George R.R. Martin talks about a new enhanced edition of A Storm of Swords

Image: Entertainment Weekly

A few months back, Random House and Apple announced that they would be teaming up to release digitally enhanced versions of each book in George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series, downloadable with iBooks on your iPhone, iMac, or other iOS device, and through iTunes on your computer. (With apologies to non-Mac users.)

These editions feature all kinds of nifty bells and whistles. Yesterday, the enhanced edition of A Storm of Swords went up for sale ($11.99), and George R.R. Martin’s minions sung its praises on the author’s Not a Blog. I’ll let the minion take it away. The enhanced edition of A Storm of Swords features:

"• Gorgeous new covers• Interactive character maps• Author annotations• Character journeys and timelines• Family trees/House histories• House/sigil summaries• Stunning illustrations• Audio clips"

The audio clips are from Roy Dotrice, who records the Song of Ice and Fire audiobooks. (He also played Hallyne the pyromancer in Season 2). The maps show where in the world each character during any given chapter. These are full service kind of editions.

In honor of the release, Random House posted a brief clip of Martin talking about some of the themes of the book, complete with some nifty illustrations. Today’s topic: family.

The enhanced editions of A Game of Thrones and A Clash of Kings are already out. New editions of A Feast for Crows and A Dance of Dragons will be on the market February 2 and March 30 respectively.

And when will the first edition of The Winds of Winter hit shelves, digital and otherwise? That remains a mystery.