By Cat Eldridge: Twenty-five years ago this week, George R.R. Martin’s A Game of Thrones was published. It’s the first novel in his A Song of Ice and Fire series. It was published simultaneously by Bantam Spectra (US) and Voyager Books (UK).
The novel won the Locus Award and was nominated for both the Nebula and the World Fantasy Awards, but was only on the long list for the Hugos. It was a preliminary nominee for the BFA August Derleth Fantasy Award. A Game of Thrones has received critical acclaim with several reviewers comparing it to A Wheel of Time for its epic sweep.
The “Blood of the Dragon” novella taken from the Daenerys Targaryen chapters from A Game of Thrones would win a Hugo Award for Best Novella at LoneStarCon 2.
Martin, of course, would go onto to write A Clash of Kings in 1998 and A Storm of Swords in 2000. Then, in November 2005, A Feast for Crows, and in 2011, A Dance with Dragons. A Storm of Swords would finish second to Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire at Millennium Philcon. A Feast for Crows was a Hugo finalist at L.A.con IV, the year Robert Wilson’s Spin won. A Dance with Dragons was nominated at Chicon 7, which was the year that Jo Walton’s Among Others won. Finally Fire and Blood: 300 Years Before A Game of Thrones (A Targaryen History) was on the long list for Best Novel at Dublin 2019.
As you know, it became a HBO series which deviated from the storyline of the series. At Chicon 7, the first season won the Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form. At LoneStarCon 3 the next year, the “Blackwater” episode from season two would win a Hugo as well.
Two prequel series, Bloodmoon and House of Dragons are currently approved at HBO.
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Bloodmoon isn’t moving forward at HBO: they greenlit and filmed a pilot but never ended up picking it up to series.
Andrew Liptak says Bloodmoon isn’t moving forward at HBO: they greenlit and filmed a pilot but never ended up picking it up to series.
Well that didn’t last long. I swear HBO is really, really fickle. Thanks for the update.
Gee, if I’d known Cat was going to do this, I’d have offered to include at least one of my photos of GRRM siting on the “throne” Bantam Books had set up in their display booth at an American Booksellers Assn convention—in 1994.
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No that didn’t work…
A Game of Thrones was launched at the very sparsely attended Westercon 49 in El Paso, Texas. I dropped by the launch party. There were copies of the book stacked in pyramids on tables, a nice spread, and a few people standing around and chatting in a huge, dark hall in the convention center. I passed on getting a copy of the book. I really liked George’s previous writing, but I figured he was lost to us when he went to Hollywood. Also, I had read too many Wheel of Time books and was really not in the mood for another big fantasy series. A decision I much regretted when I read A Game of Thrones in paperback.
Tom Becker. That might be the launch party I was remembering while I was reading Cat’s post. I thought what I was remembering happened at TorCon 3 in 2003, however, that doesn’t synch with the release year for one of these books.
A Game of Thrones was first published on August 1, 1996. Westercon 49 was July 4-7, 1996. So I think the dates check out.
Torcon 3, George R. R. Martin was a GoH, along with some guy named Mike Glyer. So that must have been a memorable experience.