Tower of the Hand

10 changes between the books and show. Writing for Rolling Stone, Sean T. Collins breaks down ten of the biggest changes-- or perceived changes-- between George R. R. Martin's books and the HBO adaptation.

Game of Thrones RPG on sale today. Game Of Thrones, the new roleplaying video game based on the HBO series and A Song of Ice and Fire books, goes on sale today. "Featuring many familiar locations from the books and likenesses from the TV series, Game of Thrones also delves into a new storyline for fans to discover while immersed in 30-plus hours of original game play." Check out the game trailer: This Is War. Game of Thrones is available for Xbox 360, PS3, and PC.

Tower of the Hand is also giving away two copies of the game, which includes a limited edition art book (shown above). To enter, simply leave a comment on this thread. You can also improve your chances of winning by re-tweeting this on Twitter, and liking this on Facebook. We'll announce the lucky winners on Friday. (Note: the game giveaway is for US residents only, but if your name gets drawn and you're not from the US, we'll find an alternate prize for you.)

GRRM recaps the latest news. George R. R. Martin's first substantial blog in a while discusses several noteworthy items, albeit briefly. He's already written his script for the third season of Game of Thrones; it's called "Autumn Storms" and will be the season's seventh episode. Dangerous Women is edging towards completion; this new anthology that GRRM is editing will also include the next Dunk and Egg tale. Work continues on several Ice and Fire tie-ins: The Lands of Ice and Fire (a map book), The World of Ice and Fire (a concordance), and calendars featuring artists Marc Simonetti and Gary Gianni (for 2013 and 2014, respectively). As for The Winds of Winter, GRRM says, "Yes, I'm working on that too. At the moment, I am writing about the Dothraki. More than that, I sayeth not, you know I don't like to talk about this stuff."

Interview with Leviathan Wakes authors. Over at Comic Related, Marc has an interesting interview with Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck, co-authors of Leviathan Wakes. Although George R. R. Martin is only casually mentioned in the interview, the two have a strong GRRM connection: Abraham is one of GRRM's most frequent collaborators and Franck is GRRM's assistant. (Also: Leviathan Wakes is competing this year against A Dance with Dragons for the Hugo best novel award.)

Boiled Leather Audio Hour #8. The new issue of the BLAH podcast with Sean T. Collins and me is out. Today we talk about prophecies in "A Song of Ice and Fire", joined by our special guest Steven Attewell, known to readers of the Tower for his series on the Hands of the King. Witness witty comments, insights beyond count, vanity and Stefan messing up the introduction.

After Dark, Wild Things. Tower of the Hand "After Dark" invites you to mingle with other members and chat about all things off topic. In memory of Maurice Sendak, let's discuss our favorite childhood books. Who was your favorite author growing up?

Top comments since the last AD: Daemon Blackfyre's personal rankings, Split's ode to Shae, bastardbell's retweet of Liam Cunningham, villanova's quote of Ser Rodrik, and (again) Daemon Blackfyre's ode to seabitch. Thank you all for keeping things wild!

Five reasons for the long seasons. io9's George Dvorsky provides "5 Scientific Explanations for Game of Thrones' Messed-Up Seasons." Seriously, though, if you don't like the weather in Westeros, just wait five years.

While we wait for tonight's episode of Game of Thrones, check out these cool fan-made videos: Brave Trailer Mash Up, A Clash of LEGO, The Bagpipes Cover, The Bear and the Maiden Fair. The videos are also embedded after the jump: