Each season of Game of Thrones has one episode written by AsoIaF author George R.R. Martin, and while we didn’t get the pyrotechnics of “Blackwater” or the surprise appearance of White Walkers as we did in “The Pointy End,” there were still plenty of memorable moments this hour.

And a ton of quotes that will have new meaning once the season’s over.

[Bear!]

When all was said and done, this week’s episode of Game of Thrones felt like cresting the top of a huge rollercoaster. You get one moment to catch your breath and then it’s all quickly downhill to the season finale from here.

Jon Snow finally climbs the Wall, Ygritte gets a little too intense, Arya gets a lesson in archery and vigilantism, and Sansa gets some bad news. There were some interesting deviations from the books and some pointed parallels drawn between characters that became clear when the episode came round full circle. It might not have been the most exciting hour this season, but there were definitely some exciting scenes.

Note: Book spoilers are mostly avoided in the review, but are fair game in the comments. Proceed with caution.

[Chaos Theory according to Littlefinger...]

For an episode called “Walk of Punishment,” we thankfully got a lot less walking on last night’s Game of Thrones compared to “Dark Wings, Dark Words.” Guess they couldn’t make the whole hour about Rast having to keep Samwell alive on the march to Craster’s Keep. All of the players are starting to move around the board and it was really exciting. And tense. And funny. And mysterious.

And then... things took A Turn, as they often do in Westeros.

Please be aware that while I try to avoid book spoilers in the main post, the comments may contain spoilers for all books. The comments may also devolve into cries of MOAR PEEN, HBO. (I felt so uncomfortably accomplished about that last week.)

[What will become of The Kingslayer now? I’m stumped...]

Winter is over and Game of Thrones is here. How excited are you? Did you do anything to celebrate the season premiere? In fairness, the Wine of Courage was flowing very freely at my house. But it is my sworn duty to review these episodes no matter what.

[All men must serve...]

Where's Christopher Lambert to officiate a smack-down when you need him? (Hey, hey, hey I don't think so!) This image comes to us from Ash Edwards on Flickr, and we recommend looking at more awesome work there!

Your daily offsite links are like a beautiful battle between monsters that ends in a hug. Highlights include the real books you would have to read at Hogwarts, Tom Cruise takes over another spy organization, NASA's big comet, and Wil Wheaton being adorable with his space mom.

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What’s the key to unlocking the riddle of Voldemort’s sweet heart? Celine Dion. The dark lord cannot get enough of Celine Dion and is partially responsible for bestowing upon her the the magical power of the siren which allows her to destroy everyone in her path. Also, Jack will paint Voldemort now.

Your daily collection of offsite links didn’t even bother make James Cameron joke there. Highlights include:

1. Neal Stephenson’s Reamde heading to Fox.
2. Ronnie the Bear will become a superhero.
3. Battlestar Galactica and Bryan Singer “news.”

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Don’t worry, this Lincolnstein is TOTALLY a real toy you can buy! He’s part of a line of Presidential Monsters, in which various creatures have been mashed-up with some of various leaders of the free world. Fear the bite of Baracula! Hear the song of the Phantom of the White House! Watch out for the webbed digits of the Monster from the Watergate Lagoon!

Your collection of daily offsite links have executive monster powers. Highlights include:

1. Spaceballs is becoming real!
2. Mark Millar thinks the Justice League movie is DOOMED.
3. Is George R.R. Martin wasting our time?

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It’s a great week to be a fan of epic fantasy! Hot on the heels of the release of A Memory of Light, George R. R. Martin has unveiled a new excerpt from the next volume in A Song of Ice and Fire, The Winds of Winter.

The excerpt is from the viewpoint of Arianne Martell, the eldest princess of Dorne. A snippet:

It was then that pasty, pudgy Teora raised her eyes from the creamcakes on her plate. “It is dragons.”

“Dragons?” said her mother. “Teora, don’t be mad.”

“I’m not. They’re coming.”

“How could you possibly know that?” her sister asked, with a note of scorn in her voice. “One of your little dreams?”

Teora gave a tiny nod, chin trembling. “They were dancing. In my dream. And everywhere the dragons danced the people died.”

The excerpt focuses on Arianne reacting to the news of the appearances—and disappearances—of the Targaryen family and gives us one of the first indications of how Westeros will react to their return. Will Dorne overlook the events at the end of A Dance With Dragons in return for a prominent place in a new Targaryen court? Read and find out.

Remember Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? illustrated by Eric Carle? It was pretty awesome. Carle had a way with illustration that has captured the imaginations of generations of children, so when we saw the book being repurposed for George R.R. Martin’s Song of Ice and Fire series, the only word we had was YES.

[Direwolf, direwolf]

Like Tolkien, the Song of Ice and Fire Calendar has become a yearly art event to look forward to. Past editions included the excellent work of  John Picacio, Ted Nasmith, and Michael Komarck. This year we are treated with a year’s worth of Marc Simonetti paintings of Westeros. This video shows a ten minute time-lapse of Marc creating the cover for George R. R. Martin's 2013 Song of Ice and Fire calendar. Anyone who is interested in digital painting—or who just wants to be mezmerized for a few minutes—should check it out below.

[The making of A Song of Ice and Fire 2013 calendar]

In a recent interview with MTV Geek at WorldCon, fantasy author George R. R. Martin revealed that he’d love to write Marvel’s Doctor Strange comic, detailing a take on the character that he’d love to see come to fruition.

Blastr has a transcript of his thoughts on the matter, quoted below.

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Oh, the ups and downs of being obsessed with an ongoing epic fantasy series, especially when that series is A Song of Ice and Fire. But it does get better. Except when it gets worse, and everyone dies. OR DID THEY? All the spoilers, for everything, ever. Seriously.

Hi all! We’re sorry to say that this week’s post has been held up due to all the hurricane-related craziness going on New Orleans: last we heard, Leigh had just gotten her power back on, but no internet. In the meantime, we hope everything’s getting better down on the Gulf Coast, and that everyone is staying safe.

Thanks so much for being so patient over the last two weeks, everybody! Since we’ve got all this time on our hands (it’s a holiday weekend in the States, after all—and a blue moon!), we figured, why not go crazy and set up a spoiler thread? So let’s go nuts: all those things you’re dying to talk about, all those dark, GRRM-y plot twists, secrets, lies, and resurrections—get them off your chest! For everyone rereading the series, or just reading ahead, this is now the place to discuss any and all things related to the Song of Ice and Fire series that you just can’t wait to get to. Leigh will not be checking in the comments, so no need to hold back: unleash the spoilers, speculate wildly, and generally throw caution to the wind. In short: go wild, wildings free folk!

Please just keep in mind that if you don’t want to encounter spoilers for any of the later books or the HBO series, you should avert your eyes and pray for patience, and we promise to be back on schedule next week!

In order to be more kid-friendly, the Ghostbusters had these crazy colored costumes in the cartoon instead of their regular beige outfits from the movies. But what if the two blended? There are some awesome photoshops out there that show off just that. (Via Ghostbusters fans on Facebook and Gbfans.com)

Highlights of your daily offsite links include:

1. Obi-Wan tells Anakin how it is.
2. The Muppets to actually hit Broadway?
3. The landslides on Saturn’s Moon.

[Read on]

From November 1st to the 4th in Toronto, the 2012 World Fantasy Convention will convene, where, among many events, it will honor this year’s lifetime achievement awards. Past winner have included Jane Yolen, Robert Bloch, Ursula K. Le Guin, and many, many others. This year, World Fantasy will be honoring Alan Garner and George R.R. Martin. 

Alan Garner is master of folk tales, with novels like The Weirdstone of Brisigamen, The Moon of Gomrath and the forthcoming Boneland.  He also wrote the fantasy novels Elidor, The Owl Service, Red Shift and others.

George R.R. Martin is the author the acclaimed A Song of Ice and Fire series, the editor of the Wild Cards series, a writer for the Twilight Zone revival and the popular TV drama Beauty and the Beast.

Read more on the World Fantasy website here.

Ever since Game of Thrones premiered on HBO, people have been tracking the changes between the television series and the beloved fantasy novels, cataloguing every difference and plot shift. So, as season two spread out and brought us the amazing events occuring at Harranhall, King’s Landing, the Wall, and Qarth, we’ve had plenty of chances to compare the show with George R.R. Martin’s written saga. Some changes worked better than others this season and now that the finale, “Valar Morghulis,” has come and gone, we can look back at the major differences in some of our favorite scenes and characters, presented here in no particular order.

(This comparison is very spoiler-heavy in terms of events in the books and potential reveals for season three plot. If you’ve read the series or don’t care, read on!)

I’ve put myself in quite the predicament, folks! As detailed in my last post, I’ve got a handful of live action roleplaying characters already in use, with more yet unrealized.

Just as I was starting to get the hang of divvying up weekends evenly between each role, Dana — my headstrong, stubborn, militarily active character — had to go and get noticed by her superiors! “What’s that? You want me to prepare for a potential leadership role? You’re going to be watching my every move to suss out my weaknesses? Me?”

There go all my other characters for the next 6 months.

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That was definitely my favorite episode of Game of Thrones this season. It was gut-wrenching, nail-biting, downright disturbing, and it had some moments to cheer for (though they were few and far between.)

I found the episode title misleading, as so much of this week’s show was about Winterfell, Robb Stark, and Jon Snow encountering a troublesome wildling. The Old Gods were well represented. I can’t say the same about the new, as we didn’t check in with Melisandre this time. Which maybe contributed to me liking this hour that much more.

But really it was about Joffrey getting slapped again.

Warning: Episode reviews contain episode and book spoilers. If you want to remain spoiler-free, follow Leigh Butler’s read of ASOIaF. Tor.com is not liable for your further enjoyment of the series if later books get spoiled in the comments.

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I recently read and really thoroughly enjoyed C.J. Cherryh’s latest book in the Atevi series, Intruder. It’s book thirteen in the series, and I’m not actually sure it’s a book at all. It would be an impossible place to start reading, and it would little sense to a new reader — this is a very complex world and a lot of things have happened in the previous twelve volumes. But more than that, excellent as Intruder is, it’s not complete in any sense. It has a beginning and a middle and an end, sort of, but it’s not only looking back to the previous volumes it’s also reaching forward to forthcoming volumes. A lot of this book is set-up for what’s coming. It has plot, but it’s not the plot of this book so much as it’s some plot as part of a much wider arc. The first six books of this series are self-enclosed, they have volume-completion. Subsequent to that what you’ve got is not so much a book as a chunk of an ongoing story that fits conveniently between covers.

Thinking about this led me to thinking about another book I thoroughly enjoyed but which is much more a chunk than a novel, George R.R. Martin’s A Dance With Dragons. And this led me to think about series again.

[Read more: Series classification revisited]