Lose One, Win One

June 29, 2024 at 7:07 am

You win some, you lose some, some get rained out.

That’s how it goes in baseball, and in the awards game as well.

VOYAGING, Raya Golden’s lovely graphic novel adaptation of “The Plague Star,” the opening novella in my Haviland Tuf series, was a finalist for this year’s Locus Award in the category of Illustrated or Art Books. The awards were presented on June 22, and, alas, we lost. (Or you might say we were “differently victorious,” as the toastmaster did at the 1998 Nebula Awards).

The winner was The CULTURE: The Drawings, by Iain M. Banks, published by Orbit in both the U.S. and U.K.

It was an honor just to be nominated. Congratulations to the winner (Iain M. Banks is terrific, by the way).

In other awards news, back in May of 2023, SFWA presented its Nebula Award for Game Writing to ELDEN RING, from Bandai Entertainment and From Software. I did the worldbuilding for that project; Hidetaka Miyazaka and his team did all the rest. We were both honored with trophies. I was not at the awards banquet, however, and in any case only one trophy was on hand for the event. That one went home to Japan, where it truly belongs.

The other Nebula was completed a few months ago, and made its way to Santa Fe just in time for our solstice party. It was presented to me on June 22… so as fate would have it, I was winning a Nebula and losing a Locus the same night, almost simultaneously.

My thanks go to SFWA, to all the members who voted for me, to all the members who did not, and to Hidetaka Miyazake and his incredible team at From Software, who made ELDEN RING the best-selling (and best) game in the world for 2022.

Oh, and about those rumors you may have heard about a feature film or television series based on ELDEN RING… I have nothing to say. Not a word, nope, not a thing, I know nothing, you never heard a peep from me, mum mum mum. What rumor?

This is my third Nebula, for what it’s worth… and the first in thirty-nine years, since “Portraits of His Children” in 1985.

I did lose quite a few in the intervening years, including the Best Novel awards for A GAME OF THRONES and A CLASH OF KINGS. (I think. Might be getting that wrong).

It’s an honor just to be nominated, though. Gardner Dozois said that, laughing, when he welcomed me into the Nebula Loser wing of the Hugo Loser Club, along about 1974.

You win some, you lose some, and some get rained out.

Current Mood: cheerful

Tags: awards, comic books, games

Game of Thrones Ascent for iPad

March 27, 2014 at 1:00 pm

An Announcement brought to you by the Minions of Fevre River:

Last year, Disruptor Beam developed Game of Thrones Ascent for the Web, and several million players—comprising thousands of alliances–have joined the conflict in Westeros.

Today, Disruptor Beam just launched a new version of the game for iPad.

If you haven’t tried the game since it first came out, it’s worth checking out again now. Many features have been added, like forming alliances with other players for large-scale battles—not to mention a huge amount of content, items and artwork. If you’re brand new, then you’re in for a treat: the iPad version is a big improvement over the Web version, with crisp graphics and an overhauled touchscreen interface. As Season 4 airs, the game will also feature weekly updates based on the events you watch on HBO.

Disruptor Beam tells me that an Android tablet version will also be available in several weeks. For those of you with an iPad, you can download it today by following this link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/game-of-thrones-ascent/id799145075?ls=1&mt=8

You can also get more information about all the versions of the game on Disruptor Beam’s website: http://disruptorbeam.com

An Announcement brought to you by the Minions of Fevre River-

Current Mood: null null

Tags: ascent, games, gaming, minion post

We Are the Swords In The Darkness

October 24, 2012 at 10:51 pm

The Night’s Watch is coming soon… to a gaming store near you.

Or you can just pre-order it here: http://greenronin.com/2012/09/nights_watch_pre-ordering_now.php

The good folks at Green Ronin Press are about to roll out the latest supplement to their SONG OF ICE AND FIRE rpg. This one is THE NIGHT’S WATCH.

So all you gamers out there, act now… defend the Wall. And expect the usual great art and exciting play.

Current Mood: null null

Tags: games, green ronin

Battle on the Trident

February 19, 2012 at 3:17 pm

Green Ronin Games will be bringing out a new edition of their popular A SONG OF ICE & FIRE role-playing game this April. They’ve just unveiled the cover for the new edition, and Michael Komarck has struck again with his own smashing version of the Prince of Dragonstone and the Lord of Storm’s End meeting on the Trident.

If his eye-popping Wild Cards covers weren’t enough to convince you to nominate Komarck for the Hugo Award, this sure as hell should do the trick. The guy is WAY overdue.

Current Mood: null null

Tags: games, green ronin, hugo awards

A Taste of Cyanide

September 11, 2011 at 12:18 pm

Two of the game designers from Cyanide’s studio in Montreal flew down to New Mexico on Friday to give me a look at their GAME OF THRONES RTS game (that’s Real Time Strategy, for those of you who don’t speak Gaming), which is now done and will be rolling out Real Soon Now.

Now, I have to admit, I am far from being an expert on videogames. In fact, I’ve never played any of the current RTS games. My experience with videogaming was almost entirely with older, turn-based DOS strategy games like ROMANCE OF THE THREE KINGDOMS, PIRATES, MASTER OF ORION, RAILROAD TYCOON, and the like. And as you can probably tell from those titles, I stopped videogaming some years ago (not because I did not like it — truth to tell, I liked it too much, and found that I was spending way too much time playing games on my computer when I should have been writing).

That being said… I thought what I saw looked really cool. And Ty, who DOES play a lot of videogames, seemed impressed as well. The gang at Cyanide (Montreal) have come up with some innovative features for this one, that should help make A GAME OF THRONES: GENESIS unlike any other RTS on the market at present. And fun to play as well, we hope… but that’s a verdict that will need to come from the gamers out there.

Focus, our publisher, has opened an official website for GENESIS. Check it out:

http://www.agot-genesis.com/

(Just to be clear. This is the RTS game, designed and developed by Cyanide’s studio in Montreal. A second videogame, an RPG, is also under development at Cyanide’s studio in France, but that one won’t be along for a while yet. The two games are very different, so please don’t get them confused).

Anyway, I enjoyed having the crew from Cyanide down here, and liked what they had to show me. I hope you will as well.

Current Mood: null null

Tags: games

Mouthing Off

April 4, 2010 at 5:58 pm

There’s a new interview/ podcast with me just up at Gamer’s Haven:

http://www.gamershavenpodcast.com/eparchive/interview009georgerrmartin.mp3

Those of you who aren’t sick of me mouthing off yet should check it out.

Current Mood: null null

Tags: game of thrones, games, rpg, wild cards

How To Play the Game of Thrones

August 15, 2009 at 4:52 pm

The good folks at Fantasy Flight Games have come up with a terrific video tutorial on how to play their GAME OF THRONES card game.

Check it out at:

http://new.fantasyflightgames.com/ffg_content/agotlcg/tutorial/player.html

If only Ned Stark had taken a few lessons…

Current Mood: null null

Tags: fantasy flight, games, rpg

Buried Treasures

May 26, 2009 at 7:34 pm

With my library tower complete at last, we’ve finally started moving things out of storage. We were actually able to give up one of our three lockers, and get down to two. Some of the stuff has been in storage so long that we’d forgotten that we owned it, so finding it again is like bumping into an old friend you haven’t seen in years.

And some buried treasures are coming to light as well. To start with, we found another box of the deluxe limited edition hardcover of the GAME OF THRONES rpg from Guardians of Order. And since they were safe in storage, these copies are NOT horribly water-damaged.

I know that there more of you who wanted to get your hands on one of these, so I am pleased to offer autographed copies once again. Details can be found on my website at:

http://www.georgerrmartin.com/books-limited.html

So far we have only found one box, so it will be first come, first served for as long as copies last. I do think there are more out there in the two remaining storage lockers, but I don’t know how long it will take us to uncover them. Maybe tomorrow. Maybe next year.

Current Mood: null null

Tags: a game of thrones, games

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Game of Thrones Ascent for iPad

We Are the Swords In The Darkness

Battle on the Trident

A Taste of Cyanide

Mouthing Off

How To Play the Game of Thrones

Buried Treasures

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