Artwork from Paul Kearney's MONARCHIES OF GOD series

Paul Kearney recently sent me a couple of interesting illustrations related to his Monarchies of God series, republished last year by Solaris in two omnibus editions. The first is the Spanish cover of The Iron Wars, the third book in the series, and the other is an image by Paul himself depicting Corfe Cear-Inaf, the hero of the series (or the closet thing we have to one).



What's more impressive is that the latter illustration was made by Paul when he was just 14, and was the inspiration for Corfe and his elite cavalry formation, the Cathedrallers, who defend the Kingdom of Torunna from the invading Merduks.

Remember to check out Hawkwood and the Kings and Century of the Soldier if you haven't already. Kearney's next book, Kings of Morning, the finale to the Macht trilogy, will be published in November.

The Song of Ice and Fire So Far: Part 2 - The Dragon Kings

This article continues my recap of the events of A Song of Ice and Fire and its backstory before the publication of the forthcoming fifth volume, A Dance with Dragons, on 12 July.

As with the first part, this part will mostly be concerned with the backstory of the series. However, there are some backplot revelations here that are not made until later books in the series. As a result, if you watching the TV series Game of Thrones and the TV series alone, beware that this article will contain minor spoilers for the series.

Rhaenys, Aegon and Visenya Targaryen with their Valyrian steel swords, Blackfyre and Dark Sister.

The ConquestAegon Targaryen and his sister-wives Visenya and Rhaenys, riding the great dragons Balerion, Vhagar and Meraxes respectively, led a small contingent of retainers and troops to land at the mouth of the Blackwater Rush. They built a modest wooden redoubt atop the tallest hill overlooking the river, and made their plans. Seven kingdoms existed in Westeros, and Aegon wanted to conquer them all.

First, he took up arms against King Harren Hoare, Harren the Black, who ruled both the Iron Islands and the Riverlands from his keep at Harrenhal. Harrenhal was vast and impregnable to regular assault...but not to dragons. Aegon roasted Harren alive in Kingspyre Tower.

With Harren dead, the river lords, led by Edmyn Tully of Riverrun, raised their banners in rebellion and drove their ironborn overseers from their lands. Aegon hounded them all the way back to the Iron Islands, where he demanded their fealty. The ironborn elected Lord Vickon Greyjoy of Pyke to lead them, and Greyjoy and Tully were among the first to swear their fealty to Aegon. For Tully's service, Aegon made them overlords of the Riverlands.

In the east, Orys Baratheon, Aegon's alleged bastard half-brother, led an army against Storm's End. Argilac the Arrogant, the Storm King, soon proved the truth of his name. Rather than take shelter behind the walls of his fortress, he took the field, confident of victory. Orys destroyed his army, slew Argilac and captured Storm's End. He also took Argilac's daughter, his house motto and his lands as his own. For Orys' remarkable achievement, Aegon named him the founder of House Baratheon and legitimised him.

Alarmed at the Targaryens' blitzkrieg-like successes, King Loren Lannister of the Westerlands and King Mern IX Gardener made an alliance and assembled their armies to face the invader. They brought some 55,000 troops, including 5,000 mounted knights, to the battlefield, against Aegon's 10,000 or so soldiers, most of them untested levies from the lands he'd just conquered. The overwhelming superiority of numbers initially succeeded and the Targaryen army began to rout, so Aegon unleashed all three dragons at once. More than four thousand men were burned alive, including King Mern, the last of his line, before they surrendered. King Loren bent the knee and was allowed to remain Lord of Casterly Rock. With Mern dead, Aegon accepted the surrender of Harlen Tyrell, Mern's steward, and appointed him overlord of the Reach. This infuriated House Florent, who had a superior blood-claim to the Gardener line, but Aegon dismissed this.

With the Targaryen armies moving south towards Oldtown, the largest city on the continent, Lord Hightower turned to religion to advise him on what to do. The High Septon of the Faith of the Seven prayed for seven days and nights in the Starry Sept before delivering his answer: Aegon's actions were approved by the gods. Oldtown threw open its gates and Lord Hightower submitted to Aegon's authority. Aegon accepted his fealty and the blessing of the Seven, forever renouncing the old Valyrian gods his dragons were named for.

With Aegon's endeavour blessed by the faith, and with his forces apparently invulnerable when backed by dragons, most of the remaining resistance to Aegon's invasion melted away. The King of the Vale accepted Aegon's rule, and King Torrhen Stark knelt before Aegon on the Trident and sweared fealty to him. The only hold-out was Dorne. Aegon took his army through the Red Mountains, but the Dornish, having learned of the Field of Fire, refused to give battle. Instead, they made hit-and-run attacks on Aegon's army, burning their supplies and melting away before the dragons could be brought to bear. A thousand pinpricks did what a single pitched battle could not, and Aegon withdrew from Dorne, agreeing to respect their independence.

Aegon announced the founding of a new castle, the Red Keep, and a new capital city, King's Landing, on the site where he landed on the shores of Westeros, and retired to a relatively peaceful rule. He melted the swords of those who had opposed him into a throne, the Iron Throne, as a reminder of their submission to the Targaryens.

The Faith Militant UprisingAegon I Targaryen ruled well for more than thirty years. Upon his death, his son Aenys ascended the Iron Throne, but the Faith of the Seven objected. Aenys and his half-brother Maegor, the sons of Aegon the Conqueror, were born of incest, which is sinful in the eyes of the Seven. When Aenys took the throne anyway, the Faith ordered the people to rise up, led by their warrior-orders, the Poor Fellows and Warrior's Sons, also known as the Faith Militant.

The Faith Militant's uprising was bloody and long, lasting for eleven years. King Aenys was incapable of handling the crisis, so made his half-brother Maegor Hand of the King to deal with it. Maegor's response was bloody repression, crushing every gathering and every hint of insurrection. The Faith Militant responded in kind, turning the situation into a bloodbath. Aenys himself soon died, and Maegor took the crown, becoming known as Maegor the Cruel for his acts. Finally, the Iron Throne itself apparently killed Maegor (according to legend, though historians are highly sceptical). Aenys' son Jaehaerys took the throne and immediately offered peace and a full pardon in return for the Faith Militant disbanding. Wearied by war and slaughter, the Faith agreed and Jaehaerys became known as the Conciliator for his act.

The Old King
Jaehaerys I Targaryen was one of the finest kings to sit the Iron Throne. He ruled for over fifty years and brought many improvements to the Seven Kingdoms. He banned the practice of first night, where a king or lord could demand the first night of sexual favours from a newly-wed woman, which was extremely unpopular with the common folk. He also built the great roads of Westeros, including the Kingsroad that linked King's Landing with Castle Black. Jaehaerys' sister-wife Alysanne flew all the way to the Wall on her dragon, Silverwing, and became a friend of the Night's Watch, funding the construction of a new castle to replace the decrepit Nightfort. For his Hand, Jaehaerys chose Septon Barth, a smith's son, whose decision were likewise enlightened and wise.

The Dance of Dragons
Jaehaerys lived so long that he outlived his own son. Upon his death, the Iron Throne passed to his grandson, Viserys. Viserys I Targaryen proved to be a good ruler, but also indulgent and politically naive. His first marriage was to an Arryn of the Vale and they had three children, but only one, Princess Rhaenyra, survived to adulthood. For many years Viserys groomed Rhaenyra to rule as the first ruling Queen of the Seven Kingdoms, taking her to small council meetings and seeking her advice. Later in life, Viserys married again, to a Hightower of Oldtown, and had four more children, including three sons, but Rhaenyra remained his heir by proclamation and in his will.

Despite Viserys' very well-known intentions, upon his death the Lord Commander of the Kingsguard, Ser Criston Cole, took the crown from his head and placed it on the brow of his eldest son, naming him Aegon II Targaryen. Aegon II claimed the Iron Throne, disputing Rhaenyra's own claim. The result was a bloody civil war, the Dance of Dragons. The realm was split in half, with even the Kingsguard choosing sides. Targaryen fought Targaryen and dragon fought dragon, with most of the Targaryen dragons being killed in the war.

Aegon II eventually gained the upper hand when his dragon consumed Rhaenyra whole, but the war continued in the name of Rhaenyra's young son, Aegon III. When Aegon II died, the war ended as well, for he had no more heirs (both of his brothers presumably perishing in the war as well). Aegon III, the Dragonbane, was scarred by the memory of his mother's death, and during his reign he confined the remaining dragons to the Dragonpit, the great hall for them built in King's Landing. During his reign the last of the dragons, a stunted green thing, died and her eggs did not hatch.

King Daeron I, the Young Dragon.

The Young Dragon and the Septon King
Upon Aegon III's death, his son Daeron I inherited the throne. Daeron was a great knight, skilled in battle and a noted strategist and tactician. Daeron had long felt that the continued independence of Dorne represented unfinished business for the Targaryens, and upon his ascension he vowed to rectify his ancestor's mistake. He assembled a large army and led it through the Red Mountains. The Dornish armies assembled to contest the passage, both through field battles (now viable that the Targaryen dragons were gone) and their traditional guerrilla attacks, but Daeron was prepared for these tactics. Dorne fell and Aegon accepted the Submission of Sunspear. Flushed from victory, he placed Lord Tyrell of the Reach in command of Dorne and returned to King's Landing.

This proved to be an unwise choice, as the Reach and Dorne had been mortal enemies for a thousand years. Tyrell was assassinated less than a fortnight into the job and the Dornish threw off the Targaryen yoke. Daeron I rushed back to re-conquer Dorne, but was killed in the fighting. His cousin Aemon the Dragonknight, one of the Kingsguard, was captured and thrown into a pit as well.

With Daeron dead with no issue, his brother Baelor became king. Pious and holy, Baelor walked the Boneway barefoot to make peace with Dorne. Aemon was released and Baelor made a marriage pact, marrying his second cousin Daeron (the later Daeron II) to Princess Myriah Martell of Dorne to symbolise the new peace.

Now king, Baelor spent his reign trying to bring peace, enlightenment and piety to the Seven Kingdoms. He was a pacifist, and refused the Faith's suggestions that he refound the Faith Militant orders. He also rejected carnal thoughts and the pleasure of the flesh. He divorced his sister-wife Daena and locked her and his other two sisters, Rhaena and Elaena, in the tower of the Red Keep so they would not tempt him with carnal thoughts. Despite this restriction, Daena became pregnant anyway and refused to name the father, for which stubbornness she came known as Daena the Defiant.

Baelor's worst excesses were mitigated by his uncle Viserys, the Hand of the King for both Daeron I and Baelor. Baelor took to praying over dragon eggs in the hope they would hatch, and kept fasting for longer and longer periods. Eventually, he starved himself to death. Viserys ascended the throne as Viserys II, but died a year later of age.

King Aegon IV, the Unworthy.

The Unworthy King
Viserys' eldest son ascended the Iron Throne as Aegon IV Targaryen, Aegon the Unworthy, accounted the worst king (or rather, the worst sane king) to ever rule Westeros. In his youth he was an effective warrior, but as he got older he became self-indulgent and ate and drank to excess. He was married to his sister-wife, Naerys, who was miserable and unhappy for most of their marriage. She gave Aegon a son, Daeron, who wed Myriah Martell, and asked to be released from their wedding vows, but Aegon refused. The only person Naerys took comfort from was her other brother, Aemon the Dragonknight, a great and stalwart warrior.

Aegon IV kept a whole harem of mistresses at court, with them rising and falling in his favour, setting in motion complex plots and intrigues between them, which Aegon found vastly entertaining. He gave many of them bastards, and eventually revealed that his cousin Daena's bastard son was his own son. Aegon was unimpressed with his legitimate son and heir, Daeron, who grew up favouring songs and stories over swords, but saw in his bastard son Daemon a great warrior. On his twelfth birthday, Aegon IV gave his bastard son one of the two Targaryen Valyrian steel blade, Blackfyre, a sign of tremendous respect and trust.

During Aegon IV's later life, rumours began to circulate that Queen Naerys had been having an affair with Aemon for most of their lives, and that the paternity of Daeron was therefore in question. One knight who openly made these claims, Ser Mormegil, was slain by Aemon in single combat for making them. But still the rumours persisted.

Aegon IV found one of his own Kingsguard, Ser Terrence Toyne, abed with one of his mistresses and slew him. In return, Toyne's two brothers attempted to kill Aegon IV. Aemon defended his brother and was killed, but Aegon IV escaped. The brothers Toyne fled, and one of their descendants continued to oppose the Targaryens by leading a band of outlaws in the Kingswood. Aegon IV himself fell ill and died a few years later, but on his deathbed he legitimised all of his bastard children of noble birth, plunging the realm into crisis.

The Blackfyre Rebellion
On Aegon's death, the so-called 'Great Bastards' became legitimate children of his, though behind his trueborn children in the line of succession. Daemon founded House Blackfyre, taking the name Daemon Blackfyre, and initially appeared to support his half-brother Daeron II, who took the Iron Throne. Of the other Great Bastards, Aegor Rivers, known as Bittersteel, was a close friend and confidant of Daemon's, whilst Brynden Rivers, known as Bloodraven for his distinctive birthmark and white skin, sided with Daeron II, becoming an advisor.

A decade into Daeron II's reign, Daemon Blackfyre raised the standard of rebellion, claiming that Daeron II was a bastard born of an affair between Aemon and Naerys. The trigger for this act appears to have been Daeron II's decision to marry his younger sister Daenerys to Prince Maron Martell of Dorne. Many in the Seven Kingdoms were unhappy with the 'Dornish flavour' the royal court had adopted (the influence of Queen Myriah) and saw this act as unacceptable. In addition, Daenerys and Daemon Blackfyre were known to be in love with one another. Daemon's standard was a black dragon on red, opposed to the red dragon on black of House Targaryen, and rapidly the realm was divided between those who supported red or black.

Daemon Blackfyre and one of his dead sons on the Redgrass Field.

The war culminated in the Battle of the Redgrass Field. Lord Hayford, the King's Hand, led Daeron II's main army from King's Landing to intercept Daemon's forces. A pitched battle erupt, which initially went Daemon's way. Hayford and a number of other prominent royalist commanders were killed. However, Daemon was delayed by an epic clash of swords with Ser Gwayne Corbray of the Kingsguard, wielding the Valyrian steel blade Lady Forlorn. The duel that followed is one of the most famous in the history of Westeros, the two knights fighting until Daemon eventually gained upper hand, dealing Gwayne Corbray a serious injury. The delay gave time for Bloodraven's archers, the Raven's Teeth, to ascend the Weeping Ridge and rain arrows down on Blackfyre's forces. Bloodraven himself, an elite archer, slew Daemon Blackfyre and two of his sons. Furious at this cowardly attack, Bittersteel led a charge at the Teeth and engaged Bloodraven in single combat, slicing out one of his eyes. By this time Daeron II's sons, Baelor and Maekar, had arrived on the field with Dornish reinforcements and outflanked the rebels, beginning the process of crushing them. Seeing the battle lost, Bittersteel fled the field and his army scattered.

Bittersteel took refuge in the Free Cities with many surviving knights and the remaining five sons of Daemon Blackfyre. Though now exiled, Bittersteel declared that their destiny lay in Westeros and they must never forget their cause. They founded the mercenary company known as the Golden Company and vowed to return home to Westeros one day.

After the Blackfyre Rebellion, Dorne entered the Seven Kingdoms formally and peacefully, swearing fealty to the Iron Throne in return for allowing to retain a greater degree of autonomy than the other kingdoms.

Dunk and Egg
Fifteen years after the Redgrass Field, the Seven Kingdoms was enjoying a time of peace and plenty. Good King Daeron sat the Iron Throne with his son Baelor the Breakspear as Hand, and the realm prospered. Lord Ashford held a great tourney to celebrate his daughter's wedding and Prince Baelor attended with his brother Maekar and their respective children. However, during the tourney one of Maekar's sons, Prince Aerion, took offence to a puppet show in which a dragon was killed. Taking this as a criticism of House Targaryen, Aerion punished the puppeteers. A hedge knight, Ser Duncan the Tall, intervened and laid hands on Aerion, injuring him. Duncan was almost killed, but Aerion's brother Aegon, who had made friends with Duncan, stopped it. A trial was held and Ser Duncan asked for trial by battle, noting Aerion's ineptitude at personal combat, but Aerion cleverly demanded instead a trial of seven where each side has to field seven champions instead.

The battle was fought and many legends were made that day, including two knights of House Fossoway taking opposite sides and one taking a red apple as his sigil and the other a green, resulting in a split that endures to this day. Prince Baelor joined Duncan's seven, to his brother Maekar's fury who took Aerion's side. Eventually, Duncan bested Aerion, forcing him to retract his complaints. Duncan was forgiven, but when Prince Baelor removed his helm, it was revealed that he was much more severely wounded than first fought. Baelor died and his body was burned.

Prince Maekar confronted Duncan and revealed he knew that his son Aerion was a lickspittle, coward and crazed fool, and he didn't want his younger son Aegon to turn out like him. Duncan suggested that Aegon needed to see the world and live amongst the smallfolk as his brother never did, so Maekar gave Aegon to Duncan as a squire. They travelled the Seven Kingdoms incognito for many years, becoming known as 'Dunk and Egg'. In the Reach they repaired a years-old dispute between the Houses Osprey and Webber, and in the Riverlands they helped avert the Second Blackfyre Rebellion by exposing a gathering of would-be traitors. They journeyed to Winterfell in the aftermath of an assault by the King-beyond-the-Wall, Raymun Redbeard, and saw the sands of Dorne. Aegon saw all the things his brothers and cousins and forefathers had not, and this stood him in good stead to become a great leader in his own right.

The Unlikely King
A few months after Prince Baelor's death, the Seven Kingdoms was struck by the Great Spring Sickness. Hundreds of thousands of people died, including King Daeron II and his wife and Baelor's surviving children. Daeron's second son, Aerys, took the Iron Throne and appointed Bloodraven as Hand of the King. Aerys was weak-willed and bookish, and during his reign Dagon Greyjoy rebelled and led the ironborn in raiding along the coast. Eventually it fell to Beron Stark and the Lannisters to combine their forces to crush the rebellion.

Aerys' reign was considered ill-omened, and Bloodraven was not loved by the people either. A great drought took place, and banditry on the roads increased. When Aerys finally died without issue, the crown passed over his younger brother Rhaegel, who was crazed and sickly, to his youngest brother, Maekar.

Maekar was a solid but unexceptional ruler, noted for his preference to spend as much time as possible in the Targaryen summer place of Summerhall rather than at King's Landing or the ancestral stronghold of Dragonstone. Eventually he died fighting an outlaw lord. There was a gathering of lords to debate the succession, since Maekar's two oldest sons (including Aerion) had died. They offered the crown to Maekar's third son, Aemon, a maester of the Citadel, but he refused it and joined the Night's Watch instead, agreeing to serve as maester at Castle Black on the Wall, a position he would go on to hold for seventy years. Finally, Aegon - Egg - took the crown as Aegon V Targaryen, the Unlikely King, for he was a fourth son of a fourth son.

Aegon V ruled wisely and well for near thirty years. The realm prospered under his rule. The roads were made safe again, and the 'cursed' Bloodraven was packed off to the Wall (though even there he would rise high, eventually becoming Lord Commander of the Night's Watch). Several further attempts by the Blackfyre Pretenders to claim the Iron Throne were defeated. Aegon shored up his support by marrying his daughter Rhaelle to Lord Baratheon of Storm's End, and made his old friend Duncan first a member of the Kingsguard and later its Lord Commander. He also named his firstborn son and heir for Duncan in violation of the custom for giving Targaryen children Valyrian names.

During the latter part of Aegon's reign, names famous now in Westeros were first heard. After a succession of short-lived Grand Maesters, the Citadel appointed the relatively young Pycelle to the position, a position he still holds more than forty years later. During Aegon's reign a young warrior named Barristan Selmy came to prominence, and was knighted.

Aegon's reign, so great in promise, ended in fire and tragedy. Aegon attempted to hatch the last of the Targaryen dragon eggs by creating an enormous fire at Summerhall. The fire got out of control, killing Prince Aegon, Lord Commander Duncan and Prince Duncan the Small. During the chaos of the fire, Aegon V's granddaughter Rhaella gave birth to her son, by her brother-husband Prince Aerys. The son's name was Rhaegar.

The War of the Ninepenny Kings
After Aegon's death, his son Jaehaerys II took the throne, but Jaehaerys was sickly and weak. Despite this, when he heard that the Blackfyre Pretenders were making one last play for the Iron Throne, he was able to respond decisively.

Maelys Blackfyre, commander of the Golden Company, had made common cause and alliance with eight other exiled or outcast rulers of the Free Cities. They agreed to pool their armies and help one another achieve what they could not alone. In the Free Cities they became known as the Band of Nine, but in Westeros were called the Ninepenny Kings. The Ninepenny Kings helped Alequo Adarys conquer Tyrosh and become its new Archon, then they invaded the Stepstone islands and began massing their forces for an invasion of Westeros. Before they could mount the assault, they were hit with a pre-emptive strike. A strong army of Westerosi troops landed on the Stepstones and defeated the Ninepenny Kings. Hoster and Brynden Tully won great acclaim, as did Lord Baelish of the Fingers, but the greatest honour fell to Ser Barristan Selmy, who faced Maelys in single combat. Maelys was known as 'The Monstrous', for it was said that he had consumed his own twin in the womb and had since sprouted a vestigial second head growing out of his shoulder. Using his skill at arms, Barristan killed Maelys, last of the Blackfyre Pretenders.

For his leal service, Barristan was named to the Kingsguard of King Jaehaerys. Elsewhere, the Golden Company, bereft of a cause, returned to the Free Cities and continued fighting for hire. And Hoster Tully made a friend for life of Lord Baelish, later agreeing to raise his son Petyr at Riverrun for a time.

King Aerys II Targaryen, popularly known as the Mad King.

The Reign of the Mad King
Shortly after the War of the Ninepenny Kings, Jaehaerys died and his son Aerys II took the throne. Aerys' reign began with great promise. He made the young, dynamic Tywin Lannister of Casterly Rock his Hand, and the realm prospered. The people were happy, the last rival claimants to the throne were dead and there was no prospect of war on the horizon.

As it happened, this very period of peace unsettled Aerys. He began hearing that it was Tywin who was responsible for peace, not him, and even tore out the tongue of one of Tywin's knights, Ser Ilyn Payne, for saying this in his hearing. When Lord Darklyn of Duskendale refused to pay his taxes, King Aerys disdained asking Tywin to handle it, instead leading his own troops to punish Darklyn. Instead, Aerys was captured and left imprisoned in the castle for several months. Tywin besieged the castle and Ser Barristan Selmy managed to rescue Aerys, but the experience left Aerys maddened with rage, fear and paranoia. He had the Darklyns burned alive.

Back in King's Landing, Aerys began seeing threats in every corner. He disdained marrying his son Rhaegar to Tywin's daughter, Cersei, saying that a king did not marry his heir to a servant. Instead, he married Rhaegar to Princess Elia Martell of Dorne. He also sent a force of knights into the Kingswood to put down an insurrection by the Kingswood Brotherhood. After Jaime Lannister showed great promise during this incident, Aerys named him to the Kingsguard. This meant that Jaime gave his claims to Tywin's castle and title in favour of his little brother, the ugly, stunted and deformed Tyrion. This insult was one too many for Tywin and he resigned the Handship and returned to Casterly Rock.

Aerys' madness became more apparent. In the Year of False Spring, Lord Whent of Harrenhal hosted a great tourney. Prince Rhaegar became the champion of the tournament, but rather name his own wife the Queen of Love and Beauty as was traditional, he named Lyanna Stark of Winterfell. A few months later Rhaegar snatched Lyanna from Winterfell and took her south. Her father and brother, Rickard and Brandon, went to King's Landing to demand justice. Instead, Aerys had them burned alive for questioning the authority of the Iron Throne.

Robert Baratheon and Rhaegar Targaryen at the Battle of the Trident.

Robert's Rebellion
Aerys' act in executing Rickard and Brandon Stark and holding Lyanna prisoner (or approving of his son doing the same) triggered a bloody uprising against Targaryen rule.

When he killed Brandon, Aerys also had his retainers put to death, including Elbert Arryn, the heir to Lord Jon Arryn of the Vale. Aerys then commanded Lord Jon Arryn to give up his young wards, Eddard Stark, now Lord of Winterfell, and Robert Baratheon, Lyanna Stark's betrothed. Instead, Jon Arryn called his banners. Eddard Stark travelled over the mountains and across the Bite to return to Winterfell and rouse the North, whilst Robert was able to return to Storm's End and call his own banners. In addition, Jon called on the allegiance of House Tully, since Lord Hoster's daughter Catelyn had been betrothed to Brandon. Catelyn wed Eddard instead, whilst Jon married her sister Lysa to shore up the audience.

Aerys' madness had brought the realm to the brink of disaster. The Starks, Arryns, Tullys and Baratheons, half of the Great Houses of Westeros, were in open rebellion and gathering armies to challenge the Targaryens. The Greyjoys and Lannisters refused to answer Aerys' commands for aid. The Martells did send some troops, but their response was apathetic: by taking Lyanna Stark as a paramour, Prince Rhaegar had dishonoured his wife Elia, a princess of Dorne. So Dornish troops were dispatched, but not many and not at speed. Of the Great Houses, only the Tyrells remained truly loyal to Aerys.

The royalists moved to decapitate the rebellion by killing Robert Baratheon. Armies were sent against Storm's End, but in a piecemeal fashion. Robert defeated three separate armies in three separate battles on the same day, winning their commanders to his cause through sheer strength of personality. He then suffered a defeat to Lord Randyll Tarly at the Battle of Ashford, but was able to withdraw northwards in good order. Rather than pursue Robert, Randyll Tarly and Mace Tyrell instead obeyed the Mad King's command to take Storm's End, and besieged the castle. Robert's brother Stannis held the castle against the siege for a year, and only survived thanks to a brave smuggler named Davos Seaworth who ran the blockade with cargo holds full of onions.

Robert became separated from most of his men and took refuge in the town of Stoney Sept on the upper Blackwater. The Mad King had replaced his lacklustre hand with Lord Jon Connington of Griffin's Roost, a young and dynamic knight. However, Connington refused to burn the town to the ground, instead preferring the glory of capturing Robert alive. Because of this, precious time was wasted and Eddard Stark was able to relieve the town during the mighty Battle of the Bells. After this, Jon Connington was exiled to the Free Cities for his failure.

The rebel armies gathered and marched on King's Landing. They were stopped by a larger army, commanded by Rhaegar Targaryen himself, on the banks of the Trident. A huge battle was fought, but Robert's forces gained the upper hand, and Robert smashed Rhaegar's life from him with his battlehammer. The royalist armies were routed and, with Robert injured, Eddard led the pursuit of the host back to King's Landing.

King's Landing now appeared doomed, but at the last moment a Lannister army marched out of the west, Lord Tywin proclaiming his loyalty to King Aerys. The city gates were opened, but the Lannisters brutally sacked the city instead. The Mad King was slain at the foot of the Iron Throne by his own Kingsguard, Ser Jaime Lannister, whilst Elia Martell and her two young children were killed by Lannister knights, most notably Gregor Clegane and Amory Lorch. The sack was still going on when Eddard Stark arrived with Robert's vanguard.

The rebellion was over. The Mad King was dead, and Robert Baratheon took the Iron Throne by blood right, as the grandson of King Aegon V's daughter. All of the great lords re-swore fealty to Robert as King. The only loose ends were the Mad King's wife and surviving son, Viserys. But the Mad King's wife died in childbirth, giving birth to a daughter, Daenerys. Loyal Targaryen retainers took Viserys and Daenerys into exile in the Free Cities, beyond Robert's grasp.

In the foothills of the mountains of Dorne, Eddard Stark found his sister dying from causes unknown, defended by three members of the Kingsguard. Eddard and his loyal men slew them, but only Eddard and his friend Howland Reed survived the battle. Lyanna passed away, after making Eddard swear a promise on his solemn oath. With Lyanna dead, Robert married Cersei Lannister to ensure her father's continued loyalty.

The Greyjoy Rebellion
Several years after Robert took the throne, Lord Balon Greyjoy of Pyke declared himself King of the Iron Islands, raising the standard of rebellion. His brothers Euron and Victarion Greyjoy attacked and burned the Lannister fleet at rest in Lannisport, as well as raiding Seagard and along the coast. Robert and Eddard moved swiftly to put down the rebellion. Stannis Baratheon and Paxter Redwyne's fleets joined forces and crushed the Greyjoy fleet at the Battle of Fair Isle, allowing Robert to land substantial forces on the Iron Islands unimpeded. Great siege ships battered a hole in the walls of Pyke, and the sellsword-priest Thoros of Myr led the way through the breach with a burning sword, Ser Jorah Mormont close behind him. The fighting was bitter and hard, but eventually Balon was forced to capitulate. He was badly outnumbered, and his two older sons were killed during the war. Balon Greyjoy re-swore fealty and his only surviving son Theon was given to Eddard Stark to raise as a ward and hostage against his father's good behaviour.

King Robert Baratheon ruled from the Iron Throne, whilst Lord Jon Arryn became a respected and wise Hand. Eddard Stark returned to Winterfell to rule the North, whilst in the east spies kept a careful watch on the movements of Daenerys and Viserys Targaryen. Robert and Cersei raised their children, Joffrey, Myrcella and Tommen, whilst Eddard raised his, but found problems in getting his wife Catelyn to accept the presence of his bastard son Jon Snow, born on campaign. But overall, this was a period of peace and recovery from war.

The Song of Ice and Fire So Far: Part 1 - Ancient History

With A Dance of Dragons due for release on 12 July 2011, a lot of people seem to having difficulty recalling exactly what character was doing what where, especially since Dragons is picking up a lot of its storylines left dangling in A Storm of Swords eleven years ago. So my first thought was to simply do a round-up of what was going on with each character at the end of the last book, based on what we know (via spoiler chapters and convention readings) of what's going on in Dragons. Unfortunately - but appropriately - it got a bit out of control and turned into a big article spanning the whole known history of the fiction setting. The article has been split in multiple parts for easier reading. Part 2 is forthcoming, but probably won't take six years.

Needless to say, if you are watching the TV series there will be mega-humongous spoilers for the entire series in these posts (though this first one isn't so bad).


Ancient PrehistoryTwelve thousand years ago (according to tradition), in the dawn of days, the lands of Westeros were inhabited by a diminutive race known as the children of the forest. The children were strong in magic but few in number, living long lives under the eaves of the forests which covered much of the continent at this time. The children worshipped the old gods of the forest, gods of wind and rain and sunlight, gods with no names but whose faces were carved into the barks of great weirwood trees.

Then men came from the east, crossing the Arm of Dorne to invade Westeros with bronze and fire. The children fought back, shattering the Arm of Dorne to no avail, leaving behind the broken islands of the Stepstones. Over generations of warfare, the children were pushed back to the Neck, the narrowest part of the continent, and tried again to break the land. They failed, only succeeding in creating a vast swampland. Still, these displays of magic gave the First Men pause. Eventually the two sides signed the Pact of the Isle of Faces, with the First Men taking the open lands for their own and the children remaining in the forests. The First Men and the children lived in peace for four thousand years, the First Men forging hundreds of small kingdoms of their own from the northern icecap to the southern deserts and taking the old gods for their own.

The Others, aka white walkers. Please don't call them 'wight walkers', as it is incorrect.

The Long Night and the War for the Dawn
Eight thousand years ago (at least, according to legend), a winter came that lasted a generation, and with it a lengthy period of darkness, the Long Night. And with the night came things, creatures of ice and cold from the uttermost north. The Others, or, as some called them, white walkers swept southwards, slaughtering all before them, children and men alike, and raising the dead to fight for them. The conflict became known as the War for the Dawn, when all of life in Westeros was imperilled, but eventually the First Men and the children proved victorious. Using weapons of obsidian and led by a great hero wielding a sword of fire (known in the east as Azhor Azhai), they threw the Others back into the furthest north in defeat. Behind them, at the narrowest part of the continent in the north, Brandon the Builder, Brandon Stark, raised with ice, gravel and sorcery a great wall. Stretching for three hundred miles, the Wall was a physical obstruction and a magical one, with sorcery woven into the structure to prevent the Others and their servants from passing south. In those early days the Wall was much shorter than later, but millennia of icefall added to its height, eventually raising it to over seven hundred feet in height.

Brandon Stark was acclaimed the first King in the North and built the great castle at Winterfell as his seat. He also founded the Night's Watch to man and guard the Wall and prevent the return of the Others. It was a time of greatness and glory, but the children, whose modest numbers had been reduced further in the war, decided their time in the lands of men was done. They gradually faded and disappeared over the course of the next few centuries.

The Wall, as seen from the south side.

The Andal InvasionTwo thousand years later, in a land called Andalos on the eastern continent, the people there received a vision from a god with seven faces. They were told to leave their homeland and march west to make a new home in Westeros. The Andals were a fierce race of warriors, equipped with iron weapons and having tamed horses to carry them into battle. They crossed the Narrow Sea on a fleet of ships, making landfall on the Fingers and sweeping across Westeros. The First Men who agreed to serve them were made to swear to the new gods, the Seven, and those who refused were initially slaughtered, though later accommodations were reached with some who held out, such as the Blackwoods, the kings whose vassals, the Brackens, accepted the Faith and overthrew them, but later made peace (though this still begun a blood feud that has lasted - according to myth - more than five millennia). But the last few strongholds of the children in the south vanished, and the great godswoods reduced to pleasure gardens in the walls of grand castles.

The Andals colonised all the south of Westeros, from the Iron Islands to the Vale and from Dorne to the Neck, but their attempts to pass north of the Neck and invade the North failed. The Starks of Winterfell threw back every attempt to cross the Neck, using the fortress of Moat Cailin to rain death down on all those who attempted it. Eventually the southron kingdoms made peace with the Starks, and in time there were marriage pacts and alliances. However, on the Iron Islands the initially successful Andal invasion was eventually reversed, with both the followers of the old gods and the new sidelined by the rise in worship of the Drowned God, a deity of the sea.

The Rise of Valyria and the Flight of the Rhoynar
Around the same time, five thousand years ago and more, peaceful shepherds of a remote peninsula found dragons lairing in the Fourteen Fires, a great range of volcanoes stretching across the neck of their headland. The people of this land, Valyria, were easy prey for the harpy-worshipping slavers of the great Ghiscari Empire to the east, but using discipline and sorcery they were able to tame the dragons to their will. In five colossal wars they threw down the Ghiscari in ruin and defeat, eventually conquering all the lands of Slaver's Bay. The Valyrian Freehold grew in strength and power, with no king to rule them but a council of the Lord Freeholders who acted as equals.

Over the next four millennia (according to story and song), the Valyrian Freehold expanded in all directions, keeping the primitive tribesfolk of the great grass sea to the north in check and establishing great cities across the Valyrian hinterland, the Lands of the Long Summer. They conquered all the lands of Ghis, keeping the people under their rule, and began expanding along the western coastline, establishing colony-towns. In time they came to the mouth of a vast river, the Rhoyne, and there established the grand city of Volantis.

A thousand years ago (a date even supported by the maesters), the Valyrians invaded and seized the lands of the Rhoynar in force. Nymeria, warrior-queen of the Rhoynar, knew she could not prevail against dragons, so ordered a great exodus. Ten thousand ships of all sizes from all of the banks of the Rhoyne and its numerous tributaries evacuated tens of thousands of people and passed into the Summer Sea. Turning west, braving storms and pirates in the Stepstones, they made landfall on south-eastern coastline of Dorne.

At this time the numerous small Andal kingdoms of Westeros were just beginning a period of consolidation, as great kings and alliances began to absorb the smaller nations. But dry, arid Dorne remained a patchwork of shifting alliances and small, petty kingdoms. Prince Mors Martell of Sunspear saw in the Rhoynar - an organised, cohesive people - a great opportunity and made alliance with them, marrying Nymeria. With her forces, Martell overran and conquered all of Dorne. In the Rhoynar tradition he took the title 'Prince' rather than 'King'.

In the following centuries, the Valyrians expanded into the western coastal regions of the eastern continent. They conquered or established great cities on the islands of Lys, Tyrosh and Lorath, and on the mainland coasts founded Myr and Pentos. Inland, to the north-east of Pentos on tributaries of the Rhoyne, they established the grand cities of Norvos and Qohor. But as the Valyrians conquered, so they also displaced, and thousands of refugees found themselves without a home and struggling to survive. A secretive sect, the Moonsingers, organised them and led them to the far north-western tip of the continent, where the Narrow Sea met the Shivering Sea, and there, in a mist-shrouded lagoon defended by encircling mountains, they founded the Secret City, Braavos of the Hundred Isles. Over the following centuries, escaped slaves and refugees heard whispers and rumours of the Secret City and fled there in droves.

In Valyria, the maiden daughter of a nobleman named Aenar Targaryen experienced visions of doom and catastrophe. Moved by these visions, the Targaryen family removed themselves from the capital and moved to the far western territories with their dragons. They colonised a volcanic island in the Narrow Sea, west of Pentos, called Dragonstone, and took it as their own, as a base of operations and a trading post with mainland Westeros.

A century after the Targaryens colonised Dragonstone, the world changed in a single day of fire and destruction.

Dragonstone, the Targaryen island stronghold off the east coast of Westeros.

The Doom of Valyria
Later generations would call it the Doom of Valyria and claim it to be a judgement from the gods. The Fourteen Fires exploded with tremendous force, triggering a massive chain reaction of volcanic eruptions and earthquakes. Burning ash fell hundreds of miles away, smothering the city of Valyria to the south and laying waste to the Lands of the Long Summer to the north. The sea came flooding in, tearing Valyria away from the mainland and making it an island in demon-haunted waters. The Smoking Sea that formed around Valyria was frequently boiling hot to the touch, and the gases that rose from it killed those who breathed them in too much.

The work of five thousand years was undone in a single day. The Ghiscari broke away, establishing a new capital at New Ghis. The northern slave cities of Astapor, Yunkai and Meereen became independent, though retained their slave-trading habits and Ghiscari traditions. But it was in the west that the most chaos erupted, as the cities there fought for domination or independence. Chief amongst the conquerors was Volantis, which tried to take Valyria's place. When the other cities tried to break away, Volantis launched a military campaign to hold onto them, resulting in the Bleeding Years, a century of chaos and warfare. Volantis by itself was unable to hold the cities together and begged the Targaryens, the last holders of dragons in the western world, for aid. But the Targaryens ignored them. Braavos declared itself and allied with the other cities to help them establish their independence and Volantis was forced to abandon its claim to be the true heir to Valyria. Instead, the Nine Free Cities came into being, raucous and quarrelsome but also rapidly growing rich from trade that was no longer taxed by the Valyrians.

A new threat arose from the east. The peoples of the interior steppes had long been cowed by the Valyrians, but with them gone they grew more bold, forming great hordes or khalasars of tens of thousands of warriors. This people, the Dothraki, overran much of the interior of the continent and began launching raids against the surrounding lands. The Free Cities learned it was better to buy them off with gold and slaves than it was to fight them, aside from the Qohoriks who used an army of warrior-eunuchs, the Unsullied, to defeat the Dothraki in open battle. But for the most part, appeasement and peace was favoured over war.

On Dragonstone, the Targaryens marshalled their strength and considered their options. East lay the old, fractious provinces of Valyria, now divided and weakened by a century of warfare and blood. West lay the rich and divided nations of Westeros, displayed in Dragonstone on the Painted Table. Aegon Targaryen, whom history would call Aegon the Conqueror, and his sister-wives Visenya and Rhaenys made their decision and prepared their dragons.

The castle of Harrenhal on the northern shore of Gods Eye.

The Seven Kingdoms
On Westeros, eight great kingdoms arose out of the hundreds of smaller nations: the Kingdom of the North, the Kingdom of the Iron Islands, the Kingdom of the Rock, the Kingdom of the Riverlands, the Kingdom of the Vale, the Kingdom of the Reach, the Storm Kingdom and the Kingdom of Dorne. These nations alternated between warring with one another and trading peacefully. Eventually, the Storm King won a great victory when he slew the last heirs of the River Kings, House Mudd, and conquered the Riverlands. But the Riverlands were too vast and too distant from his castle at Storm's End to hold effectively and when the ironborn began to invade from the coast, the Storm King's forces were pushed back. The ironborn overran and conquered the Riverlands and, as a sign of might, began building a vast castle on the northern shore of Gods Eye.

Harrenhal was an immense fortress, larger than any other in Westeros and maybe the world. The ironborn House Hoare spent vast amounts of gold and many lives in building it. It walls were tall, thick and impregnable, its stores immense. It was hard to assault, difficult to besiege, and King Harren the Black boasted it could not be taken by any army. But the very day it was completed was the same day that Aegon Targaryen and his sister-wives landed at the mouth of the Blackwater Rush, and their dragons had no fear of man's fortifications.

Godslayer by Jacqueline Carey

The land of Urulat is about to see the end of a conflict thousands of years old. The machinations of Satoris the Sower have been exposed and the would-be King of the West, Aracus Altorus, advised by the Wise Counsellor Malthus, has raised a mighty host to assault Darkhaven and rescued his beloved, Cerelinde of the Ellylon. It falls to Satoris' most loyal servants, the Three, to prepare his defence. But whilst great armies ready for the clash, it falls to two of the humble desert-people to find their way into Darkhaven and strike the blow that will render Satoris truly vulnerable.


Godslayer is the second and final novel in The Sundering, a duology that studies and subverts the traditional epic fantasy paradigm as established by Tolkien. Like its forebear, Banewreaker, Godslayer is an epic tragedy, closely based on events and characters from J.R.R. Tolkien's The Silmarillion, Hobbit and Lord of the Rings, but at every turn analysing deeply every character's motivation. As Satoris ponders, does it matter that you are not evil if everyone else believes that you are?

This premise allows Carey to examine many themes and ideas, such as propaganda (Malthus/Gandalf as a sort-of Goebbels for the 'good guys' is an interesting take), destiny and the cyclical nature of history: just as Morgoth was cast down but his servant Sauron was overlooked, allowing him to return later, so Satoris has his own lieutenants who stand poised to inherit his mantle. These ideas are rooted in strong characterisation, particularly of Tanaros and Cerelinde, though other characters also come to the fore.

Godslayer suffers from some minor issues. The story is inherently predictable, once you realise what Carey is doing. Also problematic is that The Sundering is one novel split in two for publication (itself appropriate, since The Lord of the Rings was originally published as three volumes; the fact that Carey tells as epic a story in considerably less pages may itself before a comment on the fantasy genre), meaning that the two books do not stand well alone. Since both are available now and you can read from one into the next without a problem, this is not as much of an issue as when the book was newly-released.

On the plus side, this is a clever and thoughtful conclusion to the series. Through authors such as Bakker and Erikson, epic fantasy has of late been more and more interrogating itself and asking hard questions about its underlying assumptions, but Carey does the same here a lot more concisely. Carey also delivers a story that is an emotionally powerful tragedy. The opposing factions cannot agree on anything and good men on both sides die needlessly as a result of mistakes made thousands of years earlier. The reader becomes as frustrated as the characters do at the ongoing carnage that is only happening at the whim of the proud and long-absent gods.

Godslayer (****) is a worthy conclusion to this duology that questions the conservative nature of much epic fantasy and finds it wanting, as well as delivering a powerful and tragic tale in its own right. The book is available now in the USA and on import in the UK.

Congrats to Brandon Sanderson

Brandon Sanderson emerged victorious at the David Gemmell Legend Awards in London last night. He won the award for The Way of Kings. Many congratulations to Brandon!


Though this is slightly surprising, as it was assumed, due to the much larger Wheel of Time fanbase, that Towers of Midnight would be a better bet. It also means that the Wheel of Time, despite its immense popularity, still remains without a notable fantasy or SF award trophy to its name. It'll be interesting to see if A Memory of Light can end that drought.

Congrats again to Brandon and his publishers.

In other news, Darius Hinks won the Best Newcomer Award for his novel Warrior Priest, whilst the Best Cover Art award inexplicably went to the rather atrocious cover of Power and Majesty by Tansy Rayner Roberts (no, never heard of it either). Pornokitsch have the cover here, if you can bear to look at it.

In addition, the auction to get your name into Scott Lynch's next-but-one novel raised a startling £1,200.

Want a signed copy of A DANCE WITH DRAGONS?

If you're after a signed copy of A Dance with Dragons but George R.R. Martin isn't stopping anywhere near your town, the Signed Page website is arranging to have its stock of the book signed by GRRM on 29 July. After that day signed copies of the book can be sent out to purchasers.

Obviously you won't get the book on the day of release and will have to wait a couple of weeks, but this may be of interest to collectors after a signed copy. The Signed Page accepts international orders from outside the USA as well.

Potential GAME OF THRONES spin-off show?

So who do we have to kill to make this happen?

Dark Messiah of Might and Magic

Sareth, a young hero on the planet of Ashan, is thrust into a struggle between several competing factions for a mighty artifact, the Skull of Shadows, his use of which could determine the fate of the world. Arantir, a dread necromancer, wants to use the Skull to help him rule the world, whilst another faction favours destroying it or using it to re-imprison an ancient force of implacable evil. The choice is in Sareth's hands...


It's difficult to pin down exactly what kind of game Dark Messiah of Might and Magic is. It has an inventory system and you gain skill points as the game progresses, which you can use to increase your effectiveness at combat, magic or stealth. It has a main storyline, but also a couple of optional side-missions at various points. Yet it isn't really an RPG. The game is thoroughly action-based, there are a few cut-scenes and very little in the way of hub or open areas where you can do jobs on your own. So it's more of a hybrid RPG and FPS.

The game uses the Source Engine, previously used to power Half-Life 2 (and, since then, games like the Left 4 Dead and Portal series), and like Half-Life 2 the game is based around a gimmick. In Half-Life 2, you had a gravity gun which you could use to, for example, pick up a tumble driver and fire it at velocity into enemies' faces. It was a fun gimmick, especially since if you tired of it, you could ignore it and continue to use guns.

Dark Messiah of Might and Magic also has a gimmick. It's called 'your foot'. Essentially you can use 'your foot' to 'kick' enemies, often into handily-placed fires or walls of spikes (which are, inexplicably, legion in the game, even in ordinary people's houses) or off ledges. Unlike Half-Life 2, this gimmick is not optional. Kicking an enemy is sometimes the difference between a fight lasting five seconds or ten minutes.

Combat in Dark Messiah is hard, frustrating and annoying at anything over the lowest difficulty rating. You tend to die if you take three hits from the enemy, whilst they keep coming after sustaining dozens of blows, even small goblins. Keeping your shield up (or sword in parry mode) and knowing when to riposte blows is vital to ensure victory. That is, if you refuse to kick them to death using the omnipresent environmental hazards. Once you've gotten used to the oddities of combat, however, the game becomes far more enjoyable.

Level design is frequently ingenious, overcoming the Source Engine's frustrating 'load every ten steps' feature by making maximum use of vertical space, with ascending or descending house floors and tower levels (often with a handy empty middle bit you can kick people down) being intelligently used to ensure maximum carnage with minimal loading. There's also huge spaces with clever ways of traversing them, sometimes recalling the Jedi Knight series, and intermittently the Prince of Persia games (particularly your character's ability to grab onto levels and haul yourself up, which is very weird in the first-person viewpoint). Graphically, the game is reasonable, though both character models and particularly animation are a bit weak compared to the two-years-older Half-Life 2. Environmental graphics and particularly lighting remain strong, however.

The storyline is fairly weak and predictable, and your NPC helper for most of the game is pretty useless (she's no Alyx Vance, that's for sure). Also, despite being set in the same world as Heroes of Might and Magic V (and presumably the same universe as all the other Might and Magic games), there's little to no cross-over with the other titles, making the use of the Might and Magic franchise name questionable.

Overall, Dark Messiah is a very oddball and conflicted game. On the one hand, the environments and level design are particularly strong, and combat, though sometimes frustrating, can be satisfying once you've mastered the various sword fighting combos, blocks and, of course, the use of your Mighty Foot of Insta-Death. On the other hand, the storyline is not particularly compelling and the NPCs are extremely thin. Yet it remained interesting enough for me to finish the game and, since I only paid £3 for it in a Steam sale, was also reasonably good value for money.

Dark Messiah of Might and Magic (***) is a reasonably enjoyable game with enough problems to put off the easily-irritated. Those who persevere with it will - eventually - find much to enjoy. The game is out now in the UK and USA.

Carrier Command: Gaea Mission Preview

Rock Paper Shotgun have a detailed preview of the new Carrier Command game, Gaea Mission. Bohemia Interactive (the creators of the Arma franchise and the original Operation Flashpoint) are hoping to release the game next year.


The original Carrier Command was released on the Amiga, Atari ST and PC in 1988, with some ports to less-powerful systems like the Spectrum following soon after. The game cast you as the commander of an immense automated aircraft carrier as it tried to colonise an island chain in the Pacific Ocean in the 22nd Century, building up resources for an attack on an enemy carrier as it did the same thing. The two carriers had to colonise and strip-mine islands for resources, the idea being to keep a steady flow of fresh supplies whilst squeezing the enemy's supplies. The ultimate goal was to immobilise the enemy carrier (which was faster than the player's), corner it and destroy it.

The new version is a faithful remake of the original, but obviously with vastly upgraded graphics and AI, a better user-interface, and two modes of play: a 'campaign' mode which is story-driven and features cut-scenes and specific mission objectives, and a more sandbox 'strategy' mode in which you take complete control of the war effort, like the original game.

In 2001 Rage released a 'homage' called Hostile Waters, which was similar but adopted a linear, mission-based approach. It was also spectacularly awesome.

Hopefully the new game will live up to its heritage. It's due to hit in Q1 2012.

Fancy a cameo in the fourth Scott Lynch novel?

The David Gemmell Awards have a auction every year, and this year they are offering non-attendees of the award ceremony the chance to bid on lots. Among the items on offer is the chance to appear in Scott Lynch's fourth Gentleman Bastard novel, The Thorn of Emberlain (it being too late to arrange the same thing for the forthcoming third novel, The Republic of Thieves). Usually the person who wins these kind of events gets killed off in a nasty manner, but Scott has thrown in a twist: your character will survive! But only by the narrowest of the margin.


For a full list of items, including the complete Dresden Files from Orbit Books (complete in their swanky new covers) and the chance to have your manuscript appraised by publisher and editor Jo Fletcher, check out the link.