Tuf Voyaging by George RR Martin

George RR Martin is known widely for his fantasy books, especially his Song of Ice and Fire series (Game of Thrones to you HBO fans). But in the 1970s and early 1980s, prior to his work in TV, Martin dabbled in both fantasy and science fiction. From that period comes Tuf Voyaging. The book is a set of linked novellas all featuring the same main character, Haviland Tuf. Tuf is not your typical hero, but usually ends up on the winning side of whatever contest he enters. Let’s check out what Haviland Tuf is up to.

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Game of Thrones Season 2 Premiere review

Game of Thrones is back and bloody as ever. The first episode seemed to serve more as a re-introduction to the viewers without a lot of plot heavy elements. But for a second season premiere, this seems to be what is needed. We get re-introduced to most of our main characters and locations, so that the show can start running forward next episode. Let’s check out what happened.

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A Dance with Dragons by George R.R. Martin

And I’m all caught up with the series. I started the first book earlier this year when I was getting ready for the HBO series and finally got A Dance with Dragons last week and set about reading it. As with all the other books in the series, it was exciting, well written and leaves you hungry for more. However there were some chapters written for this book that were pushed into the next one and it does show. The book doesn’t seem like a coherent whole, but more like 1/3 of a book (with the book before and book after needed to finish up the arc). Having said that I still enjoyed the book. Let’s take a look at it (needless to say, spoilers ahoy).

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A Feast for Crows by George RR Martin

In preparation for the Game of Thrones TV show and the summer release of A Dance with Dragons, I’ve been making my way through the series so far. And I’ve finally caught up by finishing A Feast for Crows. This book was originally going to be set 5 years in the future, but GRRM realized that it wasn’t working out, so he went back to pick up right after A Storm of Swords. And then when that book started looking like it was going to be double the size of the previous volumes, it was split into two. So, A Feast for Crows and A Dance with Dragons are really one big book split in half. And rather than split it in to time wise, GRRM decided to split it by geography. The first half of the book follows the characters in the Southern half of Westeros. So, let’s see what the Feast is about.
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A Storm of Swords by George R R Martin

And the war continues. Following on from the events of A Clash of Kings, Martin once more takes us to Westeros and the continuing battle for the kingdom. One concern I do have with the book is with ongoing deaths. We saw numerous characters die in the first two books and more die in book three. There is going to be a point where all (or most) of the characters I care about have died. And that makes me wonder if I’m going to want to finish the series. But, Martin hasn’t disappointed yet. Let’s go and see what’s going on with the four remaining kings.

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Game of Thrones TV show review

Having only recently started on the Song of Ice and Fire, by George RR Martin, I don’t have a lot of the history that a lot of other fans do with the series. But, having read the book, I’m not going into the series blind. The HBO name on the series usually carries the sign of quality (John from Cincinnati notwithstanding), and the fact that they are the ones producing the show (rather than AMC or Showtime) means that there is a sense of quality and a decent budget. So, let’s see if winter is coming.

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GRRM Interview in the NY Times

Go and read this GRRM interview with the NY Times:

When I returned to prose, which had been my first love, in the 90s, I said I’m going to do something that is just as big as I want to do. I can have all the special effects I want. I can have a cast of characters that numbers in the hundreds. I can have giant battle scenes. Everything you can’t do in television and film, of course you can do in prose because you’re everything there. You’re the director, you’re the special effects coordinator, you’re the costume department, and you don’t have to worry about a budget.

A Clash of Kings by George R.R. Martin

While GRRM was announcing the publication date for book 5 of A Song of Fire and Ice (A Dance with Dragons), I was finishing up book two (A Clash of Kings). There is a good chance I might be finished with book four before book five comes out. During the middle books of a long series, there is always a chance that the author will go off on an unrelated tangent or run around in place waiting until the finale comes. But Martin does a great job moving the pieces around and keeping the enough balls in the air, that we enjoy reading the book and are still looking forward to later pieces. So which kings are clashing?

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A Dance With Dragons Release Date

A Dance With Dragons has a release date according to EW and the publisher:

Yes, we swear, after waiting six long years since the release of the last novel in the saga, the fabled Book 5 A Dance With Dragons is close enough to being finished* for Martin’s publisher to set a release date. We have that date, exclusively, along a first look at the book’s cover art and an interview with the man himself.

A Dance With Dragons will be published on July 12.

But should we believe this publication date without confirmation from the author? Well, we have confirmation:

Yes, I know. You’ve all seen publication dates before: dates in 2007, 2008, 2009. None of those were ever hard dates, however. Most of them… well, call it wishful thinking, boundless optimism, cockeyed dreams, honest mistakes, whatever you like.

This date is different. This date is real.

Barring tsunamis, general strikes, world wars, or asteroid strikes, you will have the novel in your hands on July 12. I hope you like it.

 With the HBO series coming out in April, 2011 might just be the year of George R. R. Martin

Congratulations George R.R. Martin

George R.R. Martin announced on his blog yesterday afternoon that he got married.

So… back in 1981, Parris left Portland, Oregon for Santa Fe, and moved in with me in my old house on Declovina Street. We’ve been together ever since, for good times and bad, a move or two, more cons and road trips and adventures than either of us can remember now in our advanced old age.

After thirty years, we finally decided that maybe this relationship was going to work out after all.

So on the evening of February 15, we finally made it official, and married in front of our hearth at our home here in Santa Fe. The hearth is Lannister red, but the bride wore Tyrell colors. Unlike most Westerosi weddings, no one was killed and only tears of joy were shed.

Congratulations to the Martin family