George R.R. Martin's Blog, page 215

... from the supremely talented sculptors at Dark Sword Miniatures.

First up, from Jeff Grace, here's Euron Greyjoy, the Crow's Eye, with his hellhorn:


Next, from Tom Meier, comes Sam the Slayer himself, Sam Tarly of the Night's Watch:


Also from Tom Meier, we have Eddard Stark, Lord of Winterfell:


And last, but definitely not least for the lecherous amongst us (myself included), the lovely Shae, from Tom Meier and dressed for play:


For more pix, visit the Dark Sword website at http...

... or something like that.

Truth is, I suck at foreign languages. Always have. Always will.

That can be a real drawback for a fantasist working in the tradition of J.R.R. Tolkien, who set the bar very high where imaginary languages are concerned. JRRT was a linguist of rare talent who invented not one but two Elvish tongues, not to mention dwarvish, Numenorean, the Black Tongue of Mordor, etc. etc. An astonishing feat of linguistic worldbuilding, and one that is never likely to be duplic...

Let's raise a glass to all my good friends at Harper Collins Voyager in the UK, on the occasion of their 15th anniversary.



Here's wishing you many, many more.

The first issue of the FEVRE DREAM miniseries from Avatar Comics will be in the stores on Wednesday, I'm pleased to announce.



The series will run to ten issues. The script/ adaptation was done by Daniel Abraham, author of the Long Price Quartet and creator of Jonathan Hive in the Wild Cards book. Artwork by Rafa Lopez of Malaga, Spain.



The original story, of course, is from my 1982 historical horror novel, FEVRE DREAM.



Check it out.

And if you'll be in the Chicago area this weekend, be sure t...

The Jets made another huge splash in the NFL offseason yesterday, trading for the talented but troubled Pittsburgs Steeler wide receiver Santonio Holmes. Holmes comes to New York complete with a four-game suspension for violation of the league's substance abuse policy, so the Jets don't actually get him on the field until game five. He's also in trouble for an incident down in Florida where he is accused of throwing a glass of juice in a woman's face. If that one goes badly for him, it cou...

The Suvudu Cage Match final is over. Alas, Ser Jaime lost in the last hour when a sudden rush of votes for his opponent washed out what had been a razor-thin lead.

Congratulations to Rand al'Thor and his legions of fans and admirers, to Brandon Sanderson, to Tor Books, and of course to the late Robert Jordan, aka Lord Jordayne of the Tor.

For Brandon Sanderson's amusing postscript to the finals, check out:

http://mistborn.livejournal.com/147622.html

Thanks to the good folk at Suvudu for running ...

The Suvudu cage match is going down to the wire. More than 26,000 votes cast, I am astonished to see. Last time I looked Jaime was down about 130 votes. If you'd like to cast a vote or make a comment on the match, go to

http://www.suvudu.com/2010/04/cage-match-2010-championship-5-rand-althor-versus-15-jaime-lannister.html#more

But do it soon. Voting closes at 8pm Eastern.

All this interest in imaginary people fighting other imaginary people while their respective fans pontificate about who w...

The epic tournament of fantasy champions on Suvudu is down to its final match: Ser Jaime Lannister, the Kingslayer, versus Rand al'Thor, the Dragon Reborn.

They're fighting on the tourney grounds outside King's Landing... and on Suvudu:

http://www.suvudu.com/2010/04/cage-match-2010-championship-5-rand-althor-versus-15-jaime-lannister.html#more

Rand has his Heron Mark sword, his channeling ability, the One Power. Jaime has a sword, a lance, a horse. And... since Rand accepted his challenge to m...

I've received a lot of emails from readers outside the United States, asking if the GAME OF THRONES television series will be shown in their countries.

The answer to that is complicated, and depends in large part on the country.

HBO does have a number of branches, partners, subsidiaries, and affiliates abroad, who take all of their programming. All of those will be showing the series.

In Canada, the show will be seen on HBO Canada, same days and times as in the US.

In Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, ...

Filming on HBO's GAME OF THRONES series will be resuming in June, in Northern Ireland.

Maisie Williams, who will play Arya Stark, is preparing for her part by practicing her needlework. I though you might enjoy seeing these recent pictures of her that her mom was kind enough to send me.



Her sword, of course, is the full-scale replica of Needle produced by the good folks at Valyrian steel.



You can get a Needle for your very own Arya at http://www.valyriansteel.com/