The Boiled Leather Audio Hour

Rhoyne Like Hell: Westeros.org’s Rhoynar-centric “The World of Ice and Fire” Excerpt The bodies haven’t even been removed from the battlefield of our last podcast, but Stefan and I are back already with a brand-new BLAH! Today we’re talking about the excerpt from George R.R. Martin, Elio García Jr., and Linda Antonsson's The World of Ice and Fire about the Rhoynar, which was posted a few weeks ago on the latter two writer’s seminal Westeros.org website. Its title, “The Ten Thousand Ships,” is somewhat inapt given that it doesn’t in fact cover the naval exodus of the people of the Rhoyne from that Essosi river to the southern lands of Dorne in Westeros. But there’s plenty to talk about up until that point, from the sudden revelation that an entire water-based form of magic exists (or existed) to the wartime conduct of Old Valyria and its allies. Saddle up a turtle and enjoy! Mirror here. Previous episodes here. Podcast RSS feed here. iTunes page here. Sean’s blog here. Stefan’s blog here.

The Post-“Game” Show: Game of Thrones Season Four Reviewed [updated]  Our biggest episode! Game of Thrones Season Four is over, and in this mega-sized BLAH, Stefan and I analyze it for damn near 90 minutes. Every major storyline is covered, every big controversy is addressed, every substantial change from the books is explored, and every complaint we have about the fandom is given an obscenity-laden airing. Hey, we told you it was a big episode! Below, we’ve included some links to pieces on the show that we mention in the podcast. Read, listen, enjoy! NOTE: The mp3 issue some listeners were experiencing has now been fixed. Thank you for your patience! Sean’s reviews of the show for Rolling Stone Stefan’s reviews of the show for Tower of the Hand Sean’s Rolling Stone list of Season Four’s Top 10 greatest moments Stefan’s “Outside the Buzz” piece on fandom’s bubble mindset The AV Club’s Sonia Saraiya on the role of violence on the show HuffPo’s Maureen Ryan arguing the show is good but not great Our episode on Season Three Mirror here. Previous episodes here. Podcast RSS feed here. iTunes page here. Sean’s blog here. Stefan’s blog here.

Conquest!: GeorgeRRMartin.com’s Aegon Targaryen-centric “The World of Ice and Fire” Excerpt Another week, another sample from something Good King George has got cooking — if, of course, by “another week” you mean “last week.” Yes, since Stefan and I recorded this episode, yet another excerpt from George R.R. Martin, Elio Garcia Jr., and Linda Antonsson’s worldbook The World of Ice and Fire has been released. No matter! Like the modern-day maesters we are, we stay focused on the matters at hand, specifically the sample unveiled on GeorgeRRMartin.com regarding House Targaryen’s flight from Valyria and Aegon’s Conquest of Westeros. The sample raises many intriguing questions — indeed, more than it answers — on everything from the bloody century the Targaryens spent on Dragonstone between the Doom and the Conquest to Aegon and his sisters’ adoption of the Faith of the Seven. After Stefan and I discuss these matters, we follow up on a related Tower of the Hand roundtable and ask what place supplementary materials like this should even have in a work of narrative fiction. Saddle up, dragonlords! Mirror here. Previous episodes here. Podcast RSS feed here. iTunes page here. Sean’s blog here. Stefan’s blog here.

The Quality of Mercy: GeorgeRRMartin.com’s new “The Winds of Winter” Sample Chapter It is a weeping, and a moaning, and a gnashing of teeth: Hot on the heels of our last installment comes yet another BLAH about yet another Winds of Winter sample chapter! For all kinds of reasons, not the least of which is that it’s about Arya Stark, this one’s pretty clearly the most talked-about yet. Should we believe the hype, or is this often disturbing chapter chronicling Arya’s further Faceless adventures in Braavos edgy for edginess’ sake? And if we see it as the latter, who’s to blame – an author pushing the envelope, or an audience out for blood? It’s our most conflicted sample-chapter discussion yet. Bone up on some recommended reading referenced in the ep first, if you’re up for it, then tune in and see where you come down. Mirror here. Previous episodes here. Podcast RSS feed here. iTunes page here. Sean’s blog here. Stefan’s blog here.

Wild Is the Wind: The New “The Winds of Winter” Sample Chapter in the World of Ice and Fire App Once more unto the breach, dear friends: George R.R. Martin has unveiled a new sample chapter from The Winds of Winter, this time ensconced in the World of Ice and Fire app on your friendly neighborhood smartphone, and Stefan and I are back to pick that sucker apart! The POV character is Tyrion Lannister, the place is Meereen, and the scene is a slaughter – the Battle of Fire is now fully underway, so via the Imp we get a picture of how the fight is going, who’s involved on what side (the Windblown! the Ironborn! the Second Sons!), and how Tyrion feels about it all. From the strategic situation to Tyrion’s own psychological battles, there’s a lot to talk about. And with GRRM promising much more ASoIaF material on the way at a pretty rapid clip this year, we’d better get cracking! Mirror here. Previous episodes here. Podcast RSS feed here. iTunes page here. Sean’s blog here. Stefan’s blog here.

Meereen Streets: Talking Daenerys & Jon with The Meereenese Blot’s Adam Feldman One of the brightest stars in the ASoIaF fandom firmament joins your humble hosts this week! Adam Feldman is the author of The Meereenese Blot, and the blogger whose essay series “Untangling the Meereenese Knot,” a revisionist take on Daenerys’s storyline during A Dance with Dragons which argued that her attempt to forge a durable peace would have been successful but for her own unhappiness and the perfidy of a locust-poisoning Shavepate, is one of the finest in-depth analyses of these booksI’ve ever read. He’s followed up with a provocative take on Jon Snow’s actions during Dance as well, centered on the political effects of his penchant for well-intentioned risk-taking. In this episode, Stefan and I explore the essays with Adam as our guide, tackling everything from oathbreaking to audience identification. Read and listen and enjoy! Mirror here. Previous episodes here. Podcast RSS feed here. iTunes page here. Sean’s blog here. Stefan’s blog here. Adam’s blog here.

Winds of War: The New “The Winds of Winter” Sample Chapter in the “A Dance with Dragons” Paperback Cry havoc and let slip the BLAHs of war! Stefan and I return for a discussion of the new sample chapter from The Winds of Winter included in the mass market paperback edition for A Dance with Dragons released last month. Our POV character is Ser Barristan Selmy, sizing up friends and foes alike as he prepares to ride through the gates of Meereen to begin the conflict colloquially known to the fandom as the Battle of Fire. It’s a relatively brief chapter and thus a relatively brief conversation, but there’s still much and more to talk about, from politics to prose, tactics to giants. It’s more a Boiled Leather Audio Half-Hour, honestly, but every second counts! Mirror here. Previous episodes here. Podcast RSS feed here. iTunes page here. Sean’s blog here. Stefan’s blog here.

Royals: Discussing “The Princess and the Queen, or, The Blacks and the Greens” (feat. Steven Attewell) It’s here! Dangerous Women, the latest in George R.R. Martin & Gardner Dozois’ long series of themed genre-fiction anthologies, landed in stores last week, and with it came an all-new, all-different tale of Westeros. Martin’s new novella “The Princess and the Queen, or, The Blacks and the Greens” chronicles the Dance of the Dragons, the internecine civil war between rival Targaryen claimants to the Iron Throne that took place some 200 years prior to A Game of Thrones. The Princess is Rhaenyra, the (Dowager) Queen is Alicent, the narrator (a maester writing a history book) is unreliable, and the dragons are everywhere.  Join your usual hosts Sean & Stefan and special guest Westerosi history expert Steve Attewell of the masterful blog Race for the Iron Throne as we dissect the events, effects, and aesthetics of the story. How was warfare different during the dragons’ day? How does Martin convey his message without recourse to the emotions and insights of point-of-view characters? What do the story’s surprises tell us about events in the main series? Would Sean, Steve, and Stefan join the maesters’ centuries-long conspiracy to rid the world of flying nuclear dinosaurs if asked? There’s only one way to find out, people! (And go ahead, roll your eyes at me naming this episode after a Lorde song if you want, but just remember: I could have gone with “Ladies’ Night.”) Mirror here. Previous episodes here. Podcast RSS feed here. iTunes page here. Sean’s blog here. Stefan’s blog here. Steve’s blog here.

The Boiled Leather Theory Hour: Celebrating the Nerdstream Era’s ASoIaF Theory Feature Black Friday is here, and with it the black hearts of your humble hosts! But this time around said hearts are filled with joy as we commemorate (somewhat belatedly; my bad!) the 50th installment of my co-host Stefan Sasse’s Thursday Theory Hour feature on his home blog, The Nerdstream Era. Every week, Stefan hand-selects three theories or questions bedeviling A Song of Ice and Fire fandom (often but not always drawing from questions I answer here at boiledleather.com from my Ask inbox) and offers his eminently worthwhile take on all three. To celebrate this semicentennial installment, Stefan asked me and our Podcast of Ice and Fire comrade Amin Javadi to help him do a live-action version of the feature, essentially, picking out three questions (plus a bonus or two) and answering as best we can. Will Jon get another POV chapter? What lessons can we learn from trial by combat regarding the existence of the gods? Is Eddard Stark still alive? (I know, I know.) Was Tywin Lannister poisoned? Did Melisandre create another shadow baby in A Dance with Dragons? What major plot twists should we look forward to in The Winds of Winter? The answers may surprise you! Endless thanks both to Amin and to Stefan, my long-suffering brother-in-arms, for their patience with this podcast, and with me. And thanks to all of you for the same things! Happy Holidays! Mirror here! Previous episodes here. Podcast RSS feed here. iTunes page here. Sean’s blog here. Stefan’s blog here. Amin’s podcast here. Amin’s twitter here.

Vendettas and Hypotheticals: The Consequences of Vengeance, plus a few “What If?”s (feat. Amin Javadi) Don’t call it a comeback! Stefan Sasse & Sean T. Collins return with our first BLAH since June, and we’re bringing our chum Amin Javadi of the mighty A Podcast of Ice and Fire along for the ride. It’s basically two episodes in one: For the first half hour or so, we discuss Stefan’s essay “Savoring the Taste?: On the Role of Revenge in A Song of Ice and Fire” from the expanded Collector’s Edition of Tower of the Hand: A Flight of Sorrows — TotH’s excellent collection of essays by various luminaries in the ASoIaF community. Stefan argues that quests for revenge, no matter how horrendous the crime being avenged, are self-perpetuating engines of violence that have had awful consequences for these characters and their culture. Please note that the Collector’s Edition — a print book, no less — is only on sale through the end of this Friday, November 1st, after which it will disappear forever. Buy it now and let’s talk! In the back half of the ep, we get exquisitely nerdy and discuss various what-if scenarios, predicated on major events and decisions going a different way than they had before. What if Brandon Stark had escaped the wrath of the Mad King and lived to lead the North? What if Renly had sworn allegiance to Stannis and helped him in his quest for the Iron Throne rather than declaring himself king instead? What if the rebel lords who rose up against Joffrey following the deaths of Robert and Eddard had kept the king’s peace and traveled to King’s Landing to swear allegiance as requested? What if Ned had lived through his public confession and gone to the Wall as planned? I had an absolute blast teasing out the consequences of each of these divergences and hope you’ll enjoy it too. It’s good to be back! Mirror here. Previous episodes here. Podcast RSS feed here. iTunes page here. Sean’s blog here. Stefan’s blog here.

“Game” Show: “Game of Thrones” Season Three Reviewed You wanted it, you got it: Sean and Stefan talk Game of Thrones Season Three, for 69 minutes and change. Two men and one show enter — one INDISPUTABLE VERDICT ABOUT GOT SEASON THREE leaves! Haha j/k lol. Topics include Catelyn, Stannis & Davos, Jaime & Brienne, Jon & the Night’s Watch, the emotional content of extreme violence, the Red Wedding, the season finale, my controversial comments on the show and race, the problem with book purists, what to look for in season four, what exactly makes for “a good episode” of Game of Thrones, and much more. It’s our biggest episode yet! BONUS: If you really can’t get enough of hearing us yammer on about this show, Sean was a guest on Critic Proof, the Bloggingheads.tv video podcast about pop culture hosted by the great Alyssa Rosenberg. Give that thing a spin! Mirror here. Previous episodes here. Podcast RSS feed here. iTunes page here. Home blog here.

Feastdance: The Combined Reading Order for A Feast for Crows and A Dance with Dragons Hang on to your hardcovers, fire up those ebooks, and arrange the dulcet tones of Roy Dotrice into an appropriate iTunes playlist: Today Stefan and I are discussing the combined reading order I came up with for reading A Feast for Crows and A Dance with Dragons simultaneously. As you’re no doubt aware, the concerns that kept these two novels apart — they cover the same period of time, only with different characters at the forefront — were primarily IRL logistical ones. Weaving their chapters back together creates a very different reading experience, revealing aesthetic and thematic unities that make it well worth the effort. For both Stefan and myself, this has become the method of choice for reading this second-act section of A Song of Ice and Fire. In this podcast, we’ll explain why. Here are a few links you might want to take a look at as you listen: My original combined reading order My new-reader-friendly combined reading order (this preserves the Dorne reveal; I actually prefer this one now) My entire series of “Feastdance” posts on reading the two books together and what I got out of it Stefan’s essay on the two books’ parallel themes for Tower of the Hand Happy reading and happy listening! Mirror here. Previous episodes here. Podcast RSS feed here. iTunes page here. Home blog here.

Women of Westeros, Part IV: Margaery, Melisandre, and Lysa It’s a power-player episode of BLAH this time out, as our irregularly scheduled series on the women of Westeros tackles a trio who have little in common except their positions near the top of the power structure: Margaery Tyrell, Melisandre of Asshai, and Lysa Arryn. The combination was Stefan’s idea, and the result of the odd juxtaposition is a pretty diverse set of questions tackled over the course of the episode. How do the differences and similarities between book-Margaery and show-Margaery stack up? How does Melisandre’s use of magic compliment or compromise what you might expect from a woman in her position in Westerosi society? What does Lysa tell us about the costs of the Westerosi gender system, and the limits of audience empathy? Let’s find out together, just you and us. Mirror here. Previous episodes here. Podcast RSS feed here. iTunes page here. Home blog here.

Women of Westeros Part III: Catelyn and Daenerys The mother of dragons squares off against/pairs up with the mother of direwolves in our new episode — the third installment in our irregularly scheduled series on the prominent female characters of A Song of Ice and Fire. Cat and Dany are interesting to talk about in tandem because more, perhaps, than any other characters, they draw strength from traditional female roles while in the process of subverting or expanding them. From their shared embrace of the mantle of motherhood to their shared perceived missteps with dashing, arrogant swordsmen to their divergent fortunes on the books’ TV adaptation, we tackle as much as we can about these pivotal characters. And hey, if you like listening to us yak about A Song of Ice and Fire, and I should certainly hope you do if you’re reading this, please give a listen to our guest stint on the most recent episode of A Podcast of Ice and Fire. Stefan and I join regular hosts Amin, Ashley, and Kyle — plus unexpected guests Elio & Linda from Westeros.org — to play fast and loose with the most important questions you can ask about any fictional characters: who’d beat whom in a fight, and whom you’d most like to have sex with. Consider it BLAH 17.5! Mirror here. Previous episodes here. Podcast RSS feed here. iTunes page here. Home blog here.

She’s Like the Wind: Analyzing the New Sample Chapter from “The Winds of Winter” 2013 gets its first case of the BLAHs! Once again, George R.R. Martin has posted a preview chapter from The Winds of Winter, on which I presume he’s merrily plowing along in between announcing the publication of novella-length stories no one had any idea he was even working on. And once again, Stefan and I take to the airwaves to pick the thing apart. This time out the focus is on Arianne and her journey to a rendez-vous with Jon Connington and, ostensibly, destiny. At first glance this seems much smaller beer than the previous sample chapter, but as Stefan and I read and re-read and talked, we were surprised how meaty the thing really is, and we think you will be too. From the mind of Doran Martell to the sex appeal of Gerold “Darkstar” Dayne to the traitor in Arianne’s midst to the growth of Arianne herself, we tackle it all. One quick meta note: Don’t hold me to this, because I am a notorious liar, but Stefan and I have some hope that we’ll be able to record these suckers a bit more frequently, at least for a while. Hope to see you around then — dig this in the meantime! Mirror here. Previous episodes here. Podcast RSS feed here. iTunes page here. Home blog here.