Game of Thrones
Episode 1 (Winter is Coming) & 2 (The Kingsroad)
Directed by: Timothy Van Patten
Written by: David Beinoff and D.B. Weiss adapted from George R.R. Martin
Starring: Mark Addy, Alfie Allen, Sean Bean, Emilia Clarke, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Peter Dinklage, Michelle Fairley, Aidan Gillen, Jack Gleeson, Iain Glen, Kit Harington, Lena Headey, Issac Hempstead-Wright, Harry Lloyd, Richard Madden, Rory McCann, Sophie Turner, Maisie Williams

I’ve got a confession to make.

I haven’t read a single book in George R.R. Martin‘s A Song of Fire and Ice series.

Unlike last year’s big literature-to-television adaptation, Walking Dead (of which I’ve read every issue), I wanted to go into Game of Thrones fresh, without any prior knowledge or expectations of the series. I wanted to see how a 694-page book would translate over to HBO. I’ve seen the big-screen adaptations of fan-favorite fantasy novels like Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings, but I was interested in seeing how showrunners David Deinoff and D.B. Weiss would handle Martin’s material on a week-to-week basis without confusing the hell out of everyone.

So far, they’ve done an outstanding job.

HBO has announced today that the cable network has renewed Game Of Thrones for a second season.

The show, based on George R.R. Martin‘s fantasy book series A Song of Ice and Fire, premiered last Sunday to great critical acclaim. HBO reports that the premiere episode had a gross audience of 4.2 million viewers on the main HBO channel.

This first season of the series, which will be 10 episodes in total, is based on the first book of the novel series, A Game Of Thrones.

HBO’s new series Game Of Thrones premiered last night and this epic fantasy contains all new lands and regions to learn about. The show’s beautiful opening credits attempt to familiarize us with the areas most shown in this first season: Winterfell, lorded over by the house of Stark; The Wall, the northern border of the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros guarded by the Night Watch; King’s Landing, home of rotund King Robert Baratheon and his conniving Queen Cersei Lannister; and Pentos, the Free City where the rightful heirs to the Seven Kingdoms, Viserys Targaryen and his sister Daenerys, have formed an alliance with the barbaric Dothraki horse warriors in an attempt to win back the throne.

But the Game Of Thrones universe is much larger than what we’ve been shown so far. With any good fantasy tale, you have to have a map, so HBO has created an official interactive Viewer’s Guide to the world which includes a detailed map, along with family histories and backgrounds.

Tonight, the first episode of the anticipated television series Game of Thrones premieres on HBO at 9pm, with encore showings at 10pm and 11pm.

The first season is based on A Game of Thrones, the first novel in George R.R. Martin‘s book series, A Song of Ice and Fire. I know a lot of people wanted to read the book before they watch the show, and though the series is just hours away, there’s still time to get prepared before tonight’s episode, thanks to a free ebook excerpt from A Game of Thrones, which covers the events and story from Episode 1.

Check out the 70-page excerpt from Random House here below.

Author George R.R. Martin‘s book series, A Song of Ice and Fire, has an incredible fan following and is considered one of the top fantasy series ever written. A TV adaptation of the stories is set to begin airing on HBO tomorrow night, with the first season based on the first book, A Game of Thrones.

But did you ever wonder what Martin himself considers some of the top fantasy stories ever told? The author wrote a special list up for The Daily Beast running down his personal all-time favorite fantasy movies.

You can find out what he chose by heading on over to the other side now!