Yea - this should eb done forthwith. I, for one, won't be stopping in here for quite a while.

Stag Lord said:

It's kinda cool that we actually need to go there again. New book FTW!

SPOILERS:

OK new cards they need to do:

Targ: (since Targ is the house for everything east... even if they are enemies):

* Penny and Hugin (or Yollo) (one card)

* Grif

* Young Grif

* Frog

* Drink

* Duck

* Varys <-- They've done a version of Selmy, and we've known since book one the spider is in talks with Illyrio.

* The Tattered Prince

* Can't spell his name, but the err... guy that wants the pits to open.

* The Green Grace

Stark:

* Alys Karstark

* Beth the Blind

* Wylla Manderly (Her scene is just so awesome they need to make a card for her.)

* Brynden (Not the blackfish, the other one).

Greyjoy:

* Rodrick (I think, Asha's husband, ruler of the isles).

* Victarion's red priest. (I won't say his name cuz that might be a spoiler).

Baratheon:

I forget their names since there are so many

Seems like Wyman Manderly definitely needs a card

Well the Dance is setting records:

http://books.usatoday.com/bookbuzz/post/2011/07/record-sales-for-george-rr-martins-a-dance-with-dragons/176909/1

I would have aslo posted the glowing New York times review - but it was irritating in that it contained some very misguided Tolkien disparagement, which lessened its impact considerably. Laughing Tree: you should have told us you had a gig reviewing for the Times!

SPOILERS

Obviously there are a lot of new cards we want based on the events of Dance

but if i had to pick my top 5 cards needed it would be

1- Aegon Targaryen/ Young Griff (what name he gets will probably point to if hea real or a fake)

2- Jon Connington

3- Quentyn Martell

4- Bloodraven

5- Moqorro

Honorable Mention to Robert Strong

Griff/Young Griff doesn't reveal who he is to players that haven't gotten that far.

jack merridew said:

Man, I have been waiting for a Ser Robert Strong card for, well, it feels like years now.

Can't believe we don't have one yet.

At the moment I'm pondering if it'd be possible to do a whole set on Dance With Dragons, as that way we can avoid spoilers if we've not read it.

Tyrion in his new, tumbling-based profession, would be good. The pit as a location. Wild versions of the dragons. Quentin, the idiot. Duck, Griff and Young Griff would be good. Bolton's people, too.

That said, I'm sure there are people from Feast we could do with seeing, too.

bloodycelt said:

I'm assuming you mean Erik Anvil-Breaker, the old man unable to stand up at the Kingsmoot. Now that we're getting some of the other nobles from that event, I would hope we'll see him. And I wish that Baelor Blacktyde had a Learned Crest instead.

SPOILERS~~~~~SPOILERS~~~~~~~SPOILERS~~~~~~SPOILERS~~~~~~SPOILERS

Maester_LUke said:

SPOILERS~~~~~SPOILERS~~~~~SPOILERS~~~~~SPOILERS

@Stag Lord

Ya its a sweet part time gig

Here is a good review by one of my favorite writers, Jeff Vandermeer, for the LA Times:

http://articles.latimes.com/2011/jul/12/entertainment/la-et-book-20110712

And here's a prtty good analysis of the Harry Potter and ASoIaF explosions htis week from the New Yorker:

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2011/07/harry-potter-deathly-hallows-george-rr-martin-dance-with-dragons.html

The one thing that jumps out at me is how surprised I am that they are surprised that hard cover sales are blwoing away digital sales. Of course they would...why wouldn't they?

LaughingTree said:

Thanks for the link - that was a good review that I had missed.

Stag Lord said:

Thanks for posting this article. Interesting read. I guess people have been reading a lot of books digitally recently. For me, Dance was the first, second and only book I ever bought digitally. I first it bought it on Kindle but when I read that Barnes and Noble was probably going to release the book at 12am EST compared to 12am Pacific for Amazon I then bought it on Nook.

I downloaded it last Mon shortly after 9pm and read it on my pc and on the Nook for Android App. First book I've ever read digitally actually. I don't anticipate buying any more digitally, since I prefer to read hardcopy, until Winds of Winter which I'll probably get on Nook again if the same release pattern holds true.

Interesting, right? And encouraging for those of us who still prfer the hard copy of a text - especially given the sad passing of Border's this week. (Though they really brought it on themselves)

I did diagree with the writer in his characterization of Feast as "underrated". Nothing i have seen in dance has chanegd my opinion that tis predcessor is nothing but plodding filler until the last 100 pages or so - and ti still remains impossible for me to re-read. Dance is in every way superior so far. (I'm at page 500 at this posting).

There is a growing segment of the population that desires the death of physical media (Books, CDs, etc) not because one is better than the other, just so they can enjoy older people's misery. Hence the "surprise" of hard cover sales beating digital, is more of a snarky comment against Hardcover books.

(This is especially prevalent at sites such as appleinsider and the register ).

I remember when DVD's came out and while I was excited by them, I don't recall anyone rooting for the death of VHS.

While I do use audiobooks and have an ebook reader, it has largely replaced my paperback books. What folks don't seem to figure is that there is still a segment of the population (and always will be) that place value on having a hard physical copy of something. Borders did not die because people don't want physical media, Borders died because Amazon can deliver same or next day.

@Stag Lord,

The Atlantic Monthly has a great interview with Martin but do NOT read the interview until you have finished the book as it contains spoilers to some degree. That said I do think you and Kennon will appreciate this interview more than I do. I did realize that I actually disagree with Martin on why I read fiction.

Martin "But my philosophy is that plot advancement is not what the experience of reading fiction is about. If all we care about is advancing the plot, why read novels? We can just read Cliffs Notes. "

I disgree. The main reason I read fiction are the plot twists and turns and interesting characters not all the high descriptive Dickens stuff.

@bloodycelt

To expand on your post I would say the reason Borders died is they simply never adjusted their business model to today's world. Their business model was stuck in the 1990s. BN came out with the Nook which was great but I had stopped buying anything at Borders long ago because I found some of their books were simply priced $1-2 higher than BN. The local BN to me also encourages people to sit and read in the store while the local Borders discourage sitting and reading in the store at first. Borders in some cases also overpaid for real estate while Barnes and Noble was craftier about where they placed stores knowing that they didn't ahve to be right on the corner of the busiest street in town. Borders' store layouts were also inferior to BN and (at least at some of the local ones here in California) would switch where they located their sections too frequently. Compared to local BNs and other local books that have never moved their sections around the store.

All told, Borders was not very good at customer experience (at least the stores I went to in San Fran and Los Angeles). Combine that lack of customer experience knowledge with a failure to grasp onto digital media as BN did and there is a reason for their demise. Oh and I guess BN had an inherent advantage anyway in that they began selling textbooks in NYC back in the 1950s which builds a very reliable customer trust base. Borders just had the same fate as Crown before them.

oh and heres interview link

aDWD SPOILERS:

http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2011/07/george-rr-martin-on-sex-fantasy-and-a-dance-with-dragons/241738/

LT has the rigth of it bloodycelt. Teh argument that ahs been flaotinga roudn that Amazon adn teh e-readers killed Borders is only true in aprt - and is ebing sued by Borders' execs as an excuse for tehir failures. tehy also way over-invested in real estate, and they ended up choosing lcoations with ltos and lots of wasted retail space. simply - the bog box model they chose was too big and there were too many of them. Teh size adn quanitity of their stores was as big a factor in thier demsie as was new technology. starbucks had the smae problem - but they survived because they were abel to scale back thei lcoations and close a bunch of cafes.

On top of that - borders also bought heavily into physical media just as the digital revolution was kicking in - and that hurt them way more than the loss of book sales, becuase the decline in actual CD purhcases was much more rponounced than the decline in books has been. See Tower records.

So - its way more than just Amazon. which is why B&N isn't going anywhere anytime soon.

@BC - the comment I was referencing about the "surprise" in hard cover sales wasn't from some snarky kijd's site, BTW. It was in the article itself - right from Random House's publicity department. taht's why i thought it was worth mentioning. The prattling of easily amused, tech happy children is of little inetrest to me.

Finally - @LT: Thanks for teh link. I will deifntiely take a look - but defiintely AFTER I fnish the read through. I am being rptty careful now about skipping review. The book has been available for ten days now and I expect mroe spoiers to be elaking. Personally, i am trying not to rush as I expect a long wait for Winds, and i wnat to savor my trip through Westeros adn the East.

Anyone else find it interesting how Randyll Tarly kept repeating the phrase "if it really is Jon Connington"'

any chance that Tarly was one of the younger lords surrounding Rhaegar and Connington when they were young? In which case any chance that Tarlys loyalties lie deeper with Connington than with Highgarden?

Also are we ever see going Valaryia

Some good discussions in the spilers section. And the return of Madkasel!