Pressed & Bound

Man, The Song of Ice and Fire is one giant stack of books. There are five books in this series so far, and SPOILERS there will probably be more. But we are getting ahead of ourselves. This week happens to be host to the Mecca of nerddom: Comic-Con, and because A Game of Thrones – the HBO version – is such a good show, Ser George of Martin and some of the cast sat down to talk about show stuffs.

I would feel like a total dong to simply steal quotes from the people who wrote the piece, so I will instead use what the internet calls a Hypertext Link, and send you merrily on your way to read this Kotaku article with all of the tasty bits (beware of minor spoilers). Within you will find fun anecdotes, and if you have any idea what “R.W.” stands for in the books, you will get some interesting info on how George feels about all that. I felt a chill while remembering all that dastardly business.

It’s that time. Only six years have passed since the last in the Song of Ice and Fire series was released, so the most of us have been waiting to see what the scoop is with the characters we like and not the crumb-bums of Feast for Crows. This is going to be a short post because I need to get to reading, but look at these few pictures of A Dance with Dragons! Oh man!

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In our ongoing efforts to fawn over everything in and around the world of The Song of Ice and Fire, on his blog, website, online journal thing entitled “Not A Blog,” George R. R. Martin just revealed the official Game of Thrones poster that accompanies the looming HBO series. And it is, of course, wicked cool, yo.

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FREAKING FINALLY. I am probably not the only one to finish reading A Feast for Crows by George R. R. Martin and be just slightly upset that it really was only half the story he wanted to tell. But now we know when the fifth (and final?) book in the Song of Ice & Fire series – A Dance with Dragons – will release. Or in George’s words:

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.

OH MAN! And just because I can, I will be a total jerk and make you click-through to find the actual date!

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I must admit, I am kind of a weird fellow. I am not sure that I know of anyone else who keeps track of how many pages they have read each year, but I do. I also like making fun spreadsheets to put these numbers in. Typing in “=sum(n)” is just fun. Why? I have no idea. As a result of this ridiculous bookkeeping, and since I just added the first book to my list for 2011, I have decided to show you all everything that I have read for the past year. I hope you’re not scared of the edge of your seat because you are about to be all up ons.

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It’s no surprise that we at P&B absolutely love George R. R. Martin’s Ice and Fire series. You combine an epic story told in a way that neither talks down to the reader nor makes things too easy over the span of thousands of pages and you pretty much have us hooked. Well it turns out that we’re not the only ones.

I have attempted to try and not get too excited about the potential release of this series since hearing about its mumblings last year. HBO has spearheaded the task force in creating the television series, having already shot a pilot in late 2009. Up until now, however, they’ve kept their secrets tight like so many three hundred foot tall walls covered in ice (THAT’S AN ICE AND FIRE REFERENCE, FYI), allowing but little information to leak out. Luckily, the Chicago Tribune has posted a few tasty bits of news for all to enjoy. In summary, they have a full cast list and a couple of quotes from George himself on the matter:

“From the start of this, I’ve told myself, ‘Don’t get too emotionally invested in this, or you will be devastated if it doesn’t go.’ Wise words, those. I’m a smart guy.

“But easier said than done. I’ve failed. I am totally emotionally invested, and if HBO does indeed decide to pass, for whatever reason, I will be gutted.

“So let’s all hope I am soon doing the happy dance instead.”

You can read the rest here.

Today I’m going to be talking about a series that we’ve discussed before on the show in brief. Well, more accurately, I talked about the first book during Episode 80, back in the day. The series in question is George R.R. Martin’s Song of Ice and Fire.

As mentioned on the show, this series is not for the feint of heart. I’ve currently read three and a half of these novels (I’m 300 pages from finishing the fourth book), which comes to the sum total of roughly 2,600 pages. From what I understand, the series originally started in seven parts, with Martin currently writing the fifth installment, but we shall see how it all ends up. It’s very interesting for me to be reading a series that is so well established that also has years and years to go before finishing. I am reminded of Steven King’s Gunslinger series, which has seven novels that took upwards of two decades to complete. I really hope that is not the case here, but only time will tell. Read more…

Episode 80 of Pressed & Bound is online! We’ve gone out of doors; in the rain even! In this week’s episode we discuss:

Books:

• A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire, Book 1)

Movies:

• Day for Night

Right click and download the eightieth episode here:

• MP4 261mb

Comments or questions? Email us at: pnbfans(at)gmail(dot)com

Or watch online by clicking here!