comment, let us know.

Cover Art


What's a Joe Abercrombie cover without blood? Well, now we don't have to worry about the answer to that question.


This HUGE picture is all I could find after quite a bit of searching and not settling for thumbnails. I've been meaning to talk about this cover for Tolkien's The Children of Hurin for a while and I finally remembered. I own the old version, but this new one is definitely worth owning as well. Beautiful cover, I love the colors on the helmet and the contrasting castle in the background.

News

Casting for HBO's A Game of Thrones has been spot on in most instances, yes, I know my superfluous opinion really matters, but ever want to see all of the actors/characters in one place? I found a blog that has put them altogether with fan art: Lexicopia.










The release date is becoming more and more real and now we have a blurb for Scott Lynch's third book in the Gentlemen Bastards series, The Republic of Thieves (pre-order) [US] [UK]:

After their adventures on the high seas, Locke and Jean are brought back to earth with a thump. Jean is mourning the loss of his lover and Locke must live with the fallout of crossing the all-powerful magical assassins the Bonds Magi. It is a fall-out that will pit both men against Locke's own long lost love. Sabetha is Locke's childhood sweetheart, the love of Locke's life and now it is time for them to meet again. Employed on different sides of a vicious dispute between factions of the Bonds Sabetha has just one goal - to destroy Locke for ever. The Gentleman Bastard sequence has become a literary sensation in fantasy circles and now, with the third book, Scott Lynch is set to seal that success. (source: Pat's Fantasy Hotlist)

Check out Camorr for the full excerpt (23 pages of manuscript).

Liviu, of Fantasy Book Critic fame, put up his list of "Most Interesting SFF Universes". He lists everything from "Dark/Cynical Series" to "Promised a Lot but Failed to Fully Deliver so Far". It's worth checking out:

Most Interesting Universes

F: Shadows of the Apt by Adrian Tchaikovsky

SF: The Gaean Reach by Jack Vance

*************************************************************
The one Universe I would like to live in

F: Legacy of Kushiel by Jacqueline Carey

SF: The Culture by Iain M. Banks

*************************************************************

Giveaways


JC Marino is giving away his book Dante's Journey (my review) on Goodreads right now, but with an added gift: a Joseph Dante's badge. Pretty sweet stuff and a good read too.

And that's the news...at least to me.