“Winter is Coming …”
Yesterday—well, Saturday night really—we put our clocks back: we are now no longer on daylight saving (summer) time. So although we can kid ourselves that we’ve got autumn in reserve, we know in our bones that “winter is coming …”
The signs have been there anyway: that decided coolness in the air at morning and evening and the first trees starting to turn colour (more noticeable when I was in Wakatipu and Southland the week before last), but the end of daylight saving sounds that final knell. The evenings are going to draw in dark and close, and although the mornings will be lighter for a few weeks, that too will quickly pass.
Great for writing, of course, and also for watching a good TV series during those lengthening evenings. On which note …
“Winter is coming” has a whole new meaning this year because the HBO series of “A Game of Thrones”, based on the book of the same name by George RR Martin, is also coming our way. A Game of Thrones is the first in Martin’s “A Song of Ice and Fire” series, which currently stands at 4 books with a 5th promised to coincide with release of the HBO series. The central characters in the book are the Stark family of Winterfell and their motto is–you’ve guessed it—“Winter is coming.”
When I first read A Game of Thrones way back in the late 1990s I thought it was one of the best Fantasy novels I had read in a long, long time. Martin has set up a rich, complex and dangerous world where the onset of winter means not just many years (seasons run in years in this world, not months) of physical privation but also the awakening of old, dark forces. The characters are human, flawed—and fascinating, and I am both excited and apprehensive as to what HBO will have made of so complex a story. The initial stills are encouraging in that the casting seems to be very good—and the trailers have caught the “winter is coming” atmosphere.
Here’s a couple of trailer links for you to check out for yourself:
and
The series is scheduled for release in the States on 17 April and in the UK on April 18. I hope it will not be too much longer before it shows here in NZ, but in any case, not many sleeps now until I find out whether HBO have captured the power of the book.
Squeeeeeeeee!
Been looking forward to it since the first announcement – I swear hubby is on his website every day just to see when the next book is coming out! If the series even half lives up to the books it’ll be great fun – and so far at least George seems very enthused.
“I know!”
Except that I heard today that so far no one is looking to show it in NZ. How does that work? How can that be? 🙁
And I got the release date for A Dance of Dragons wrong in the post. Apparently it’s July, not coinciding with the release of the show in the US as I thought. But hey, there is a release date!
We don’t have HBO so I will have to wait for it to hit the video stores. Maybe I will check out the book in the mean time . I am jealous. Winter is leaving us here in NC, USA. I am a winter lover and summer hater!
Sharon, I think since you liked “Heir” you may well love “A Game of Thrones.” I certainly recommend it unreservedly to anyone who likes epic-style fantasy. And even though I am sorry for the loss of summer I enjoy winter, too–frosty morning’s and dragon’s breath, ice on puddles and all that lover-ly winter comfort food. Of course, as of Thursday last we have no fireplace now—it got “quaked”—but maybe by next winter we will have that solid fuel heater put in …
Here. I can feel it. Winter is coming!