That should be interesting! I really hope they don't get some pretty young actress to play her. Brienne should be portrayed exactly as she is written in the books.

Same here! $18 is a steal for a hardcover. Love it! I'm looking forward to reading more about Dany, Tyrion, Jon & oddly enough, I want to hear more about Stannis & Melisandre. That storyline intrigues me.

I really hope they won't, but I'm pretty sure that she won't be as ugly as she should be. Even the "ugly characters" are good looking in HBO's rendition.

Me too. I had a looong conversation with my dad about what's going to happen with Melisandre. The next part is spoiler-ish for anyone who hasn't read the books, so I'll put it in white for anyone who doesn't want to know. We were thinking that the white walkers will make an attack, and Melisandre's fire magic will fail to defeat them, but then Dany will come in with her dragons and defeat the white walkers, putting her further on her path to become the rightful Queen.

Brienne of Tarth has been cast.

The author himself posted on his livejournal about the casting of British actress Gwendoline Christie.

Ummm...so NOT what I had in mind or even what the books described Brienne looking like. I guess we will have wait to see her on the show & see if they can make her look like what Brienne is described as. Maybe lots of makeup & padding?

How tall is she!? That last picture makes her look TALL! She's very willowy, though, which is very anti-Brianne, who is described as a brick outhouse. Anyway, we'll see what they do. Still not happy about Margaery's casting *ducking to miss any tomatoes thrown at me*. That actress is way too old, and I couldn't stand her in The Tudors! Not to mention, she and Loras are supposed to look like twins. Cersei thinks they look more alike than she and Jaime. FAIL!

I'm happy with all of the season 2 casting so far. I think that they can ugly up the actress who plays Brienne with no problems. As for Margaery, I couldn't be happier with her casting!

That picture made her look like an Amazon didn't it? I'm not entirely convinced but we'll see. Maybe padding & crap loads of makeup will help but I definitely agree about her being willowy. Brienne is supposed to be more mannish than feminine.

I won't throw tomatoes at you for your comments about Margaery. She is way older than I would have liked since Margaery is 16 in the books & this actress is obviously way beyond that but again, I'll reserve final judgment (as if my opinion counts, lol!) until after I see her in the show.
I tend to be a bit more lax about the ages for some characters seeing as how Rob & Jon Snow are portrayed as 17 years olds in the show but in the books, aren't they 14? Sansa is only 11 in the book but 13 in the show.

*shrugs* We'll see how they do season 2. What other major characters are yet to be cast?

Stannis, Melisandre, Balon Greyjoy, Davos Seaworth (the Onion Knight), Mance Rayder and one of the ones I'm really looking forward to seeing, Jaqen H'ghar! :D

So question, I'm reading a re-read of the books, (on Tor.com) and something has been pointed out. Renly is REALLY obsessed with Margery. And keeps pointing out how much she looks like Lyanna.

Knowing about his relationship with Loras, was his goal ousting Cersei and the Lannisters and getting Robert to marry Margery? I won't post about the later books and what happens, but nothing there contradicts that...

Huh. I'm going to look at it & read through the re-read since that's something I haven't noticed before nor have I read anything about that particular that struck me regarding Renly being obsessed with Margery. Hmmm...

Right now, I'm reading theories as to where Tyrion will continue his path (maybe find Dany?) & what Jon's role will be in the new book. Woohoo! It's almost here!

The actress that will play Brienne is 6'3"

It's more that he's really focused with getting Margery to the attention of Ned/Robert/etc. I really hadn't picked up on it until the re-read (technically it's a 'read' it's an entirely new person reading the series, so spoilers are a nogo in the comments. Very well done if a bit slow paced.

Damn you Amazon! I checked the status of my book & it will ship sometime between the 15th and the 19th! :mad: Noooo! I want my book NOW! Maybe I'll be surprised & get it today or even tomorrow.

Awww! That sucks. If you picked standard shipping, they said that they wouldn't guarantee that it would arrive on the release date. I got two day shipping, and it still hasn't arrived yet. Oh well. I'm still beyond excited to read it!

My husband preordered it on kindle so I just checked my archive, and there it was! Too bad I'm not done with A Feast for Crows yet. I'm about 60% done. I love Kindle for iPhone/iPad!

IT'S HERE! It arrived! WOOHOO!

http://i58.photobucket.com/albums/g2...riate/Book.jpg

I just got mine today as well. Is it just me, or is the paper weird?