House of the Dragon
This looks better than Rings of Power.
The readers remember!
When I do reader surveys one refrain is fewer posts on science fiction and fantasy. I’ve honored this request insofar as I post very little on such topics now (in the early years of this weblog there was even a “fork” weblog devoted to this). But indulge me for a moment. Many of us believe […]
Jon Snow and Daenerys Targaryen are genetically similar to full-siblings or mother and son
I’ve posted on this before. So I will post again just to reiterate something: in terms of genes, Jon Snow and Daenerys Targaryen are much closer to being full-siblings than they are to being aunt and nephew. You get different numbers depending on how deeply you look at the pedigree of the two. But their […]
The Insight Show Notes — Season 2, Episode 10: the genetics of Game of Thrones
The Insight Show Notes — Season 2, Episode 10: the genetics of Game of ThronesThis week on The Insight (Apple Podcasts and Stitcher) we discuss the genetics and history of the world of Game of Thrones, from the mountains to the olive grove, the First M…
Game of Thrones, a journey of three peoples
Westeros and western EssosThe HBO television series, Games of Thrones, has captured the imagination of modern American culture. It has been used as a metaphor and example for many things, from national politics to international relations, and of course…
George R. R. Martin’s typical fantasy trope
George R. R. Martin has done something new in fantasy. He has created a world in shades of gray. This is in contrast to the modern template of J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, where what is good and what is evil were as clear and distinct as black and white. In […]
Jon Snow + Daenerys Targaryen far creepier genetically than you know
If you have been following Game of Thrones you have been noticing that there is a brewing romance between Jon Snow, King in the North, and Daenerys Targaryen, the aspiring claimant to her father’s Iron Throne. Of course there is a twist to all of this: unbenknownst to either, Jon Snow’s biological father is Daenerys’ […]
The past was not PG
The Week has published a screed against the low moral quality of Game of Thrones, Game of Thrones is bad — and bad for you. Obviously there is something to this insofar as one can see a coarsening of entertainment, or at least a decline in the stylized aspects of the depiction of reality. But […]
Why A Song of Ice and Fire is more definitive than A Game of Thrones
Wired has a piece out George R. R. Martin Doesn’t Need to Finish Writing the Game of Thrones Books. The title is needlessly provocative, as there are many good points in the article (though I understand clickbait considerations). Over the years I’ve come to expect and accept that the “great fork” is here to stay, […]
Game of Thrones is racist!
I wasn’t going to post more today, in light of the April Fool’s joke I played on you. But here’s me going at it again. Lots of stuff I wouldn’t normally stumble upon hits me via Pulse, and today I see this in Salon, Is “Game o…
Summer has come
So it is now less than a week until A Dance with Dragons, the 5th book in George R. R. Martin’s epic fantasy series A Song of Ice and Fire, is out. The internet is supposedly flooded with spoilers, some of them fake, thanks to the Germans mistake…
Dances with Dragons, t-minus ~ 1 month
So A Dance with Dragons, A Song of Ice and Fire #5, is coming out in about a month. Honestly I’ve been wondering if it really would drop (at ~1000 pages, it’s literally going to be a heavy drop). Seems as if it’s for real, Publisher&#…