Game Of Thrones Season 3 Cast and Show

ABOUT THE SHOW

"Based on the bestselling fantasy book series by George R.R. Martin, Game of Thrones is an epic story of treachery and nobility set on the continent of Westeros, where summers and winters can last years, and only the lust for power is eternal. ...

"As Blackwater Bay cools [after the end of http://gameofthrones4.blogspot.com/Season 2], the victors consolidate their power and rebuild King's Landing. But new challengers for the Iron Throne rise from the most unexpected places. Characters old and new must navigate the demands of family, honor, ambition, love and – above all – survival, as the Westeros civil war rages into autumn. ...

As season three begins, the Lannisters hold absolute dominion over King's Landing after repelling Stannis Baratheon's forces. Yet Robb Stark, King in the North, still controls much of the South as well, and has yet to lose a battle. In the Far North, Mance Rayder has united the wildlings into the largest army Westeros has ever seen. Only the Night's Watch stands between him and the Seven Kingdoms, but nobody knows what happened to its Lord Commander and the force he led beyond the Wall. Across the Narrow Sea, Daenerys Targaryen – reunited with her three growing dragons – ventures into Slaver's Bay in search of ships to take her home and allies to conquer it."

http://gameofthrones4.blogspot.com/

ABOUT THE CAST

Returning series regulars on Gameof thrones this season include: Emmy and Golden Globe winner Peter Dinklage (Tyrion Lannister), Michelle Fairley (Catelyn Stark), Lena Headey (Cersei Lannister), Emilia Clarke (Daenerys Targaryen), Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (Jaime Lannister), Aidan Gillen (Petyr "Littlefinger" Baelish), Iain Glen (Jorah Mormont), Kit Harington (Jon Snow), Richard Madden (Robb Stark), Charles Dance (Tywin Lannister), Maisie Williams (Arya Stark), Isaac Hempstead Wright (Bran Stark), Sophie Turner (Sansa Stark) and Jack Gleeson (Joffrey Baratheon).

Additional returning series regulars this season include: Alfie Allen (Theon Greyjoy), Jerome Flynn (Bronn), Rory McCann (Sandor "The Hound" Clegane), Conleth Hill (Varys), John Bradley (Samwell Tarly), Gwendoline Christie (Brienne of Tarth), James Cosmo (Commander Jeor Mormont), Stephen Dillane (Stannis Baratheon), Carice van Houten (Melisandre), Liam Cunningham (Davos Seaworth), Sibel Kekilli (Shae), Rose Leslie (Ygritte) and Natalie Dormer (Margaery Tyrell).

http://gameofthrones4.blogspot.com/

Game Of Thrones Season 3

Game Of Thrones - Feel like you know nothing, Jon Snow? That will soon change! HBO has been teasing out little details on Game of Thrones Season 3, and today they released intel on the premiere, which will air on Sunday, March 31.
"VALAR DOHAERIS"

Debut: Sunday, March 31 (9:00-10:00 p.m. ET/PT)
Synopsis: "Jon is brought before Mance Rayder, the King Beyond the Wall, while the Night’s Watch survivors retreat south. In King’s Landing, Tyrion asks for his reward. Littlefinger offers Sansa a way out. Cersei hosts a dinner for the royal family. Daenerys sails into Slaver’s Bay."
Credit: Helen Sloan/HBO
Please visit http://gameofthrones4.blogspot.com/

Game Of Thrones Genesis

Disney shutting down LucasArts

LucasArts, the game-making division of Lucasfilm, is being shut down by the company's new supreme overlords at Disney.

Disney is instead switching video game development of Lucasfilm properties (i.e. Star Wars) to external companies under a licencing model. The fate of 1313, a new Star Wars game internally developed by LucasArts and set between Episode III and IV, is unclear, although rumours have stated that the game has been on hold since late last year as Disney wants all new Star Wars games to focus on the time period of the new movies.

LucasArts was founded in 1982 and worked on some very early home video games before the release of its first big hit, Maniac Mansion, in 1987. That game introduced the SCUMM Engine, which put impressive graphics and a mouse-driven interface into the adventure genre, previously dominated by text inputs. Further games refined this system, such as the brilliant Zak McKraken and the Alien Mindbenders (1988) and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989), the latter of which may still be one of the very best movie tie-in games ever made. LucasArts adjusted their formula in 1990 with the quirky and enjoyable LOOM, which replaced the typical command system with a music-driven one. In 1990 LucasArts released arguably their best-known, non-Star Wars game with The Secret of Monkey Island, following that up a year later with the epic and superior Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge. Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis was released in 1992, followed by Maniac Mansion 2: Day of the Tentacle and Sam and Max Hit the Road in 1993.

Following this point, the widespread adoption of 3D technology for games left LucasArts feeling that their adventure games looked outdated. The Curse of Monkey Island (1997) was their last adventure game using 2D animation, with both Grim Fandango (1999) and Escape from Monkey Island (2000) featuring 3D graphics. Though critical acclaim was still forthcoming (rather less for Escape), LucasArts wound up its adventure-producing division in 2003. Many of the people working there went on to found Telltale Games, who eventually ended up producing episodic new Sam and Max and Monkey Island games. Their most recent hit was The Walking Dead episodic game series.

Meanwhile, LucasArts branched into other areas of gaming. In 1993 they published X-Wing, a Star Wars-themed competitor to Chris Roberts's Wing Commander series of space combat games. The critically-acclaimed series eventually ended up comprising four core titles: X-Wing (1993), TIE Fighter (1994), X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter (1997) and X-Wing Alliance (1999). Disappointing sales for X-Wing Alliance - accompanying the wholesale collapse of the space combat simulator genre after a decade of success - saw the series cancelled at that point. LucasArts moved into console gaming, working with BioWare to produce the RPG Knights of the Old Republic in 2003 and with Obsidian on the ill-fated Knights of the Old Republic II in 2004. They also produced the action game Star Wars: Republic Commando in 2005.

Increasingly, post-2000 LucasArts was working more and more with external companies to produce their games, with LucasArts often only providing oversight. The most recent example of this is the highly troubled MMORPG The Old Republic, co-produced with BioWare and apparently the most expensive computer game of all time (with rumours abounding about how close the game has come to breaking even). It is likely that these elements also factored into Disney's decision to shut down the company.

Sad news for the once-great games development company which kick-started the careers of, amongst many others, Ron Gilbert and Tim Schafer.

Iain Banks only has months to live

In an official statement, Scottish author Iain Banks has confirmed that he has only months to live after it was discovered he'd had cancer for several years without being diagnosed.

I am officially Very Poorly.

After a couple of surgical procedures, I am gradually recovering from jaundice caused by a blocked bile duct, but that – it turns out – is the least of my problems.

I first thought something might be wrong when I developed a sore back in late January, but put this down to the fact I’d started writing at the beginning of the month and so was crouched over a keyboard all day.  When it hadn’t gone away by mid February, I went to my GP, who spotted that I had jaundice.  Blood tests, an ultrasound scan and then a CT scan revealed the full extent of the grisly truth by the start of March.

I have cancer.  It started in my gall bladder, has infected both lobes of my liver and probably also my pancreas and some lymph nodes, plus one tumour is massed around a group of major blood vessels in the same volume, effectively ruling out any chance of surgery to remove the tumours either in the short or long term. The bottom line, now, I’m afraid, is that as a late stage gall bladder cancer patient, I’m expected to live for ‘several months’ and it’s extremely unlikely I’ll live beyond a year.  So it looks like my latest novel, The Quarry, will be my last.

Banks, 59, rose to prominence with the publication of his first, controversial novel, The Wasp Factory, in 1984. In 1987 he began publishing science fiction under the cunningly impenetrable moniker 'Iain M. Banks' (M stands for Menzies), and has, for most of his career, alternated SF and non-SF work (although several of his non-SF works have strong genre elements). In SF he is best-known for his nine Culture novels, a sequence of stand-alone novels set in an AI-run, utopian interstellar society often forced to resort to shady activities to keep it safe. Banks has twice won the BSFA Award and has been nominated for the Locus and Hugo Awards. His novel The Crow Road has been adapted as a BBC mini-series, whilst Complicity has been made into a film.

Banks has approached the news with his traditional gallows humour and put the best spin possible on it, but by any standards this is devastating news. Definitely one of the British lit scene's most interesting authors (in any genre).

GAME OF THRONES renewed for a fourth season

Surprising no-one, HBO has renewed Game of Thrones for a fourth season. The news came after it was revealed that the Season 3 debut had scored 4.4 million viewers, an all-time series high. The high ratings were not expected, as the show was airing directly opposite the Season 3 finale of The Walking Dead (which also garnered an all-time series high of 12 million viewers; The Walking Dead airs on AMC, which is more widely available in the USA than HBO).

Dany gets to hang around Slaver's Bay for a while longer.

Further information was not officially announced. However, based on comments by showrunners and other personnel, we know that Season 4 will again comprise 10 episodes and will largely be based on the latter parts of A Storm of Swords. It is unclear how much material will also be drawn from A Feast for Crows and A Dance of Dragons (the fourth and fifth novels take place concurrently, both overlapping with the end of the third novel). The climax of Season 3 appears to be an event that actually happens two-thirds of the way through Swords, and there are sections of the fourth novel which chronologically take place during the latter part of the third. Showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss are certain to return, having signed a two-year contract before beginning work on the third season, and it is anticipated that George R.R. Martin will again be scripting one episode.

One tidbit that is known about the fourth season is that it will feature a battle that will dwarf the Battle of the Blackwater at the end of the second, and the producers are anticipating interesting discussions with HBO on how they film it. My personal view is that they should definitely call back Neil Marshall, who gave them a lot of bang for their buck with Blackwater.

Whilst we don't know what characters from the books will be brought into the show, fans are confidently expecting the casting of (at the very least) Prince Oberyn Martell and Lord Mace Tyrell. New locations to appear in Season 4 will likely include the city of Meereen.

Other recent info that has come out about the show indicates it is now HBO's most profitable series, also selling more DVDs and Blu-Rays than any of their other series. Sales of Thrones merchandise also make up more than 75% of all merchandising sales for HBO. With figures such as this (and the fact that Thrones allegedly makes more than 50% of its budget back immediately through foreign rights sales alone), HBO's decision is unsurprising. Indeed, some industry-watchers were even predicting a two-season renewal notice, allowing the producers to more efficiently segue from one season into the next, but HBO elected not to do this, at least not this year.

Thrones was also a ratings success for Sky Atlantic in the UK, hitting 600,000 viewers, a substantial increase over Season 2 (400,000) but not up to the highs of the first season (700,000).

Gene Wolfe's BOOK OF THE NEW SUN to be a movie series

News has broken that Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Sun is to become a series of blockbuster Hollywood movies.

The four-volume series - actually one long, sustained novel split into four volumes due to length - is widely-regarded as one of the pinnacles of science fiction and fantasy literature, once described by The Guardian newspaper as SF's answer to Ulysses. A dense and complex tale, The Book of the New Sun follows the journey of a torturer, Severian, across a fantastical landscape to a distant city. Along the way he becomes a powerful figure, and the book suggests that Severian is an unreliable narrator who is changing aspects of his story for unknown purposes. The series has inspired significant discussion of its themes and complex characterisation since it was first published in 1980-83.

Handling the movie version will be veteran Hollywood director Michael Bay. Despite being best-known for his action movies featuring numerous and impressive explosions, Bay claims that the films will be extremely faithful to the books, and he will not sacrifice the books' subtle narrative aspects in favour of spectacle. "Plus I'm never going to get that Best Picture Award if I keep making films about Marky Mark talking to Optimus Prime, you know what I'm saying?"

Author Gene Wolfe has reported that he is happy with the script he has read, acknowledging that of course some changes are to be expected to make the dense work a better fit for the big screen. "Although I must admit I was initially unsure about the scene when Severian salvages an ancient helicopter gunship equipped with rotary laser miniguns and uses it to engage in battle with triple-headed mutants, Michael explained to me the deep thematic resonance of how the scene reflects the inherent nobility of the human spirit. Or something."

Early concept art suggests the film will feature a 'fresh interpretation' of the sword Terminus Est.

Bay confirms that Wolfe has been consulted at all levels of the project, including casting. "For the role of Severian I was initially considering Taylor Lautner, but Gene was determined that we get an experienced, method actor who could really embody the role's complexity. We compromised on Jack Black."

Black confirmed that he did, "Not have a f*****g clue what is going on," in the script but took the project on because the books' artwork "Totally looked like heavy metal album covers."


The Book of the New Sun: The Shadow of the Torturer will be released in cinemas the day after hell freezes over.

Wolfhound Century by Peter Higgins

Investigator Vissarion Lom is summoned to Mirgorod, capital of the Vlast, to help investigate a series of terrorist attacks in the city. Josef Kantor, the son of a famous revolutionary, is the chief suspect and Lom is soon on his trail. But a simple manhunt turns into something more serious. An angel has fallen to the earth in the vast forest thousands of miles to the east. A devastating war between the Vlast and a grouping of island-nations to the west is coming to an end. And a spirit of the forest made manifest arrives in the city, seeking a young woman who may hold the key to the world's salvation.

Wolfhound Century has picked up a fair bit of advance buzz as a novel to watch for this year. It's easy to see why. Coming over as the result of a genetic experiment splicing the works of Chine Mieville, Ian Fleming and Robert Holdstock into a single entity, but with a few twists of the author's own invention, it's definitely a refreshing change from Generic Epic Fantasy #312. The book is set in a world where revolvers and airplanes exist alongside nature spirits and giants, a sort-of Soviet Russia that never was but where honest cops still have to get on with foiling crimes, even crimes involving alien space entities and objects of transdimensional quantum power. It's a glorious mash-up of genres and styles that works very well.

Higgins is telling a big story here, but by tightly restricting the points of view to just a few characters and by using short, sharp chapters he is able to get through the story with an enviable economy. Even better, that economy does not prevent the prose from being more ambitious than the SFF norm, with evocative flourishes and place and character undertaken in just a few deft sentences. The writing is superb and the characterisation excellent, with Lom and his nemesis Kantor both shown to be complex, damaged characters, and also both more than they initially appear.

Even more impressive is the melding together of different ideas and genres. There are SF ideas about quantum physics and alternate realities existing alongside rural fantasy notions of nature spirits and living woodlands. In the middle of this lies the alternate-Soviet tropes of secret police and investigations where the truth is subservient to perception and politics. It could be an unruly mess, but Higgins makes it work with aplomb.

Where the book not so much stumbles but falls flat on its face is the unexpectedly abrupt ending. Wolfhound Century has been advertised as having a sequel (already written and submitted, thankfully), Truth and Fear, due out in a year's time, so it was already known that this would probably not be a completely self-contained book. The problem is that at no point is it stated that Wolfhound Century is functionally incomplete as a novel. It doesn't so much climax as just stop. This isn't the first in a series, but the first chunk of a much longer single novel being published in multiple volumes. Some forewarning of this would have been appreciated. Also, given that Wolfhound Century is only 300 pages of pretty big type in length, the question arises of why this story is being published in such small chunks also arises.

Still, whilst Wolfhound Century (****) may be just the first chunk of a bigger story, it is still a finely-written and compelling story. Higgins has created an engrossing fantasy world which is a million miles away from the more played-out ends of the genre and all the better for it. The book would have simply benefited from either being held back until the entire story was complete, or a mention of its heavily serialised nature was given on the cover at some point. The novel is available now in the UK and USA.

Mafia II

February 1945. Vito Scaletta returns from the war to his home city of Empire Bay. Almost immediately he finds himself drawn into a world of criminals and the mafia, as his best friend uses shady connections to get him released from the service early. As time passes Vito finds himself reaping the rewards from a life of crime...as well as the dangers.

Mafia II is the sequel to the 2002 game Mafia. Mafia is one of my favourite games of all time, with superb writing, tremendous characterisation and some fun shooting mechanics making up for occasionally questionable gameplay (such as that infamously hardcore racing mission). Mafia II is not a direct follow-up, set as it is in a different city with different characters. There are a couple of references to the events of the original Mafia, though these are obtuse enough that only hardcore fans are likely to spot them. Instead, the game's narrative is completely self-contained.

In terms of gameplay, the Mafia series resembles the Grand Theft Auto franchise with driving sections and on-foot combat, with the important difference that the Mafia games are not open-world titles. Instead you proceed directly from one mission directly to the next. This means that the cities do not need to be as exhaustively detailed and brimming with stuff to do as in the GTA titles, since they are merely backdrops to the action (though they are still well-realised). This gives the Mafia games a much greater focus and puts both their stories and characters under much more pressure, as they need to be good for the games to succeed. The GTA games, which a lot of people play purely to cause havoc in the cities without ever looking at the main storylines, don't quite have the same pressure.

This requirement paid off handsomely in the original Mafia. The story of Tommy Angelo's rise from taxi driver to criminal fixer, becoming a made man and gaining a family and respectability before realising how brutal and violent his world had become, was extremely compelling. It featured musings on the corrosive effects of violence on the psyche and on the morality of killing. It was a stronger story than anything to appear in a GTA title (and, interestingly, GTA4 seemed to take more than a few ideas from it).

The personalised number plates are pretty cool.

Unfortunately, it does not pay off in Mafia II. Illusion Softworks - now 2K Czech - were obviously keen not to repeat themselves in this game, so Vito Scaletta's story is rather different to Tommy's. It unfolds over a much shorter span of time (limited to two periods of several months in 1945 and 1951) and is less of the traditional rags-to-riches tale. Vito is a small-time hood who pretty much stays a small-time hood (albeit one who eventually gets a rather nice house) throughout. He doesn't have a relationship or get married, and in fact seems to be rather more sexist than Tommy (the lack of any healthy female relationships in his life and his obsession with collecting Playboy magazines indicates such). He's also a lot dumber, frequently agreeing to shady deals that have, "THIS IS GOING TO GO BADLY WRONG," written all over them.

This in itself is a problem, with Vito's misadventures being less compelling than either Tommy's in the earlier game, or the protagonists of most of the GTA games. A bigger problem is the lack of decent other characters. Aside from Vito's best buddy Joe, none of the other characters in the game gets much of a personality, or motivation. Even keeping track of which criminal is working for which gang is hard work. There is little to no emotional investment in Vito, his story, or in the other characters, which does interfere with caring about the game.

Fortunately, the gameplay is still pretty good. It's similar to Mafia's and the gunplay is even better, helped by that rarest of beasts, a cover system which actually works and adds to the combat experience. There's one oddity in that Mafia limited you to one of each class of weapon whilst Mafia II allows you to carry every weapon at once, making it a rare example of a game that actually gives the player more choice rather than taking it away through limited arsenals. This is a welcome move. Driving is also similar, with the game still being rather less forgiving about things like running red lights, speeding or hit-and-runs than the GTA series. The cops are harder to shake this time around, but you also have more options for losing them, including running into clothes shops to change clothes or offering bribes. The missions are also quite long, with mid-mission checkpoints and a number of plot twists that, whilst usually predictable, keep things ticking over. The graphics are very impressive (especially the lighting; Mafia II may have the best sunrises and sunsets of any game to date, and the way car headlights diffuse in the fog is extremely atmospheric) and the soundtrack is first-rate, with some great (if occasionally anachronistic) tracks from the birth of the rock 'n' roll era.

Ultimately, Mafia II is a far less compelling game than its forebear due to the weaker writing, story and characters. This is annoying as the gameplay is often better, but you have much less reason to care about what's going on. The game is also stingier, with combat sections often being extremely brief and easy. Mafia II has most of the same ingredients as its excellent forebear, but this time around they do not combine into as compelling a game.

Mafia II (***) is available now in the UK (PC, X-Box 360, PlayStation 3) and USA (PC, X-Box 360, PlayStation 3).

GoT producers will not wait for GRRM to finish the books

The question of what HBO will do once - or if - Game of Thrones catches up with the published novels is slowly becoming more pressing as the series continues to relentlessly bear down on the books ("like a freight train," according to George R.R. Martin). Indeed, I asked this very question a few weeks ago and it's becoming a common one for both Martin and the show's executive producers and showrunners, David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, to be asked at Q&As and interviews.

D.B. Weiss, George R.R. Martin and David Benioff, with castmembers Rose Leslie and Emilia Clarke.

We now have one firm answer. Benioff and Weiss have confirmed that, although their #1 preference is for the books to come out first, they will not put the show on hiatus for a year or two as some fans have suggested. They do not want to lose momentum or have to recast the younger actors.

They're as worried about when the remaining books come out as you are: Actually, "I guess we spend more time worrying than the fans," Benioff said. The two of them visited Martin at his home in Santa Fe back in February to pump him for information about where all the stories are going, so they can properly set them up in the world of the show, and "It was incredibly useful," according to Benioff.

"There's no question that this will be better for us if the books come out before the various seasons come out," Benioff added. "That said, we're not going to take a two-year hiatus (to wait for a book). The little kids are growing older, the show's got momentum now, and the show must go on. We're just hopeful that it will all time out."

Finally! The claims that the multi-million dollar show could go on hiatus for years on end whilst they patiently wait for the final two books were always extremely unrealistic, and it's good to have that officially spelled out at last. Note that this does not mean that they will catch up with Martin - they still have several years' grace and Martin is some way into the next book - but they are prepared for the possibility.

In addition, Benioff and Weiss have reiterated that, whilst they know the audience wants 12 episodes a year or more, they cannot physically make any more. I've always been doubtful about that claim. Whilst GoT's production schedule is hectic, it's nowhere near as hectic as others. Doctor Who shoots 14 episodes a year by filming over nine months (as compared to GoT shooting 10 over six), so GoT can definitely step it up. They'd need to delegate more scripts to other writers and HBO would need to invest more money, but given the show's overwhelming popularity this should not be insurmountable.

In another interview (the link eludes me for the moment) Benioff and Weiss also said that the show was approaching its halfway point, seemingly confirming speculation that the show is going to last for 7 or 8 seasons.

GAME OF THRONES Season 3 Primer

As with last year, here's a brief catch-up guide to the state of play at the start of Season 3 of Game of Thrones. As usual, spoilers for those who haven't watched the first two seasons or read the first two books.

The State of Play
The War of the Five Kings grips the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros in full fury.

Robb Stark's armies have invaded the Westerlands, the home of House Lannister, and captured several Lannister castles. However, even Stark's armies are insufficient to threaten the formidable defences of Casterly Rock itself. Whilst Robb's invasion has caused dissent and anger amongst Tywin Lannister's bannermen, it has also freed Tywin's army from being directly threatened in the field. This has allowed Tywin to take his army to King's Landing.

Meanwhile, Stannis and Renly Baratheon have clashed for the Iron Throne. However, a major battle was averted when Renly was assassinated under murky circumstances. Stannis inherited his brother's army from the Stormlands, bust most of the Reach lords followed the lead of Ser Loras Tyrell and his sister Margaery in refusing to join Stannis's forces. Stannis attacked King's Landing, whilst Petyr 'Baelish' Littlefinger negotiated with the Tyrells and convinced them into an alliance with the Lannisters, with Margaery set to marry Prince Joffrey. The Tyrell army joined with Tywin's forces and then smashed Stannis's forces in the epic Battle of the Blackwater. Stannis and a remnant of his host escaped by sea. Acting Hand of the King Tyrion Lannister was severely wounded during the battle and his father Tywin took up the mantle of Hand soon afterwards.

These actions have left the Lannister-Tyrell alliance in command of the largest army in the Seven Kingdoms, exceeding 100,000 men in strength. The Starks and their allies, the Tullys, command less than half of that. With House Arryn remaining neutral, the situation does not look good for the Starks.

Even worse, House Greyjoy has joined the war. Though not formally allied with the Lannisters, they have attacked House Stark's homeland, the North. Ships under the command of Yara Greyjoy have seized the coastal castle Deepwood Motte and surrounding lands, whilst a raiding force commanded by Theon Greyjoy struck far inland and took the castle of Torrhen's Square. When Stark forces rode to its relief, Theon slipped behind their lines and seized Winterfell itself. After an occupation lasting months, the castle was besieged by a Stark relief force commanded by Ramsay Snow, the bastard son of Lord Roose Bolton. Theon's own men seized Theon and sold him to Ramsay Snow in return for their freedom. However, Winterfell was later set ablaze by persons and for purposes unknown. Contrary to popular belief, Bran and Rickon Stark escaped the castle with several loyal retainers.

Far to the east, Daenerys Targaryen found a safe haven in the city of Qarth, where she could rest and let her dragons grow. However, she fell prey to a conspiracy involving the merchant lord Xaro Xhoan Daxos and the Undying, the famed warlocks of Qarth. Daxos seized control of the city and the Undying captured Daenerys's dragons and slew several of her most loyal followers. Daenerys retook her dragons and slew the leader of the Undying. She also locked Daxos in a vault to starve to death. Stealing Daxos's valuables, she was able to secure a ship bound westwards. Whilst her 'army' remains extremely small, her dragons are growing and becoming more formidable.

In the furthest north, the Night's Watch has marched into the heart of wildling territory, securing a camp atop the Fist of the First Men. Whilst Jon Snow has been captured by the forces of the wildling King-beyond-the-Wall, Mance Rayder, the Night's Watch force has come under attack by the supposedly mythical White Walkers.

Players in the Game

Houses Stark & Tully
Stronghold: Riverrun
Leader: Robb Stark, the King in the North

House Stark finds itself in a difficult position. Whilst Robb Stark has won every battle he's fought, the overall situation has deteriorated. Winterfell has been sacked and two of his bannermen's castles are under ironborn occupation. His invasion of the Westerlands has been a military success, but has failed to draw the Lannisters into a decisive engagement. Unwisely, Robb has also broken his treaty of alliance with House Frey by marrying another woman, Talisa Maegyr. Several of his bannermen, most notably Lord Rickard Karstark, are also angry over Robb's mother Catelyn releasing the Kingslayer, Ser Jaime Lannister, from custody. Now severely outnumbered, with his allies dwindling and bannermen no longer as happy as they were, Robb has a difficult course to follow if he wants to achieve victory.

House Greyjoy
Stronghold: Pyke
Leader: Balon Greyjoy, the King of the Isles

Balon Greyjoy has taken vengeance for his failed rebellion of a decade ago, seizing two castles in the North and making war on the Stark homelands. Though Theon's occupation of Winterfell has been defeated, it has humiliated Robb Stark and made his position in the Riverlands and Westerlands more difficult to sustain. However, given the Greyjoy's relatively limited manpower and inability to fight far from the sea (as Theon has shown), it is unclear what their long-term goal is, unless Balon can reach an accommodation with the Lannisters.

Houses Lannister, Tyrell & Baratheon (under Joffrey)
Strongholds: King's Landing (Joffrey), Storm's End (Joffrey), Casterly Rock (Lannister) and Highgarden (Tyrell)
Leader: Joffrey Baratheon, the King on the Iron Throne

Following Renly Baratheon's death, House Tyrell has secured an alliance with the Lannisters in support of Joffrey Baratheon's claim to the Iron Throne. Joffrey has set aside his engagement to Sansa Stark and will instead marry Margaery Tyrell. This gives Joffrey a vast army commanded by his grandfather, Tywin Lannister, one of the most formidable generals in Westeros, with which he can quickly and decisively end the war. With overwhelming superiority of numbers, Joffrey's victory appears imminent, but his own unpredictable behaviour remains the alliance's greatest weakness.

House Baratheon (under Stannis)
Stronghold: Dragonstone
Leader: Stannis Baratheon, the King in the Narrow Sea

Stannis Baratheon has failed to take King's Landing and only barely escaped the battle with his life. Most of his army surrendered and joined the Lannister-Tyrell alliance, whilst most of the rest (and almost all of his fleet) was obliterated by the wildfire explosion in Blackwater Bay. Only a few mercenaries, loyal retainers and the freesail fleet under Salladhor Saan remain under Stannis's command, far too few to challenge the might of the Lannister-Tyrell alliance. However, Stannis's greatest and most formidable weapon remains the red sorceress, Melisandre of Asshai, who may yet be able to turn the tide of the conflict.

House Arryn
Stronghold: The Eyrie
Leader: Robin Arryn, Lord of the Eyrie

House Arryn has so far refused to take part in the war, the Lady Regent Lysa Arryn fearing the risk of defeat. Unless either Robb Stark or the Lannisters can convince her to join them, Lysa and the formidable knights of the Vale will continue to sit out the war.

House Martell
Stronghold: Sunspear
Leader: Doran Martell, Prince of Dorne

Dorne has continued to pursue its path of isolation during the war. However, Tyrion Lannister, as Acting Hand of the King, has successfully negotiated a marriage pact between Princess Myrcella Baratheon, Joffrey's sister, and Prince Trystane Martell, the youngest son of Prince Doran Martell, the ruler of Dorne. Pending Myrcella's arrival and marriage, the Martells are therefore poised to join the Lannister-Tyrell alliance and strengthen it even further. Given the Martells' long-standing alliance with the Targaryens, the slaughter of members of their house by Lannister forces during Robert's Rebellion and their ancient enmity towards the Tyrells, this is a significant diplomatic coup.

House Targaryen
Stronghold: none
Leader: Daenerys Targaryen, the Queen Across the Water

Daenerys Targaryen has evaded a trap set for her in Qarth and now plans to take ship for the west. However, although her dragons are growing larger and more formidable, they are still not ready for war. Daenerys needs to find an army that will be loyal to her. The path westwards to the Free Cities leads through Slaver's Bay, where such armies may be found...for a price.

Season 3 of Game of Thrones starts airing this Sunday on HBO in the United States, and the following day on Sky Atlantic in the UK.

Bridging SWORD OF SHADOWS and BOOK OF WORDS

People occasionally ask what the connections are between J.V. Jones's first published trilogy, The Book of Words, and her ongoing Sword of Shadows series, and if it is necessary to read Book of Words first. I would definitely say no to the latter point, but here are some of the ways the works are related. Obviously spoilers ahead.

First off, they are set on the same world and on the same continent. This landmass is divided into three regions: the oft-mentioned but as-yet unseen and unmapped Far South; the Known Lands, where The Book of Words takes place; and the Northern Territories, the setting for Sword of Shadows. The northern edge of the map in the Book of Words novels is the same as the southern edge of the Sword of Shadows map, and the city of Bren is shown on both. Using this, I assembled the above combined (and very rough) map. The Ranges (known as the Northern Ranges in the Known Lands and the Southern Ranges in the Northern Territories) divide the two areas from one another. According to general usage in the books, it appears that the Far South, Known Lands and Northern Territories are considered subcontinents of the same landmass and they are sometimes even called separate continents (hence references to travellers from the Far South being described as having 'crossed three continents').

There is another continent across the eastern ocean. This is presumably the source of the 'barbarian raids' on Toolay mentioned in Book of Words, and also likely the location of the Sull Far Shore and the Sankang Empire. The locations of the Topaz Sea and Unholy Sea, mentioned in the Sword of Shadows, are not known, so are not shown on the map.

Sword of Shadows begins somewhere between sixteen and eighteen years after Book of Words, though the initial prologue takes place much sooner. The series opens with a woman named Tarissa giving birth outside the gates of Spire Vanis. Tarissa appeared in the middle volume of Book of Words as the lover of Jack, that trilogy's main character. It is assumed that Ash March is thus the daughter of Tarissa and Jack. The fact that Tarissa and Jack were (unknowingly) half-siblings and that Jack eventually became a powerful sorcerer is probably why Ash has strong magical powers. Whilst it is assumed that Tarissa died soon after, it should be noted that this is not explicitly shown in the text. Jack's whereabouts during the events of Sword of Shadows - and he'd only be in his mid-thirties - are not known. There is also a possibility that there was an old switcheroo and it's actually Raif who is the child of Jack and Tarissa (due to several curious mentions of Raif not having a true clanhold name), though that might be a bit cheesy.

More directly, Baralis, the prisoner of Surlord Penthero Iss in Spire Vanis, was the primary villain of the Book of Words. Baralis was an extremely powerful and amoral sorcerer who tried to conquer the Known Lands by arranging for King Kylock of the Four Kingdoms to take control of the city of Bren through marriage and then conquer the rest militarily. This plan failed when Jack burned the castle in Bren, killing Kylock and severely wounding Baralis. Baralis was taken to safety by his loyal but simple manservant, Crope, but they were ambushed by Iss's men whilst crossing the Northern Ranges. Baralis was imprisoned by Iss for seventeen-odd years, with Iss draining his magical powers to empower his own (much feebler) abilities.

For these connections, there are odd discontinuities as well. The Sull, the much-feared non-human race who dominate the eastern coast of the Northern Territories, go completely unmentioned at all in Book of Words, despite their lands lying just north-east of Bren. More bizarre, a powerful sorcerer lives on the eastern isthmus of the continent in Book of Words, north of the mountains, putting him pretty much in Sull territory. This discrepancy has also not been addressed. The real reason, of course, is that Jones likely did not begin planning the Sword of Shadows sequence until Book of Words was completed, and it was too late to go back and adjust some of the earlier books to match later concepts and ideas. Book of Words does make it clear that the northern lands beyond the mountains are inhabited by (relatively) primitive clans, however, and there is regular merchant traffic to them.

Whether further connections will arise - and it seems unlikely to me that Jack would not eventually learn that he had a child and would not go in search of it - in remaining one or two volumes of Sword of Shadows remains to be seen.

Watcher of the Dead by J.V. Jones

Raif Sevrance is in possession of the sword known as Loss. Unfortunately, he is also the 'guest' of a renegade group of Sull, who are determined to use him and his abilities for their own ends. Elsewhere, Ash March finds herself in the heart of Sull territory, knowing she will find in them her greatest allies...or her greatest danger. War continues to rage in the clanholds, with the armies of Blackhail, Bludd and Dhoone converging as Gandmiddich for a climactic showdown. In Spire Vanis the new surlord struggles to hold onto power, and in the wilds the ranger Angus Lok relentless hunts down a wily enemy.

Watcher of the Dead brings the Sword of Shadows series to its fourth - and hopefully penultimate (though Jones has hinted that the series may expand to six volumes) - instalment. It's a slightly slimmer novel than its forebears, being a clear 100 pages shorter than the third volume, and benefits from a tighter focus on the core storylines. Raif and Ash get a fair bit of attention, whilst Angus Lok returns to the fore after spending most of the third book missing. Effie's storyline also moves forward more satisfyingly, with her relevance to the main storyline becoming clearer. The Dog Lord and Raina Blackhail also benefit from contrasting storylines in which both seek to consolidate (or re-consolidate, in Vaylo Bludd's case) their authority in the face of opposition.

There are some drawbacks to this. The tightened focus mean there's no time or room for Crope and Baralis, who simply fail to appear. Also, a tight focus on a large cast in a more constrained page count means a relative lack of major progression in any one arc. So Effie spends most of the book in a roundhouse in a swamp and then takes a short trip in a boat (although a hugely important one). Raif spends almost the entire book as a prisoner of the Sull. Ash, having set out to reach the Sull Heart Fires at the start of Book 2, finally gets there halfway through Book 4 and has a couple of conversations (and the revelation of a 'major' plot twist which is tiresomely predictable, the first disappointing plot turn in the series to date). Important things happen in these chapters, but there is definitely a contrast to the very busy and forwards-moving first volume in the series.

Still, the series has never been action-packed and fast-moving, and Jones does give us some good battles. Raina Blackhail's storyline in fact is particularly strong, aided by the arrival of an intriguing new character, and Angus Lok's revenge storyline is extremely tense. Best of all is Raif's character arc. Back in Book 1 he was the very embodiment of the 'callow youth saves the world' trope, but by the end of this volume he is a severely traumatised, battle-hardened warrior desperately searching for himself. The subversion of the traditional fantasy hero's journey is very well-done.

Watcher of the Dead (****) benefits in some ways from a (slightly) shorter page count and tightened focus, but it also suffers from it, with a lack of plot progression in some storylines and some characters simply not showing up. The benefits to characterisation are clear and there are clear signs of the scattered characters starting to come together, but we're not on the home straight yet. The novel is available now in the UK and USA. The fifth volume, Endlords, is apparently still forthcoming but there has not been a firm update on its status from the author in more than two years.

New George R.R. Martin website

After many, many years of service, George R.R. Martin's curiously pink official website is no more. It has been replaced by something a bit more modern looking:

Ah, the nostalgia of logging into the old site every few months throughout the early 2000s, waiting for an update of A Feast for Crows. Great - or frustrating - times.

On a lighter note: BioShock Infinite

BioShock Infinite was released today. Whilst I merely enjoyed BioShock, not considering it the revolutionary FPS gamechanger a lot of other reviewers did, I was intrigued enough by the new game to check it out on release day.

 
Just three hours in so far, but it's an immense improvement on its forebear in every way. Richly atmospheric, the game has stunning art design and some unusually good writing, not to mention a very weird undercurrent to the tone. Something that is very impressive is the way the game uses the founding history of the United States as a form of mythology, with statues of Washington, Jefferson etc. that depict them almost like Greek gods. The utopia's undercurrent of fascism is also carried out well. The first time you hear casual racist slurs in the game it's a bit of a surprise and the game continues trying to unnerve the player from then onwards.

It could all go to pot in the remaining nine hours (approximately), but so far, cautiously impressed.

The STANEK Post

I swore a long time ago that I would not discuss the antics of Robert Stanek on this blog. There is simply not enough time in the world to give publicity to trolls and pretend-authors when there's so many good books to read out there. On the other hand, when someone starts writing lies about you online, some sort of response is required.


Who is Robert Stanek and what are his antics?
This would fill many, many blog entries of many tens of thousands of words. Fortunately, other people have already done this. This is the most exhaustive series of entries on the subject.

Briefly, William Robert Stanek is the self-published author of many technical IT manuals. He appears to have been genuinely successful at this. He has also written several fantasy novels, although it is difficult to track how many since the numerous titles for books in his bibliography seem to be retitlings and rejacketings (most recently for YA editions) of the same couple of books. According to Stanek many of these books have been bestsellers, although the evidence for this is scant. Stanek is widely-suspected of writing the many hundreds of five-star reviews of his books on Amazon, Audible and other websites himself, due to the similar diction and writing style of almost all of these reviews (many of which have now been deleted). The situation was notable enough that, ten years ago, the multi-Hugo Award-winning critic David Langford published an investigation into Stanek's antics in his SFF newsletter Ansible, which resulted in him being threatened by Mr. Stanek's alleged 'lawyer'. Since then Stanek's antics have been discussed on quite a few blogs and forums (including by myself, on Westeros.org, SFFWorld and maybe one or two other places). However, I have not devoted too much time to this because - admittedly - I knew Stanek's MO was to come after people who had criticised him online. I thought I got off lightly when he merely suggested that I (and Pat from Pat's Fantasy Hotlist) should be shanked in prison.

However, a couple of weeks back (see above link) he posted a lengthy rant about how he'd been treated and falsely accused of things online (oddly, his own antics went unmentioned, like the shanking thing). Fair enough. Everyone has the right to defend themselves and when I was linked to the article today, I was hoping to see a coherent defence of Stanek's actions and an explanation for them. Unfortunately, what we got was the same old spiel of confused gibberish. Particularly interesting were the following claims (poor grammar and punctuation left intact):

The timeline here is important because in May 2002, the following appeared in David Langford’s Ansible: “Amazon Mystery. Authors of fantasies on sale at Amazon.com have noticed a rash of oddly similar customer reviews that rubbish their work and instead recommend, say, George R.R. Martin, Robert Jordan, and Robert Stanek. The number of Big Name commendations varies, but not the plug for self-published author Robert Stanek. Who could possibly be posting these reviews (many since removed by Amazon) under a variety of names? It is a mystery, but Ansible is reminded of how Lionel Fanthorpe's pseudonymous sf would often mention those great classic masters of the genre, Verne, Wells and Fanthorpe.”

Note how they twist what they’ve done into something I’ve supposedly done to them--this is a constant tactic. I assume this post was written by David Langford friend and blogger, Adam Whitehead, as Whitehead then took to his blog to rant about how I was supposedly writing fake five-star reviews of my own books using sock puppets. As Whitehead is and was the self-professed #1 fan of George RR Martin (and is even credited in one of George’s books), all the sock puppet one-star reviews mentioning George RR Martin were suddenly starting to make sense as they were all likely written by Whitehead and his friends.

It should be noted at this point that I did not have Internet access at home until October 2005, never met George R.R. Martin until the same month and was not mentioned (along with about thirty other people) in any of his books until 2011. Also, I would not claim to the title of "#1 Fan" of anything, due to no longer being nine years old. Much more to the point, rewinding to the very first post on his blog will reveal that I did not start it until late 2006. It would have been hard even for me to have mentioned Stanek on the blog four years before it existed. In addition, until today Stanek's name has not even been mentioned on this blog (as a cursory Google check confirms). My comments about Stanek were limited to a couple of mentions on a few forums over the years and that was it.

Around this time a new group got involved as well, including authors Patrick Rothfuss and David Louis Edelman. Rothfuss and Edelman trashed me on their blogs in 2007, trying to enlist their fans in trashing me and their fans did begin trashing me in a big way. Blogger Patrick St. Dennis of Pat’s Fantasy List, Rothfuss’ #1 fan and friend, set to trashing me in his blog as well. Others joined in and quite a few who were directly associated with fantasy publisher Tor.

Another cursory Google check of Patrick Rothfuss's blog suggests that Rothfuss has also never mentioned Stanek in any of his blog posts (Stanek alleges Rothfuss also trashed him on Facebook, which again I can find no evidence of, but tracking down information on Facebook can be a lot trickier). David Louis Edelman did indeed post an article about him, and Pat has certainly not been shy about mocking him, but the dig at Tor Books seems a bit random.

I posted the following response at Stanek's blog (repeated here in case it is deleted from there):

Hello, Mr. Stanek. Normally I don't respond to such drivel (and I even ignored it when you suggested I should be knifed to death), but when someone starts talking lies about me online, I do feel the need to correct them. It's even more unwise to lie about things that are ridiculously easy to check.

1. I didn't have a blog in 2002. I didn't even have the Internet until 2005. If I was reviewing your books I would use my name. Unlike yourself when you trash other authors using sock-puppets and fake Amazon accounts, I always use my own name on my reviews. This is because I have integrity.

2. The article was written by David Langford. That's why it appears on David Langford's website, which is the creation of David Langford. That might have been a clue to the fact it was written by David Langford.

3. I have never in seven years even mentioned your name on my blog (though do not be surprised if this changes in the near future). Please provide the URL of the article in which you are mentioned or withdraw this claim.

4. Your name has never appeared on Patrick Rothfuss's blog, according to a Google search. Please provide the URL of the article in which you are mentioned or withdraw this claim.

A response is awaited.

UPDATE: As anticipated, my comment to his post was removed, as he clearly is happier running away and hiding than standing up for himself. The comment has been reposted, and I continue to await a substantive response.

Fringe: Season 1

A commercial airliner arrives at its destination with every passenger and crewmember on board dead. The FBI investigate. Clues suggest that the only person who can help with the investigation is a brilliant but disturbed scientist named Walter Bishop. Bishop has been locked up in a mental institution for seventeen years and the only person who can sign for his release is his son, Peter, a shady businessmen. FBI Agent Olivia Dunham and the Bishops successfully discover the answer to the mystery, encouraging the FBI to create a special unit dedicated to these 'fringe science' cases, which have exploded in frequency in the last few years. The cases are varied and individual, but together form 'the Pattern', a statistical trend that suggests a major event is coming.

It's easy to dismiss Fringe because of misconceptions. A new TV show from the creator of Lost, J.J. Abrams? And a premise that seems to owe rather a lot to The X-Files? The number of people who passed the show by, fearing (fairly or not) muddled mythologies and an inferior homage to an older show, must have been significant.

However, such reactions would also be unfair. Fringe distanced itself almost immediately from Lost by having a much smaller cast of characters, meaning a much tighter focus on the stories and the gradually-evolving backstory. Abrams also took a back seat after the pilot, letting other writers and producers come on board to direct the day-to-day running of the show. A key difference is that whilst Lost's mythology only got some direction in its third season, when an end date for the show was set, Fringe's mythology and story arcs were mapped out in advance from early in the first, giving the show a much stronger sense of direction.

The season kicks off with the pilot, in which the regular cast and premise is established. Anna Torv immediately impresses as Olivia Dunham, a no-nonsense FBI agent (though prone to unexpected bouts of deadpan humour) who has a lot of pressure riding on her shoulders. Joshua Jackson takes a little longer to convince as a businessman with shady contacts, but eventually turns in a very human and funny performance. The main weapon in the show's arsenal is the spectacular John Noble - previously best-known as Denethor on the Lord of the Rings movies - who plays Walter Bishop to perfection. Character traits and tics that would have been hokey or hammy in another actor's hands become utterly convincing in Noble's, who is able to play his character's memory problems and occasional emotional outbursts for either comedy or pathos as the script demands (occasionally both simultaneously). It's frankly worth watching the show just for Noble's performance. Also providing able support is The Wire's Lance Reddick as Dunham and company's boss, Philip Broyles.

The show's premise - that the FBI would employ a certified lunatic, an occasional criminal and a cow called Gene to investigate fringe science cases from a basement in Harvard University - takes a bit of swallowing. The show does its best in the pilot to try to make the premise a bit more palatable, but it's surprisingly late in the episode before 'the Pattern' and the great urgency to find out what the hell's going on (making it a bit easier to accept the desperate lengths the FBI are going to) is more firmly established.

That out of the way, the show quickly establishes a format: the mystery-of-the-week is laid out in the pre-credits sequence and our heroes rapidly show up to investigate, usually involving labwork from Walter and good old FBI fieldwork from Olivia. The procedural aspect of the show was apparently key to getting it on the air - the producers deliberately used it to entice Fox on board - but it's not too many episodes before it's being downplayed in favour of the crazy lab antics. These episodes also hit that early X-Files sweet spot of having (mostly) satisfying, self-contained stories with more serialised elements being laid down in the background.

It's not too long before Fringe's serialisation and mythology comes to the fore later in the season. A recurring enemy is established early on, followed by another, more dangerous one later on. Walter's memory loss, initially established for comedic purposes, later becomes far more important as Walter begins to discover the ramifications of experiments he conducted twenty years earlier. A key episode reveals that Olivia herself may be part of 'the Pattern' and the discovery of a manifesto belonging to a terrorist organisation spurs events in the series finale. Watching over events is a strange bald man in a suit and hat, who appears (if only fleetingly, or in the extreme background of some scenes) in every single episode and is more strongly featured in two of them. An off-the-cuff reference to quantum theory in one episode sets up a major storyline that emerges in the finale and provides the season with its final and most famous cliffhanger image.

This segueing from the stand-alone elements to the more-heavily serialised storylines is well-handled, though some may lament the decreasing frequency of the stand-alone mysteries in the late season. At its best Fringe is a surprisingly gory homage to The Twilight Zone, but at its worst can be trite and predictable (though allegedly the worst episode of the season was actually cut, showing pleasingly surprising creative integrity). Fortunately it's worst is very rarely encountered. Slightly more problematic - though perhaps unavoidable in these kind of shows - is the number of times that major reversals and deaths could have been avoided if the characters just stopped and talked to one another properly for a few minutes. Whilst far less of a problem than on Lost, it still niggles when Walter says something cryptically vital, Peter notices but then gets interrupted by Olivia and doesn't bother to raise the question again at the end of the scene.

Overall, the problems are few and outweighed by the positives. Season 1 of Fringe (****½) starts off as a finely entertaining slice of SF hokum before being carried by excellent performances and a reasonably compelling central storyline into a finale that leaves one eager to move immediately onto the second season. The season is available now in the UK (DVD, Blu-Ray) and USA (DVD, Blu-Ray).

TORMENT update: Rothfuss and Avellone in

The Kickstarter for Torment: Tides of Numenera is roughly halfway done, with 14 days to go before the end of the appeal. However, the game is already funded: having asked for $900,000, inXile Studios have actually received $2.9 million. The game is now deep into what Kickstarter calls, 'stretch goals', that is additional incentives for people to keep funding in the form of added content to the game.

First up, if the game hits $3.25 million then the writing team will be expanded to include bestselling fantasy author Patrick Rothfuss (The Name of the Wind, The Wise Man's Fear). Rothfuss will be adding about 10,000 words of content to the game in the form of dialogue and characters. He won't be doing any more because of his commitments to finishing off The Doors of Stone, the third and concluding volume of The Kingkiller Chronicle.

Much more enticing (to this blogger, anyway) is that at $3.5 million, inXile will add Chris Avellone to the writing time. Avellone was the primary writer and designer of the original Planescape: Torment (to which Numenera is the spiritual successor), as well as Fallout 2, Neverwinter Nights 2: Mask of the Betrayer and the forthcoming Project: Eternity. He also worked on Icewind Dale and its sequel; Fallout: New Vegas (including leading the design of several of its DLC episodes); and Alpha Protocol. He has also done some writing for inXile's previous Kickstarter game project, Wasteland 2. He is often cited as the finest writer of Western CRPGs. Exactly why Avellone still hasn't written a novel, I don't know, as I suspect it would be awesome. Avellone will be creating a new NPC character for the game and writing their dialogue, but will also be serving as an editor and a fresh pair of eyes on the work of the rest of the team as well.

With still two weeks to go, I suspect this Kickstarter will breeze past both targets and probably end up somewhere on the other side of $4 million when all is said and done. It's shaping up to be a very interesting game.

A Sword from Red Ice by J.V. Jones

The armies of Spire Vanis have invaded the clanholds and are marching against Ganmiddich. The clans are responding, mustering their armies to defeat the invaders and claim the prize of the Ganmiddich roundhouse. However, events back in Spire Vanis are outpacing the armies and may soon render the whole conflict moot.

Meanwhile, Raif Sevrance has succeeded in defeating the Endlords at the Fortress of Grey Ice, but knows the victory is only temporary. His path takes him back to the Rift, where his fellow Maimed Men are besieged by a servant of the Endlords, but he must also strike out beyond, in search of the mysterious sword known as Loss.

A Sword from Red Ice was originally published in 2007, five years after the publication of the previous novel in the series, A Fortress of Grey Ice. It is fair to say it faced a mixed reaction, with some readers citing it as Jones's best book to date and others as a novel with very limited plot development and poor pacing.

I elected not to read the novel on release, instead waiting for additional volumes to appear. Reading A Sword from Red Ice immediately after A Fortress of Grey Ice, it is clear there's been no major drop-off in quality or indeed pacing. A Fortress of Grey Ice was a slightly weaker novel than the first book in the series, A Cavern of Black Ice, because it introduced several new POV characters and storylines and the need to service all of these plus the existing characters resulted in a lessening of focus. Actually, this seems to have been one of the two main reasons for the delays to the third novel (the other being the fact that the publishers sat on it for more than a year before releasing it, due to scheduling issues): Jones had introduced even more storylines and characters to the mix and seriously pared these back in editing, allowing her to spend more time on the core characters.

The result is a book in which, when taken as a whole, a lot happens: Raif crosses the continent (twice), undertakes a quest, saves a city and finally finds a home and place in the world; the biggest battle in the series to date is fought, with the consequences being enormous; and the political situation within both Clan Blackhail and Clan Bludd shifts dangerously and dramatically. However, other individual storyline progress more modestly: Angus Lok only appears in the prologue and the epilogue; what he's doing for the rest of the book seems rather unclear, especially given the months that have passed in the interim. Effie Sevrance spends the whole book (though that's only four chapters from her POV) going up a river on a boat. Ash March, despite being set up as the series' second main character after Raif, spends the whole book traipsing through a wood. There is a definite sense of a dislocation of time in the novel, with some characters spending weeks or months travelling and others apparently only having a few days unfold in their storyline (Lok, most notably). I am also rather uncertain what Bram Cormac's storyline adds to that of the series overall. He spends most of this book (and the previous one) wandering around unable to make a decision about his future and angsting about it, like an introverted student on a particularly chilly gap year. He finally does commit to a new cause at the end of the novel, but it's questionable if we really needed this amount of set-up for him.

Of course, epic fantasies which get so big that the author loses control a little bit of them and ends up (inadvertently or not) adding more material than we strictly need is nothing new. Fortunately Red Ice is much more of a Dance with Dragons - a novel with problematic pacing and some storylines that could have been handled better but also some very fine moments sprinkled throughout - than a Crossroads of Twilight, where the reader will have more fun reading the Wikipedia summary than suffering through the novel itself. Raif reaching the titular Red Ice is a satisfyingly mythic moment. Raina Blackhail finally taking matters into her own hands and seizing control of her own and her clan's destinies is an important moment in her character arc (especially as she is arguably one of the best-written characters in the series). Ash realising the full potential of her powers is a powerful scene. If A Sword from Red Ice disappoints in some areas, it excels in others.

A Sword from Red Ice (****) is well-written, particularly well-characterised and its strongest moments shine. At other times the pace falters and some storylines are left under-developed (Book of Words fans hoping to learn more from Baralis will be disappointed). But a few problems aside, this is a strong addition to the series. The novel is available now in the UK and USA.

Chuck: Season 5

Chuck Bartowski no longer possesses the Intersect, but has still matured into a confident and capable secret agent. As he mentors the new Intersect, he also has to deal with the fact he and his team are now independent contractors with bills to pay and rival companies to compete with. When, yet again, a dangerous agent comes after the Intersect, Chuck has to call upon his resources and training to stop them.

Chuck has always been a curious show, a geek comedy with dramatic and romantic overtones whose tone has often spun on a dime. The show has always done a good job of managing these different tones and styles, keeping everything grounded though Zachary Levi's earnest-but-sympathetic performance as the title character. In the fifth season, the show experiences several additional such tonal shifts, as Chuck is betrayed by his best friend (but it turns out not to be his fault) and, most surprisingly, has his life almost ruined in the final few episodes of the series. For a show that's always been quite warm-hearted and entertainingly cheesy, the surprisingly bleak tone of the final few episodes comes as a bit of a shock.

The season - renewed purely to be wrapped up - only consists of thirteen episodes and it appears there may have been budgetary restrictions in place: our previous season villains were played by well-known actors such as Chevy Chase and Timothy Dalton. This year we get Angus Macfadyen, a very solid Scottish actor best-known for his supporting role in Braveheart (as Robert the Bruce). He does a good job, but lacks the geek-cred his predecessors brought with them. Even more problematic is the fact that he only appears in the last few episodes of the season with little build-up and his character is never really explored in much depth (in contrast to Dalton's hammy-but-complex Volkoff).

The truncated run causes issues throughout the season. Storylines that would have been given whole episodes to develop in the second through fourth seasons are here disposed off way too quickly. An entertaining on-going subplot involving Carrie-Ann Moss as a rival contractor (and potential romantic interest for Casey) has enormous potential, but kind of peters out with no real climax or pay-off. Most frustratingly, there is relatively very little action in the Buy More. Big Mike, Lester and Jeff barely get any lines in some episodes, although a late-season subplot that sees Lester and a reformed and sober Jeff finally discovering what's going under their feet does help reduce this problem a little.

Most surprising is a divisive late-season storyline involving amnesia. Given the tone of the show, I was confidently expecting some last-minute solution or cure would be found. Instead, we get a highly inconclusive ending. It's not quite The Sopranos, but the series ending without ever answering the central question poised by the last couple of episodes is an unexpected and possibly even brave choice. Whether it's the right choice is one that fans will be arguing about for years to come (or unless the much-rumoured Chuck movie gets off the ground). For myself, Chuck has always been first and foremost an escapist and fun show, not a gritty drama like the new BSG or something from HBO. Ending the show in this manner feels out of character for the series, and a little bit of pointless torture for our main characters who really deserved more of a happy ending.

That aside, the final season of Chuck (***½) is entertaining, well-acted and often quite funny. The shortened episode order means some storylines aren't developed very well, and the ending will be divisive, but certainly the season is worth watching for established fans. In particular, the way Chuck's character develops across the five seasons, going from nerd to an intelligent, resourceful agent (exemplified by the shots of Chuck on the DVD spines, which cleverly show this development) does pay off very well here. The season is available now in the UK (DVD) and USA (DVD, Blu-Ray).

GRRM on pitching new projects to HBO

George R.R. Martin was stopped on the red carpet at the premier event for Game of Thrones's third season in Los Angeles and asked about his new development deal with HBO. Martin confirmed that he will not be running these projects directly but will be giving out initial ideas for HBO to develop with other producers.

Apparently to be discussed are an SF series (possibly an adaptation of his short story collection Tuf Voyaging, which he has hinted several times recently might be in development), a couple of historical dramas and the potential Game of Thrones prequel series, based on his Dunk and Egg short stories. If any of these come to fruition at HBO remains to be seen.

Meanwhile, there was also a lengthy discussion of the series featuring Martin, showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss and a large number of castmembers. Some interesting tidbits were dropped during the interview, with Martin indicating that his initial discussions with Benioff and Weiss happened whilst there were still only three books out (dating it to before A Feast for Crows' publication in October 2005). They then pitched the show to both HBO and Showtime in March 2006, a lot earlier than previously believed (HBO optioned the books in January 2007).

A Fortress of Grey Ice by J.V. Jones

Ash March has visited the Cavern of Black Ice and stalled the arrival of the evil Endlords, at least for now. She must now make her way to the homeland of the enigmatic Sull, where her true path will be revealed. Meanwhile, Raif Sevrance's role in events seems to have conclude, and he now seeks a life for himself amongst the exiles of the Maimed Men. But it seems that his destiny has not done with him yet, as he is called into the vastness of the Great Want in search of the Fortress of Grey Ice...

Middle volumes are always the most problematic part for any ongoing series. They don't have a clearly-defined beginning or end and structurally can end up as a bit of a mess if the author isn't careful. In the case of J.V. Jones's Sword of Shadows fantasy sequence this is even more of a danger. Planned to be five books in length, this gives her no less than three middle volumes to navigate through and retain the audience's attention.

She got off to an excellent start with A Cavern of Black Ice, one of the strongest opening volumes to an epic fantasy series ever written, one that showed an impressive growth in writing ability since her debut work, the somewhat more traditional Book of Words trilogy. With its considerably more nuanced characterisation, restrained toned and thorough-but-not-overwhelming worldbuilding (particularly showing that the clans may be relatively primitive, but they are not mindless savages and have complex systems of agriculture and mining), the Sword of Shadows is a more mature and interesting work.

This quality carries forwards into A Fortress of Grey Ice, though Jones is only partially successful in navigating through the problems of middle volume syndrom. On the plus side, she introduces several new storylines (particularly the civil war within Clan Dhoone) which make for interesting reading, expanding the scope of the story and the world without resorting to filler. Raif Sevrance's storyline, as he goes from rejected hero to a member of the Maimed Men to searching for the enigmatic Fortress of Grey Ice, is also structurally well-handled, giving the book a narrative spine with its own beginning, middle and end. Book of Words fans will also appreciate the arrival of Crope, a notable supporting character from that work, and his role in this novel (which ends in the death of a major character so impressively offhand that both Paul Kearney and George R.R. Martin would applaud it). Elsewhere, other characters and storylines suffer. Ash March spends the whole book on a journey from A to B and doesn't even get there at the end of the book. Raina Blackhail's potentially gripping story of political machinations within the Hailhouse are given very short shrift. The Dog Lord's storyline, though entertaining, seems to rely on a few too many obviously unwise decisions for it to be fully convincing.

The star of the book - and probably the whole series - is the wind-lashed, freezing cold landscape of the Northern Territories. Jones's research for this series appears to be formidable, with musings on the dangers of frostbite and how the climate works within an ice desert. George R.R. Martin's descriptions of the land beyond the Wall in A Song of Ice and Fire are impressive, but Jones's depiction of her frozen setting is even more impressive (as the whole series is set there).

A Fortress of Grey Ice (****½) is well-written and finely-characterise, with a formidably vivid setting. The plot and pacing is not as impressive as in the first book, and some storylines feel drawn out, whilst others are given relatively short shrift. However, this is still a well-above-average epic fantasy and the conclusion will leave readers eager to move onto the third book (which they can do immediately, rather than waiting five years as fans had to back when this novel was first published). The book is available now in the UK and USA.