We had all hoped that George R.R. Martin’s ‘Winds of Winter‘ would be released around the time of the next season of HBO’s ‘Game of Thrones‘ and while it won’t be, an excerpt will come out in ‘A Game of Thrones: Enhanced Edition.’ Only available through Apple’s iBooks, this is the first of a new set of interactive digital editions that will help expand Martin’s vision of the Seven Kingdoms.
These new digital books start off each chapter with in-depth character maps which explain the location of the major characters you’re about to read on as well as their relationship to the surrounding locations politically and socially. Martin has approved each of these and they are able to be opened by selecting a small crown icon. A bonus is that there will also be audio clips read by Roy Dotrice who has narrated all of the ‘A Song of Ice and Fire’ novels to date. Another bonus is that the appendices you can find fully detailed information on the houses, characters, timelines, family trees, and everything else that you just read.
Oh, and it will also include a brand new previously never released excerpt from ‘Winds of Winter’. Yes, they couldn’t even give us something new here.
Is anyone else starting to feel like Martin actually isn’t going to release the next novel as a stand alone but in pieces that the Internet has to put together ourselves in a giant puzzle?
If you want to check out what the enhanced version of the books look like you can take a peek at the images below:
While fans who have followed the series from the start may not be interested in picking up yet another copy of the novels, newer fans will potentially be thrilled to have easier access on keeping track of the multitude of characters which Martin has introduced at this point.
Martin himself has said of the new release:
“We’re now entering a new period in the history of publishing. Anything that confuses you, anything you want to know more about, it’s right there at your fingertips. It’s an amazing next step in the world of books.”
For fantasy novels on in-depth space operas such as ‘Dune’, this kind of an idea is truly great. However, I’m honestly not sure if I want to hear anything else about ‘Game of Thrones’ or ‘A Song of Ice and Fire’ until it really is the next season or novel being released.
What are your thoughts on the new ‘A Game Of Thrones: Enhanced Edition’? Even if you don’t want another copy of the novels do you at least enjoy the concept being presented here? Share your thoughts below!
Source: Screen Rant
Stuart Conover is an author, blogger, and all around geek. When not busy being a father and husband he tries to spend as much time as possible immersed in comic books, science fiction, and horror! Would you like to know more? Follow him on Twitter!
