Apple is now selling interactive Game of Thrones iBooks

[Tom, Supreme Laser]

It's kind of like wrapping the encylopedia of Westeros and Essos up into the books.

http://thenextweb.com/apple/2016/09/3...

[Tassie Dave, S&L Historian]

Thanks for the heads up Tom.

It is a beautiful book. Looks great on an iPad

I had to buy it, even though I already own AGOT.

This is definitely the copy I will be doing my re-reads on.

Each Chapter starts with a close up map showing exactly where the POV character is, that will zoom out for a full view. To get their location in context to the world.

Also you get a "When we were last with...", that gives a short catch up of where we left off with the POV character.
Handy with so many POV characters.

It handily highlights a lot of the less well known characters, places and Houses. That will pop up a short description to remind you their place in the world.

With the Glossary, Appendix, maps and beautiful artwork this is the definitive version of the book.

There is even some audio (About 12 minutes of excerpts from Roy Dortrice)

I can't wait for the other 4 books to be given this treatment.

It was already a 5 Star book. This version takes it up to a 6 :-)

[Sky]

How does it compare to the (free) fictionary?

http://thefictionary.net/george-r-r-m...

Fictionaries obviously are text only, and I've only used the malazan and cosmere versions (along with x-ray).

[terpkristin]

What I'm looking for in the "interactive" version is the commentary from GRRM.

I already own every book in at least 3 formats, but clearly I'm buying them again...

...and this is why I'm single. But I know I'm in good company here (not necessarily on the single part hehe). ;)

[Silvana]

No news on whether it would reach android devices?

I have four formats of AGoT already (three paperback editions, audio, Kindle's enhanced edition, graphic novels) - not sure whether I want this one if it comes to android. I'd rather have the illustrated edition one.

[Tassie Dave, S&L Historian]

Silvana wrote: "No news on whether it would reach android devices?"

It is an iBooks exclusive and they were made using the "iBooks Author" software. So you won't see these versions on a non-IOS device.

I wouldn't be surprised if a similar Edition is made for the android and other devices.

[Mark]

Whoa! 789 Mb in the enhanced edition. 32 minutes remaining to download on my pokey DSL connection!

[Mark]

Only 16 minutes remaining ;-P

[Tassie Dave, S&L Historian]

Mark wrote: "Whoa! 789 Mb in the enhanced edition. 32 minutes remaining to download on my pokey DSL connection!"

I feel your pain. Living in rural Australia, my ADSL connection (my only option) is about the same speed. It took about 30 mins for mine.

[Mark]

Tassie Dave wrote: "Mark wrote: "Whoa! 789 Mb in the enhanced edition. 32 minutes remaining to download on my pokey DSL connection!"

I feel your pain. Living in rural Australia, my ADSL connection (my only option) is..."

One upside to the long downoad is that I had plenty of time to begin reading The Golem and the Jinni

[AndrewP]

Even with 12 minutes of audio that seems like total bloatware or really bad file compression.

[Aaron]

AndrewP wrote: "Even with 12 minutes of audio that seems like total bloatware or really bad file compression."

The audio will not even come into it. It's the artwork/maps that will drive up the filesize.

[Tassie Dave, S&L Historian]

Aaron wrote: "AndrewP wrote: "Even with 12 minutes of audio that seems like total bloatware or really bad file compression."

The audio will not even come into it. It's the artwork/maps that will drive up the filesize."

and this will be one of the smaller books. A Dance with Dragons is an extra 320 Pages. Most likely pushing it well over 1GB

[AndrewP]

According to iTunes the Game of Thrones Advanced Edition is only 312 pages total. That sounds more like an extract or a screw up on the website.

[Tassie Dave, S&L Historian]

It must be a typo. It shows as 720 pages both in Aussie iTunes and in the iBooks store.

I checked other regions and both Canada and the US have the wrong page count.

You guys must get the censored version, without the nudity ;-)

[Aaron]

Tassie Dave wrote: "Aaron wrote: "AndrewP wrote: "Even with 12 minutes of audio that seems like total bloatware or really bad file compression."

The audio will not even come into it. It's the artwork/maps that will d..."

Well if they do it the smart way, it could add on to the current version of the app. Because I assume that lots of art assets will be reused.

The real shame is they didn't use the opportunity to go full VN with it, aka fully voice acted, BGM, click though text instead of scroll. That would of easily dragged it into the multi Gb territory and fast though.

[Tassie Dave, S&L Historian]

It would be smart to reuse assets over all the books, but I doubt they'll do that, as not all buyers will buy every book.
They may load them onto separate i-devices and/or delete books. Making it a complicated programming job to keep all books intact.

No they will keep them separate and make us download a large file each time.

[AndrewP]

That makes sense from Apple's point of view. Make the files as large as possible so people are forced to buy larger memory devices.