Game of Thrones Season 2 Episode 1 will air on Sunday, April 1st!

And no, that’s not an April Fool’s joke, it’s the real deal. HBO has confirmed this date.

The second season of this awesome TV show will pick up where season one ended. To recap, here’s what happened:

-King Joffrey (Queen Cersei’s evil son) sits on the Iron Throne.
-Ned Stark (The Hand of the King) is dead.
-Arya Stark (Ned Stark’s youngest daughter) is traveling with a caravan disguised as a boy.
-Lady Catelyn has captured Jaime Lannister who just confessed that he did indeed push her young son Bran off the tower, thereby crippling him for life.
-The diminutive Tyrion heads to Kings Landing where he’ll serve as The Hand of the King to his half-nephew King Joffrey.
-Daenerys has killed her husband, Khal Drogo, who was lingering in a near-death vegetative state.
-Jon Snow decides to stay with the Night’s Watch and protect The Wall from white walkers and other “things”.
-Daenerys walks into her husband’s flaming funeral pyre and comes out ALIVE the next morning! Also, her 3 petrified dragon’s eggs have hatched!

Game of Thrones Season 2 will focus on the second book in the series “A Clash of Kings”.

Are you as excited as I am to see Game of Thrones Season 2?

Speaking of True Blood Season 5, there are some spoilers coming up I am going to share with you from Mr. Alan Ball. If you don’t want to know just put your fingers in your ears and go “blah, blah, blah” while I type. That only works when talking? OK – guess so. Then you may want to skip this if you don’t want a heads up on stuff coming down the pike for True Blood Season 5.

• When it begins- there will be no interruption or time passing. True Blood Season 4 ended with Sookie holding Tara in the kitchen, and that scene is right where True Blood Season 5 will start. Personally, I love it when they do this for a season starter. It means the action gets kicked in right from the start.

• The one thing I have been hearing from everyone is that we are finally going to see the scene (in a flashback, natch) of Eric turning Pam into a vampire. I am looking forward to that one.

• Alan Ball says although he is going to be basing Season 5 on more than just the book Dead As A Doornail, it will still primarily be from that book. But expect to see things from other books as well. Of course, being the mysterious guy that he is (who, Alan?) he won’t say which books or how much. It may be fun to see if we can name what scenes come from other books in each episode. (Hmmm- could be the makings of a cool contest there.)

• The rumor from the writing room is that research is going on about “other paranormals” but that zombies are not going to appear in True Blood Season 5.

• As for who is coming back this season, the list so far is: Sookie, Bill and Eric (of course!) along with Sam, Jason, Pam, Alcide, Arlene, Terry, Jessica, Hoyt, Lafayette and Patrick. Contracts have also been confirmed for the following actors/characters: Denis O’Hare as Russell Edgington, Scott Foley as Patrick Devins, Rutina Wesley as Tara and Nelsan Ellis as Jesus.

• Of course the great news is that Alan Ball is back again as executive producer, though I just can’t picture True Blood with anyone else.

That’s all the news for now folks! We will have more soon – I promise. We have to have some kind of True Blood tidbits to keep us all going until June – and I will do whatever I can to get you them as they appear.

Stay true- till then!

Russell Edgington, the King of Mississippi (Denis O’Hare)

Word is out that Denis O’Hare will be returning in the upcoming season to reprise his role as the Vampire King of Mississippi. The character was first introduced in the books in Club Dead when Sookie heads down to Jackson looking for Erick and wanders into the bar called Josephine, known as Club Dead to the werewolves because it is a known hangout for vampires. O’Hare has always brought a more aggressive tone to the character than what we see in the books, and I for one hope that this will continue this season.

How he will break out of that cement underground prison we last saw him in, remains to be seen. In an interview about the return of the character, actor O’Hare gives little away but does say that “The people who busted (Edgington) out are nobody you expect.” How’s that for a clue? And word is that he may be returning as early as the first episode for the season. But the actor says that whatever is motivating the King of Mississippi will be beyond simple petty revenge for the death by stake of his lover Talbot. A couple of years entombed in a cement prison just might do that to you, even if you are a centuries-old vampire.

Steve Newlin, leader of the Fellowship of the Sun  (Michael McMillian)

It isn’t really news that Steve Newlin is back for the fifth season of True Blood. After all, we saw just a bit of him at the end of season four, though the character may not have been happy about the circumstances of that appearance. But the big news for the character in the new season is that he comes back with a full blown crush on Jason. In fact, actor Michael McMillian says that Steve Newlin has always had a crush on Jason, he just couldn’t show it before. That will not be the case with Season Five. No word yet on how much we will see of Steve but even the little forecast should be interesting.

If we hear anything more on these two or on anyone else coming back, we will let you know. Not that this leaves any of you off the hook. So – you TB fans out in La La land (hey I can say that, lived there too many years not to have those creds) what is the rumor mill saying? Share with everyone, c’mon! We will be sharing our score as soon as we have more!

I spent 4 days going through tons of “best of” and “best selling” 2011 book lists to create this consolidated list for you. And just to make sure you know this is a good list, here are the sources I used:

NY Times “Ten Best Books of 2011” NY Times “100 Notable Books of 2011” Amazon’s Best Books of 2011: “The Top 20” Amazon’s Best Books of 2011: “The Top 100“ 2011 National Book Award Winners

Amazon’s Best Books of 2011: Science Fiction and Fantasy Barnes and Noble’s The Top 100 Bestsellers of 2011 Barnes and Noble: “Books We Recommend” Amazon’s Best-Selling Books of 2011: “Customer Favorites”

I put the books into 5 different categories:

Fantasy Books Paranormal Romance Epic Fantasy

Teen and Young Adult Fantasy Science Fiction/Time Travel

So, let’s get started looking at the BEST Fantasy Books of 2011!

Best 2011 Fantasy Books

Book Title and Author	Read the Book Summary at Amazon
A Discovery of Witches by Deborah E. Harkness	read summary
Ghost Story by Jim Butcher	read summary
Among Others by Jo Walton	read summary
Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor	read summary
The Tiger’s Wife by Tea Obreht	read summary
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern	read summary
Zone One by Colson Whitehead	read summary
The Last Werewolf by Glen Duncan	read summary

Best 2011 Paranormal Fantasy Books

Book Title and Author	Read the Book Summary at Amazon
Lover Unleashed (Black Dagger Brotherhood Book 9) by J.R. Ward	read summary
Dragon Bound by Thea Harrison	read summary
Dreams of a Dark Warrior by Kresley Cole	read summary
Dead Reckoning by Charlaine Harris	read summary
City of Fallen Angels by Cassandra Clare	read summary
Archangel’s Blade by Nalini Singh	read summary

Best 2011 Epic Fantasy Books

Book Title and Author	Read the Book Summary at Amazon
A Dance With Dragons by George R.R. Martin	read summary
The Wise Man’s Fear by Patrick Rothfuss	read summary
The Magician King by Lev Grossman	read summary

Best 2011 Teen and Young Adult Fantasy Books

Book Title and Author	Read the Book Summary at Amazon
Inheritance by Christopher Paolini	read summary
Delirium: The Special Edition by Lauren Oliver	read summary
Crossed by Aly Condie	read summary
The Power of 6 (I Am Number Four, Book 2) by Pittacus Lore	read summary
The Throne of Fire by Rick Riordan	read summary
Passion by Lauren Tate	read summary
Divergent by Veronica Roth	read summary
The Warlock: The Secrets of the Infamous Nicholas Flammel by Michael Scott	read summary
The Son of Neptune by Rick Riordan	read summary
The Dead (Enemy Series) by Charlie Higson	read summary
Angel: A Maximum Ride Novel by James Patterson	read summary
Destined: House of Night Book 9 by P.C. Cast and Kristan Cast	read summary
Akata Witch by Nnedi Okorafor	read summary
Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs	read summary
The Emperor of Nihon-Ja by John Flanagan	read summary
Awakened by P.C. Cast and Kristen Cast	read summary
The Death Cure by James Dashner	read summary

Best 2011 Science Fiction/Time Travel Books

Book Title and Author	Read the Book Summary at Amazon
Robopocalypse by Daniel H. Wilson	read summary
Vortex by Robert Charles Wilson	read summary
Ready Player One by Ernest Cline	read summary
Embassytown by China Mieville	read summary
Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey	read summary
11/22/63 by Stephen King	read summary
1Q 84 by Haruki Murakami	read summary

Enjoy!

More Werewolves for Season Five

Joe is back! While it may come as no surprise to see Joe Manganiello back as our favorite werewolf, it is a bit of a spoiler to hear that fairies are out and werewolves are in for Season 5. In fact, Joe said recently that werewolves are going to be back in strength this next season and a big part of the next story arc.

There is going to be a whole new pack of werewolves for this season and Joe has more than admitted he is happy about it, he says he can’t wait to get back to work because this season is going to be the season of the werewolf. With Dale Dickey coming on board as Annie, Marcus’s mother and some very sexy new werewolves ready to come on board, it sounds like there will be plenty of action for Joe and his fellow werewolves this next season.

And will the rumored tough-guy werewolf called for in the next season turn out to be Alcide’s Dad? Well, Joe is not saying one way or the other. He does concede that the character shows up in the book, but reminds everyone that sometimes Alan Ball decides to stray a bit from the book, so there is no guarantee that the character being developed is his Dad from the book.

Season Five Episode Titles

We also heard about two new titles for upcoming episodes for the next season of True Blood that we just had to share with all of you. Of course, you know how these things are – we could end up finding out we are wrong, but since shooting started November 21^st we are pretty sure that any rewrites on these two has already happened:

Episode Two: Not sure how much the title will give away, but it is called “The Beyond of the Bubble Gum”.

Episode Three: This one sounds like a hint of a new beginning for some of our characters, as it is called “It’s A New Year”, and sounds promising for Sookie and someone to get all smoochie as the proverbial ball drops. The questions, of course, is who that will be?

Stay tuned – we will find out more for you as the shooting progresses. Since the season will premier in June 24^th according to IMDB, and they are usually right, we just have to keep our spirits up until then.

If you remember, Bill mentions at one point that Eric has “friends in high places” and Nora may be one of them. She is Erik’s “sister” because she was created by the same vampire, Godric. The casting call says she “loves Erik deeply, but has dedicated her life to a higher purpose” meaning the Vampire Authority. But if she is a double agent within the VA then she is bound to create lots of friction amongst the vamps in home territory.

The casting call says any race and 25 to 35, and of course beautiful. But then who isn’t? I find it interesting that part of the character description in the casting call is that she is “a good liar”. Hmmm – so how much of what she says when we first meet her should we trust? Probably none of it, nor should Eric but we know that he will.

We will get back to you when they announce the casting, for now just including Nora means more conflicts for Erik in the next season.

Salome To Be Cast As Well

If you look in the bible you may well find two Salome characters, but the one we all think of is of course that crazy belly dancer who wanted the head of John the Baptist as a favor. We don’t know much about her outside of that, but it is a good bet she was devious and evil. Anywhere I have seen the biblical Salome show up as a character in a book, sexy like a snake comes to mind.

It is no real surprise that the latest casting call has included a character of that name. She was in Book Five – Dead As A Doornail – when Eric summoned her to help control Mickey. If I recall, she didn’t exactly come off as sane in the book, so I doubt that she will in the show. The casting call describes her as “exotic looking…a world class seductress and fiercely intelligent…a lot of madness in her” so expect more than a little craziness and since the casting call mentions some nudity, I expect a few of our regulars will be getting a taste or two of Salome. Co-executive producer Tucker describes her as a “very significant strong mysterious woman at the center of one of our main stories next year.” So I would say this is someone we will be seeing around for a good part of Season Five. However, she would not confirm that Salome is the same as the character from the bible, just that she is “someone you’ve heard of before.”

If she is, no matter which way you look at her she is about two thousand years old. And so far that has been a good indicator of power megalomania and pure crazy behavior. I think if I was a young actress whose looks fit the bill I would be salivating at a role like this. Whoever they cast is going to just eat up the carpet and get to be real close to some hot bodies on top of that!

Alcide’s Dad Returns!

It looks like Alcide’s Dad is going to be making an appearance at least once based on the casting calls making the rounds online. You may recall that we first ran into J.D. back in Dead as a Doornail when Sookie was asked by Alcide to come to the funeral of the pack leader and help his Dad J.D. in his bid to be the next pack leader. And we all know where that led to.

So needless to say, the return of J.D. is being viewed with plenty of curiosity. Described in the casting call as a hard-bodied fifty-something, this will be one powerful werewolf. If I recall correctly, he was one of the few full-werewolves which will make him one powerful dude. No word yet on who they are looking at to fulfill the role, but we will let you know when we hear of anything.