From the Little, Brown website:

I’m not shy about my love for Daniel Abraham’s Long Price Quartet. Though I’ve only read the first two volumes (I’m pacing myself, otherwise I’d devour the whole thing and look back in sadness at what I’ll never get to experience again for the first time), it’s easily one of my favourite series off all time. If the final two volumes are of an equal quality to the first two, I have no qualms saying it’s the finest finished series published in the last 25 years. Needless to say, I’m excited by both The Dragon’s Path, the first volume in The Coin and the Dagger, published under Abraham’s real name, and Leviathan Wakes, the first volume in The Expanse Series, a Science Fiction cycle he’s writing alongside Ty Franck under the pseudonym ‘James S.A. Corey’. Then, of course, he’s also got an Urban Fantasy series that he writes under the name ‘M.L.N Hanover’. It’s kinda unfair that the guy can write so fast and produce such quality. For all the praise Brandon Sanderson gets, Abraham’s accomplishments are no less noteworthy.

To me, a reader whose experience with Science Fiction isn’t nearly what it should be, what intrigues me most about Leviathan’s Wake is Abraham’s restraint in his vision of the future. There’s no interstellar travel, as seems to dominate much of Space Opera, and neither does it look like he’ll be relying on aliens to wow his readers. Like The Long Price Quartet, it seems like Abraham discovered a story he wants to tell and then found the suitable setting in which to tell it, rather than letting the setting dictate the plot.

Of course, we’ll get a stronger impression of Leviathan Wakes as its June, 2011 release date draws closer.

The Great Hunt is over.

After the strong critical response to The Gathering Storm, the first of the Sanderson/Jordan posthumous collaborations, anticipation is high for Towers of Midnight, the penultimate volume in The Wheel of Time series.

For those interested, the excerpt, a chapter called The Seven-Striped Lass, is available on Sanderson’s official website, or in a prettier form on Dragonmount.

From Winter is Coming:

Yesterday I posted some images from Game of Thrones, the HBO adaptation of George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire. It proved rather popular. So to that end, above is the behind-the-scenes video from which all those images were pulled by the lovely folk at Winter is Coming.

It’s great to see Martin so excited about the series (regardless of the fact that it’s a promo piece, Martin’s seems honestly impressed by what he’s seen on set. I also get hot and sweaty whenever I see Sean Bean do anything. I ruined my pants when he was talking about the television series. Dinklage has all of Tyrion’s charisma and charm; Jon looks great; Maisie Williams’ smirk is Arya. Just lovely to see some of these characters in motion.

A brief, but tantalizing look at some post-production footage from the film. Unlike the behind-the-scenes trailer, this footage better represents what the series will probably look like once it comes to television in 2011. It’s dark, moody and suited to the overall tone of A Song of Ice and Fire, but I hope it can also retain Martin’s touch for humour and light-heartedness. Can’t wait to see a proper full-length trailer.

Ned Stark

Jon Snow

Catelyn Stark

Tyrion Lannister

Loras Tyrell

Ned, Jon and Tyrion look great. Catelyn still looks too weathered (though that perhaps suits her character better than the image I have in my head). But, holy damn, that detailing on Loras Tyrell’s helmet is just unbelievable. More than anything, I’m eager to see Westeros visualized and hope that level of quality extends across all of the costuming and set design.

More photos can be found on Winter is Coming, which also happens to be a terrific one-stop resource for everything concerning the HBO adaptation of A Song of Ice and Fire