Another great map of Westeros

Long-term westeros.org forum-member Other-in-Law has completed his massive map of Westeros, which he's been working on for some considerable time. Unlike Tear's excellent map, which goes for a sort-of satellite view, Other-in-Law's is considerably more stylised, in the vein of some medieval maps and tapestries which combine geography with lots of pictures and decorations.

Completely created with Microsoft Paint. Seriously.

Impressive stuff. If you check out the huge version, some great details can be seen (like Tyrion and Tywin glowering at one another over Casterly Rock, the Kingsguard hanging out with the Mad King at the bottom and Littlefinger on the Fingers). Also present is the coat of arms for every house mentioned in the series and many more that have not been (thanks to Martin giving details on the other houses to the westeros.org 'Citadel' website many years ago).

In related mapping news, Bantam have reported that they are commissioning new maps for the Song of Ice and Fire novels, including hinting that they are hard at work on the Free Cities map for A Dance with Dragons as of late January. Apparently Tear's map, mentioned above, has been the impetus for Bantam to up their game. Whether this means that the hardcover editions will have colour endpaper maps, like the Wheel of Time books, is unclear. It's also unclear if these new maps will launch with the new editions of the first four novels being released on March 22nd in the USA.

GOOD OMENS coming to television

Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman's co-written 1990 novel, Good Omens, is coming to television. Gavin Scott and ex-Monty Python member Terry Jones are in talks to adapt the script (though oddly Jones suggests it is for a movie version). At the SFX Weekender event Pratchett said that the current proposal is a four-episode mini-series, but did not say what television network was involved.


The book sees the Antichrist being born and an angel and demon deciding to save the world since they quite like hanging out there. The book was being developed as a movie project by Terry Gilliam for about a decade before this latest news broke.

RIP Brian Jacques

It has been sadly announced that children's fantasy author Brian Jacques has died of a heart attack at the age of 71.

Jacques is best-known as the author of the Redwall series of animal fantasies. The 22nd novel in the series, The Rogue Crew, is complete and due for publication in May 2011. He also wrote an additional number of other books, including companions to the Redwall series and unrelated books. Overall, his novels had sold more than 20 million copies worldwide and been translated into 29 languages.

Congrats to Joe Abercrombie

Joe Abercrombie's new novel, The Heroes, has debuted at #3 on The Sunday Times bestseller list in the UK (I would link, but the Times website is only accessible to those who pay for it). This is a very impressive achievement for a fantasy author in the UK, solidly in Terry Pratchett territory (a bit higher than Robert Jordan, who usually gets in around #5). It's also a notable improvement on Best Served Cold, which landed at #11.


Interesting to see how the American edition does, but this is great news for Joe (though possibly not for the pressure for the next book to do even better!).

The Folding Knife by K.J. Parker

Bassianus Severus - known to the people as Basso - is the First Citizen of the Vesani Republic. He is politically savvy, financially creative, ruthlessly ambitious and very lucky. As his power and prestige grows, so does the rift between him and his sister, and the battle for the loyalty of her son.


The Folding Knife is the eleventh novel by the enigmatic K.J. Parker, a stand-alone book which is not part of any series. Fourteen years ago I picked up Parker's debut novel, Colours in the Steel, and later its two sequels and enjoyed them enormously. I've missed out on her books since then, which is something I'll have to rectify. The Folding Knife is outstanding.

This is the story of a man's life, or rather a twenty-year slice of it, but mostly focusing on the three years after he becomes First Citizen of the Republic. Basso grows up learning the family trade of banking, and through canny deals and excellent advice he soon becomes one of the richest men in the city. He then moves into politics, using his common touch with the people and his skills of persuasion and blackmail with the nobility to become the ruler of the Republic. He even has a long-term plan for the entire nation: to strengthen its borders and increase its resources against the threat of competing kingdoms jealous of Vesani's growing military and economic might.

Basso plays the Republic like an instrument, working out how to make the people and politicians jump to his tune. However, as the story unfolds Basso's inability to mend the feud with his sister or make foreign powers likewise obey the rules he sets out both become dangerous, leading to more desperate gambles. There's a strong economic spine to the book, with Parker successfully showing how expensive it is to run a large kingdom even without trying to fund major wars. In fact, I'm wondering if the economic storyline is a commentary on the current financial crisis, with Basso's self-justifications and ability to conjure money out of nowhere to keep things going just a bit longer being more than slightly reminiscent of recent news stories on the banks and national governments almost going bankrupt.

Basing the story on economics could be deathly dull, but Parker's well-paced writing, solid characterisation and dry sense of humour keeps things ticking along nicely. Basso is a well-written protagonist, monstrously flawed but also sympathetic, with his genius at handling money and politics contrasted against his disastrous relationships and his empty personal life. Basso's story is something of a tragedy then, but one with more than its fair share of humour and ingenuity. Also, by Parker's standards it's not that dark or disturbing (there's no Belly of the Bow 'moment' of unexpected ultraviolence here), though her twisted sense of humour remains intact. She also reigns in her tendency to interrupt the story for a three-page digression on the best way to build trebuchets (though there is one detailed explanation of how to use a scorpion - a piece of field artillery - as a stealthy assassination weapon, but this is quite funny so fair enough).

This is a strong novel with only a few brief but well-described moments of action, with the focus being on political and economic intrigue. Intriguingly, whilst set in an (unmapped) secondary world, there is no magic or mysticism in the novel at all, but this lack is barely felt.

As for criticisms, the tight focus on Basso means we don't get much of a sense of the Republic or the wider world beyond his own views on it, but that's the point of the story, I suppose. The ending is also perhaps a little underwhelming (and whilst it's not the first in a series, the ending is open enough to allow for a later sequel, if necessary). The reasons for Basso's sister's hatred of him are also under-explored, since we don't have any POV chapters from her. Finally, there are moments when things go as clockwork and Basso finds things going all his way that feels a little too clinical and not allowing for the unpredictability of human actions, but the latter part of the novel repays that in spades, so that's not too much of a problem.

The Folding Knife (****½) is an engrossing, page-turning economic and political thriller, executed with finesse by one of our best (but possibly most underrated) fantasists. The novel is available now in the UK and USA.

SONG OF ICE AND FIRE comic on the way

George R.R. Martin and Daniel Abraham have announced that, in conjunction with Bantam Books and Dynamite Comics, a comic adaptation of A Game of Thrones will begin later this year. The plan is to adapt the first novel in the series into 24 monthly issues (to be later collected as several graphic novels), with a decision on the rest of the books to follow based on sales.

Hmm. Maybe this is because I'm not a 'comics guy' (I like them, especially things like Watchmen and Sandman, but am not a devoted follower) but this feels slightly redundant to me. We already have this story existing as an 800-page novel (plus the audiobook version) and a 600-minute television series, not to mention as the basis for two different computer games from Cyanide launching over the next few years (plus the mods for several more). Plus there's the roleplaying, board and card games which use the events of the first novel as a jumping-off point as well. So, this story has been told already.

I'd far rather have had an original series of new stories set in the history of Westeros, maybe outlined and approved by Martin and written by Abraham, perhaps about such matters as Aegon's invasion, the Dance of Dragons and the Blackfyre Rebellion (assuming that the War of the Ninepenny Kings is being held back for future Dunk 'n' Egg stories), not to mention Robert's Rebellion itself. This would be a good use of the medium, to reveal new information about the setting and backstory. As it stands, are there really many thousands of comics fans refusing to read prose novels or watch TV who need this adaptation to get the story across to them?

I'm sure it'll be well-executed. The art looks good at this stage and Daniel Abraham is a very talented writer. But this news would have been a lot more exciting a few years back (when it was first mooted as a Dabel Brothers project) before HBO optioned the books.

SON OF HEAVEN e-book available very cheaply

Those looking to sample David Wingrove's Chung Kuo series may be interested to know that the Kindle edition of the new first volume, Son of Heaven, is currently available for the knockdown price of £2.99 on Amazon UK. This is quite a bargain.


Son of Heaven is available now as an ebook and special limited edition (pictured above). The regular hardcover will be launched on 1 March. David Wingrove muses on the project here.

New Peter F. Hamilton covers

The repackaging of Peter F. Hamilton's novels continues in 2011, following on from the rejacketing of Pandora's Star and Judas Unchained last year. First up is the cover for Hamilton's new short story collection, Manhattan in Reverse, due later this year.


Then Hamilton's Greg Mandel Trilogy is being reissued. These novels - Mindstar Rising, A Quantum Murder and The Nano Flower - were originally published in the early 1990s and established Hamilton's credentials before he embarked on the epic Night's Dawn Trilogy (which I suspect will be repackaged next). An American omnibus edition of the three books is due in May, but the British editions will remain in single volumes.


Nicely-done, although somewhat misleading. Mindstar Rising seems to depict London after the proton bomb which devastates the city. Which is fine, except this is a very small part of the backstory of the series, already decades in the past when the trilogy opens. I'm assuming one of the cities in the other covers is mid-21st-Century Peterborough, which in Hamilton's vision has become the UK's new capital city after London's near-destruction (this is, by the way, the single-most-fantastical-and-unlikely thing that happens in any of Hamilton's books, way beyond the possibility of the Sleeping God existing, FTL or rejuvenation).


Much larger images can be seen at the Walker of Worlds blog.

Wertzone Classics: The 900 Days by Harrison E. Salisbury

On the evening of 21 June 1941, Leningrad, formerly St. Petersburg, the former capital of Russia and birthplace of the Soviet Union, was one of Europe's greatest cities. Three million people lived in a city where art and literature flourished, at least as much as was possible under Stalin's paranoid rule. The city and its hundreds of factories also benefited from the peace treaty with Nazi Germany, as materials poured out towards the German border to help drive the German war machine in the west. Rumours that Germany would turn on the Soviet Union were rejected as British propaganda, and those who persisted in making those claims felt the wrath of Beria's secret police.


In the early hours of 22 June, Hitler launched Operation Barbarossa, the largest and most grandiose military undertaking in history to that time. Between three and four million German soldiers invaded the Soviet Union on a front more than 700 miles wide. Army Group Nord under Field Marshal von Leeb was directed to advance more than 400 miles through the Baltic States to Leningrad and destroy the city, link up with the Finnish armies advancing from the north and then swing south and east to help in the destruction of Moscow.

The Soviet Union was taken by total surprise. Its armies were strung out across the frontier and through rear-echelon areas, often lacking arms or ammunition to avoid 'provoking' any incident. Stalin had a near-total breakdown due to his disbelief in the invasion and was out of action for weeks. In his absence no-one was prepared to take responsibility for the disaster, resulting in total chaos, through which the Germans advanced almost at will, encircling, capturing or destroying hundreds of thousands of Red Army soldiers in individual battles. Where the Soviets stood and fought on well-prepared ground with modern equipment (such as the formidable T-34 and KV-1 tanks) they proved the equal of the German attackers, but the overall situation was a disaster. The Baltic Fleet was thrown back from Riga to Leningrad with thousands of deaths and dozens of ships sunk. Defensive line after defensive line was overrun. Divisions were sent into battle under-strength and under-armed, just to try to hold the Germans back for a few days longer.

Just nine weeks into the invasion, the German army reached the southern suburbs of Leningrad and was only stopped by the frantic digging of defensive works, with hundreds of thousands of civilians from the city recruited to help, and colossal artillery barrages from the heavy warships of the Baltic Fleet laid down to delay the advance. Finally, the Germans switched their attention to Moscow and the Panzer divisions leading the attack on Leningrad were diverted south, sparing the city from direct assault. Instead it was invested, beginning on 8 September with the cutting of all land links to the city. The Russians expected a speedy relief by the Red Army. Instead, whilst a very tentative corridor was opened in January 1943, it wasn't until 27 January 1944 that the siege was fully lifted. In full, the siege lasted 880 days, one of the longest in history and by far the most deadly.

After the siege was lifted, the Soviets admitted that 600,000 people within the city had died. They were wrong. Even conservative estimates drawing on the number of bodies interred in the cemeteries and recovered afterwards place it in the region of 1,200,000 (or considerably more than the combined British and American casualties - civilian and military - of World War II in its entirety).

During WWII Harrison E. Salisbury was the head of the United Press Office in London, and subsequently was Moscow correspondent for The New York Times. He took a contemporary interest in the Siege of Leningrad and was one of the first western journalists allowed into the city after the siege. He interviewed hundreds of people who'd lived through the nine hundred days, from senior Communist Party officials to factory-workers and front-line soldiers (some of whom he corresponded with for decades afterwards), and collected vast reams of notes for a potential book on the siege. However, whilst the siege may have ended the machinery of Soviet politics had not, and he found many of his correspondents being chewed and spat out - sometimes in pieces - by Stalin's paranoid post-war purges. The book was published in 1969 and immediately banned in the Soviet Union due to its pinning of the blame for the disasters of Barbarossa on Stalin and the blinkered reactions of the Party.

Salisbury's technique with the book is to grant an overview of the entirety of the siege as seen from the Russian side (the German perspective is given at regular intervals, but after the initial advance and prior to the liberation the Germans are essentially just standing still outside the city, so they are not a major focus of the book). He looks at the military, supply and administrative problems faced in running and protecting a massive European city under siege from a militarily superior enemy, as well as the view from the streets, from common workers, soldiers and shopworkers. This is a massive undertaking - the book was almost 25 years in the writing - but Salisbury pulls it off masterfully. One second we are with Party Secretary Zhdanov authorising the building of a road across the frozen Lake Ladoga in the hope of opening a supply route, then we might be with a truck driver crossing the dangerous route and then with a soldier trying to protect the supply depots on the far side of the lake from Luftwaffe bombardment. It's an immersive technique, one that makes the book read like a thriller in its opening chapters as the Nazi steamroller inexorably closes on the city.

Contained in this book are hundreds of anecdotes and stories that could almost be full novels by themselves: a woman whose children are evacuated from the city but stupidly into an area closer to the German advance (she successfully goes behind German lines to rescue them and returns them to Leningrad); the Russian sailors on ice-locked ships who stave off boredom by forming a book club and reading the complete works of Dostoyevsky; the tiny fortress at the edge of the siege line which the Russians hold for 500 days against overwhelming German attacks until relieved; a starving child who can't decide whether or not to eat a mouse he finds stealing his tiny bread ration; and many more. Extensive footnotes and appendices list the sources for the claims and clarify confusion between different accounts of the same events, whilst the bibliography is one of the largest I've ever seen for such a (relatively) contained event. The amount of research that went into the book is staggering.

By its nature, the book is not going to be a laugh riot, though Salisbury does include moments of lightness and kindness where he finds them. However, the final third of the book, which focuses in detail on the most desperate days of the siege (when people were left on a few crumbs of bread a day to eat), is harrowing. Soldiers return from the front to find their entire families dead of starvation. Building walls burst from the swelling corpses within. Cannibals prey on unsuspecting children. It's a catalogue of horrors not quite like anything I've read before and is very heavy-going. However, it is also inspiring when you realise how many people did endure these privations and lived to tell the tale.

Salisbury's book has a few major issues. It's been criticised for focusing a little too much on the city's artists, particularly its poets and writers. Its true this group gets maybe a little bit more of a focus than others, but then it is understandable: they generally kept detailed diaries during the siege which other residents didn't. Also, their jobs generally entailed a minimum of dangerous or physically-exhausting activity, which killed so many of the city's other residents. The biggest problem is that, despite its name, the book focuses almost entirely on the first year of the siege (particularly the period up to April 1942), then the remainder is covered very quickly in the final 100 pages of the book. This is because Salisbury has taken a human-interest approach and the bulk of Leningrad's civilian population (or rather the bulk that hadn't starved to death in the horrific winter of 1941-42) was shipped out via Lake Ladoga after that first horrific year. More in-depth coverage of the latter part of the siege would have been welcome.

Despite this, The 900 Days (*****) is a brilliantly-written, breathtakingly-researched work of history focusing on (in the west, anyway) one of the more under-reported battles of the Second World War. It's powerful, dark, harrowing but also curiously uplifting and occasionally even awe-inspiring. It is available now in the UK and USA.

RIP Margaret John

Margaret John, who was cast in Game of Thrones as 'Old Nan', sadly passed away today at the age of 84. Her voice can be heard in one of the trailers for the series, warning of the coming winter and the white walkers.


She had a long and distinguished career in television, but had seen a recent resurgence after being cast as the scene-stealing 'Doris' in British sitcom Gavin & Stacey. She had also appeared in Doctor Who (both the original and new versions) and Blake's Seven, amongst many other TV, film and stage appearances.

Margaret John had completed shooting all of her scenes for Season 1 of Thrones, which wrapped shooting in mid-December. Her character continues to make small appearances in the second book (which will form the basis of a potential second season), though arguably not critical ones. Whether the role will be recast or dropped is not known at the moment.

More on Westeros, Winter is Coming, and the BBC.