The Subtlety of Grandness

Damnit, honor and fanboyism and my gaming background pretty much require that I pick this up. It’s $80, too. At least you get a lot in the (big) box. This is essentially a tactical combat game with nearly 140 plastic figures, a big map, dozens of cards, a ton of dice, and more. Pit Lannister host versus Stark host with more factions to come in expansions. It doesn’t hurt that Fantasy Flight did a fantastic job with the diplomacy/strategy board game. It’s just, why couldn’t this have shipped before my birthday?

It’s official: Finn Jones is Ser Loras Tyrell, the Knight of Flowers. Looks the part. Keep the casting announcements coming!

Here’s a glorious 1920×1200 image of Sean Bean as Eddard Stark, holding the greatsword, Ice. I tell you it looks great on my dual 24-inch LCDs. Click for the full-size, wallpaper-ready image.

Arghhhhh…. 2011, get here already! Hearing Sean Bean utter the words “Winter is Coming” (with some dark laughter) just made the wait go nuclear. And I know they’re called teasers for a reason, but goddamn HBO! Show more!

Photo © Parris

GRRM had a book signing in Belfast today, and he brought along Maisie Williams (Arya Stark), Sophie Turner (Sansa Stark), Richard Madden (Robb Stark), Kit Harrington (Jon Snow), Alfie Allen (Theon Greyjoy), and Ron Donachie (Ser Rodrik Cassel).

Greenlight the damn series already, HBO! And GRRM, write like the wind!

The latest word from The Man: Dance is now longer than A Game of Thrones and A Feast for Crows, and will soon surpass A Clash of Kings. C’mon! At this point, even assuming he finishes sooner rather than later this year, odds are the book comes out early 2010. But then, that’s a big if. The Man is a perfectionist, after all. But that’s why we love him so. Just remember, the British edition will usually beat the US one by a month or two, so pre-order on Amazon.co.uk and have it shipped stateside so you can rub it in your friends’ faces.

For now, let us gaze upon the cover!

Huzzah! GRRM announced that the third Dunk & Egg novella will appear in Warriors, a new anthology coming in March. If you’re a Song of Ice and Fire fan who hasn’t read them yet, you’re missing out. Go to Amazon and order right now. Dunk & Egg are separate tales of the Seven Kingdoms, and they’re fantastic.

The first novella is found in either Legends or Dreamsongs: Volume II. It’s also found in the ultra-rare GRRM: A Rretrospective, which was published by a small specialty press in 2003. So small, in fact, that I was working at Barnes & Noble at the time, and it never appeared in B&N’s computer system. I’ve got a copy that I bought when it was first published (I stumbled on them the day they were put on the shelves of the University Bookstore in Seattle, and they were all gone by the next day), but they’re not easy to find, nor cheap (there are only two on eBay right now with an average price of $200+; in retrospect, I should have bought out the UW Bookstore). The good news here is that the Rretrospective was picked up by Bantam Spectra and republished as the two Dreamsongs volumes a couple of years ago.

Meanwhile, the second novella is found in Legends II. Do not get the graphic novel treatments, at least, not at first. Don’t get me wrong; the graphic novels are very nicely done, but you miss out on Martin’s memorable prose.

Finally, I got a kicker out of the cover for the upcoming anthology. Not hard to figure out who the headliner is.

How many times can you put George R.R. Martin's name on a cover?

If you haven’t figured it out by now, I’m a huge fan of George R.R. Martin, especially of A Song of Ice and Fire. I’ve got several copies of the series, including a hardcover set signed by the man himself. However, the crown jewel of the collection simply has to be my never read, first edition, signed copy of A Game of Thrones in very good condition+. This one cost me a small fortune from a rare book dealer about five years ago.

A quick search at AbeBooks brought up $500 to $800 for comparable signed first editions in very good+ condition, and I only expect that to go higher if the HBO series goes ahead and the series grows in popularity. (For the record, I didn’t pay that much, but it was still a pretty penny. I can’t pick stocks, but at least I can pick first editions, it seems.) Yes, the UK first edition goes for much more ($1,500+), but that’s because it was a smaller print run. Plus, some consider the UK edition to be the true first edition since it was released first, but the US print run actually predates the UK one. George himself considers the US edition to be the true first edition.