A Song of Ice and Fire

Those of you unfamiliar with A Song of Ice and Fire (ASIF) should be clued into its importance simply by the fact that it gets its own banner. If you are new to ASIF, thus meaning you have been living under a rock for the last several years allow me to educate you.

A Song of Ice and Fire is an award-winning series by George R. R. Martin (GRRM). The series began in 1996 with the publication of the first book, A Game of Thrones, and has caught fire ever since. ASIF is more than just a series of books now, it is a full blown franchise.

Books - This is where it all began. GRRM is still penning his masterpiece. He has completed four of the planned seven novels; A Game of Thrones, A Clash of Kings, A Storm of Swords, and A Feast for Crows. Fans have been patiently impatiently awaiting his fifth book, A Dance with Dragons for the last couple of years. There is hope of seeing the book as early as March of 2010, but considering past disappointments fans are cautiously optimistic at best. I hope to do a review of each book in the series in my Gamer Lit section but for now let me just say that those of you who haven't read these novels and enjoy Epic Fantasy drop what you are doing and run to the bookstore. I'm serious. Go.

Card Game - Fantasy Flight Games released a collectible card game for ASIF. While I have never played it and do not collect them myself let me just say the art is exquisite. If you are interested in learning to play check out the tutorial Fantasy Flight Games has on their website.

Board Game - A Game of Thrones, the board game based off the first of Martin's novels is extremely popular and ranks in the top 100 at Board Game Geek. It is also produce by Fantasy Flight games and has several expansions.

Role Playing Games - That's right games not game. In 2005 a company called Guardians of Order produced A Game of Thrones the RPG. The game was published by White Wolf and met with a great deal of critical acclaim, winning 3 silver ENnie awards for Best Production, Best Game, and Best d20/OGL Product. The second RPG spawned by Martin's work was Green Ronin's recently released RPG, A Song of Ice and Fire. They did a fabulous job with the book and the house creation system along with the rules of mass combat were highlights as was the social combat system.

Short Stories - There are also three separate short stories set in Westeros, known as the "Tales of Dunk and Egg" after the two main characters. The first two, "The Hedge Knight" and "The Sword Sword," are already out. The Third short story, the Mystery Knight, has yet to be released.

Miniatures - Dark Sword Miniatures has produced a set of very high quality miniatures which you can see here.

Weapon Replicas - They have done Needle and Longclaw. Hopefully more are on the way!

Video Games - Cyanide Studios has announced they are developing a series of video games based on A Song of Ice and Fire. From what I can gather the plan is for the games to be available for both PC and consoles. GRRM has said that both an RPG and a real-time strategy game are in the works.

HBO Series - The more I read about this the more excited I get for it. So many book series that are translated to film simple cannot fit in enough of their source material. Yeah, I'm looking at you Harry Potter. With a series as huge in scope as ASIF a movie just wouldn't work, and GRRM knew that. What they are doing instead is a series on HBO. They are currently casting and preparing to shoot the pilot. I can't tell you how exited I am about this. I think this could really be HBOs masterpiece. Better than Rome, better than anything else they have done. Here is a look at their casting thus far.

Harry Lloyd ... Viserys Targaryen
Mark Addy ... Robert Baratheon
Alfie Allen ... Theon Greyjoy
Sean Bean ... Eddard Stark
Nikolaj Coster-Waldau ... Jaime Lannister
Peter Dinklage ... Tyrion Lannister
Jennifer Ehle ... Catelyn Stark
Jack Gleeson ... Joffrey Baratheon
Iain Glen ... Ser Jorah Mormont
Kit Harington ... Jon Snow
Richard Madden ... Robb Stark
Tamzin Merchant ... Daenerys Targaryen
Maisie Williams ... Arya Stark
Sophie Turner ... Sansa Stark
Lena Headey ... Cersei Lannister

I think the casting looks great! I especially love the choice of Sean Bean to play Eddard Stark. I'll be posting updates on new about the HBO Series, A Dance with Dragons, and other ASIF news under the same header you saw above as it becomes available.