So, amazon.de, the German wing of the everything-selling giant, done messed up. Several posters on the westeros forums reported that their copies of A Dance with Dragons, the heavily anticipated (and even more heavily embargoed) fifth volume of George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire, was shipping out early. Martin’s publisher, Bantam Spectra, jumped on amazon.de and corrected the mistake, but not before a handful of copies were actually shipped out to readers.

So, first, be aware that copies are out there and that spoilers are bound to start cropping up in the various corners of the web. Second, enjoy the updated map of The Free Cities, an area of Martin’s world that was first revealed (in map form) via the HBO rendition of the map. This version, which appears at the beginning of A Dance with Dragons, is more detailed and aesthetically similar to the previous maps in A Song of Ice and Fire.

*I suppose some small handful of people might consider a map of an area explored since early in the series a spoiler, so, um… if you’re one of those people, don’t scroll down.*

A map of The Free Cities from George R.R. Martin's A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE

Oh, and before you ask, I don’t have a copy of A Dance with Dragons, though I wish I did. The map was found on the Internet.

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