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Tower of the Hand: The Book

For the past seven years, ToweroftheHand.com has prided itself on being a premiere source of A Song of Ice and Fire analysis, information, and speculation. There has been nearly a metric ton of essays, forum posts, and encyclopedia entries logged at the site to date, all designed to give the hardest of the core fan the most rewarding experience possible while reading George R.R. Martin’s seminal novels. Consistently referred to in our podcast as our unofficial sponsor, TOTH has been an invaluable resource behind every episode we publish.

And now the editors are taking all those years of mastery and applying them to an ebook.

Tower of the Hand: A Flight of Sorrows takes five of the site’s most prolific authors – including its two founders – and draws out their best, most in-depth work yet. Unlike other Ice and Fire compendiums, the focus of these essays is on the narrative, character, and thematic elements of the story itself, as opposed to the literary aspects surrounding the books.

What role has prophecy played in the narrative thus far, and what might they really tell us about the future? Did Martin truly kill off one of his most beloved protagonists, and, if not, how can we tell for sure? Who exactly is the Young Griffin, and what is the aim of the conspiracy surrounding him? And just what is the overall structure of this epic, convoluted story, anyway, and what might it tell us of the upcoming final stretch?

Even better, the TOTH editors are joined by some of their good friends, who just so happen to be leading voices in the Game of Thrones community. Amin Javadi and Mimi Hoshut, co-hosts of the Podcast of Ice and Fire, tackle the role of infidelity in Westerosi society and the narrative clues and parallels of the Dunk and Egg novellas, while noted fantasy editor and author Douglas Cohen power ranks, NFL style, the top contenders in the game of thrones.

A Flight of Sorrows releases on Saturday, October 13th, 2012 at the price of $5.99. It will be available exclusively at Amazon.com and is edited by Marc N. Kleinhenz, a freelance journalist who has written for 19 sites, including IGN, Comic Related, and Westeros.org. Other books he has written or edited include It Is Known: An Analysis of Thrones, Vol. I, another travelogue to Martin’s novels and television series, and the upcoming Green Switch Palace: A Year in the Life of Nintendo Fandom.

19 Comments, Comment or Ping

  1. Dulcet

    When will it be on Amazon for pre-order?

  2. Kyle

    Yes Amin and Mimi, when will it be available for pre-order?

  3. Usurpationblitz

    Will it be up to date, becuase their website hasn’t even been updated past Storm yet. Poor Ayra, hasn’t even made it to Braavos yet according to them. Not updated to Dance, I would understand, but not even Feast?

    With that aside, should be fun. I can’t wait to read it.

  4. Kyle

    Hmmm I think you might have to change you “scope” on the site. I have no problem finding information for all the books including Feast and Dance.

  5. Usurpationblitz

    The Scope is set to 5: A Dance with Dragons.

    The very last thing on Arya’s page is this –

    “Arya had hoped to book passage for Eastwatch, but the captain refused to travel there and took her to Braavos instead. Once ashore in the city, she entered the temple of the Many-Faced God, where she was accepted into the God’s service by the Kindly Man. (AFFC 7)”

    Tyrion’s is up to date, very slightly –

    “Varys took Tyrion to a ship bound for Pentos, where he was greeted by Illyrio Mopatis. Depressed and borderline suicidal after the events in his father’s bedchamber, he considered joining the Night’s Watch or throwing his life away by crowning Myrcella in Dorne until Illyrio told him about Daenerys Targaryen and her dragons. (ADWD 2)”

    So yeah, it’s not really up to date yet. Which is fine, it’s proboly hard to update for everyone, but I kind of expect some of the main characters to at least be updated. Oh well, they are all great people over there. =D

  6. Christina

    Yeah, there’s some really good essays and analysis by Stefan Sasse (the other half of the Boiled Leather Audio Hour) on TOH and he talks extensively about Dance. Sometimes the site just automatically sets the scope low, and you have to change it yourself.

  7. jesicka309

    Their chapter by chapter summaries, plus some characters exclusively from Dance aren’t in there yet…they’re slowly getting to it from what I can see. 🙂
    Kindle??

  8. brynden

    Their summaries of feast lack proof-reading and are very short sometimes (I checked them while my re-read was at that point). And some of the feast characters are still missing (including the whole D’n’E III – the Mystery Knight).

    I truly love TotH (being also a guest author now) but they slowed their pace for the constant TV-series-updates which bothers me, because the series should be covered by WiC, while TotH should focus on essays and reading-companion and Westeros on the crackpot stuff and the merging pot for the hardcore fans…

    House Manwoody can now be considered the number 4 of the “big” sites – and that is really really great.

  9. Inkasrain

    Dudes, congratulations! Lemoncakes all around!

  10. Krakenpuffcerial

    So are these essays that have already appeared on ToH (aside from Mimi and Anim’s one obviously) or entirely new ones ?

  11. These are new essays from everyone.

  12. jesicka309

    I just went to TOTH – it seems like your announcement is before they’ve announced it themselves? What the? Hmmmm.

  13. Kyle

    Boo yah!

  14. brynden

    WiC has also announced it – but TotH still is silent…

  15. Marc

    my goood. i have been looking for the link to the podcast only to realize this is just an advertisement

  16. earl

    Oh, wow, congratulations Mimi and Amin.

    Also, Mimi’s title needs to change to something like “Queen of the Podcasters and Authors” to reflect this awesome news.

  17. Burningtime

    Nice work. Definitely grabbing this the day it comes out.

  18. Anna aka German Podcast Fan

    Longtime listener and lurker, commenting for the first time to say: CONGRATULATIONS! Awesome news, I’m very much looking forward to reading it (infidelity, oh my).

  19. Erinyes

    I can’t find it!!!! *sob* I’ve searched both the .co.uk sites and the .com sites with no joy any chance someone can post a direct link pretty please?

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