Warning: GRRM's A Dance with Dragons has been leaked

[Steel_Wind]

Heads up People!

From the Dumbledore Dies; Vader Repents; and Gollum slips and falls in to the Crack of Doom after stealing the One Ring Dept.


Due to a mix-up with the German arm of Amazon, Amazon.de released approximately 180 copies of George RR Martin’s A Dance With Dragons into the wild and they are starting to show up in readers hands today.

There are rumours of spoilers abounding already on the Internet at geek sites and on Facebook. I have no idea if these spoilers are accurate (or even what they reportedly are) but forewarned is forearmed.

Obviously, some of the spoilers are accurate, as GRRM’s UK publisher has posted a public letter asking fans to stop posting.

Harper Collins, the UK publisher for GRRM, is begging those who got early copies to be respectful and not spoil the book for others, but I doubt that’s going to matter much. Fans will be fans and asshats will be asshats.

So, the end result of all of this is that if you are a GRRM fan, you would be very wise to be VERY circumspect in visiting geek sites on the Net. Basically, when it comes to the Net over the next three weeks, “Here be Dragons” is a warning with a new meaning (and some real teeth to it.)

When even the publisher is advising us to avoid the usual ASoIaF message boards and websites, that's a pretty good indication that we probably ought to be taking it seriously.

 

[Crothian]

If I had a copy I'd spoil it on the net.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

Pics or it didn't happen.

 

[Steel_Wind]

Pics or it didn't happen.

There were a couple of pics posted on Westeros.org with fans showing their copies in their hands, but those threads have been moved so that cannot be accessed at the request of the publisher (and I don't have the links to those pics outside of the forum posts where they appeared).

I do think a pic of the letter from the Publisher is good enough evidence it happened

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

I do think a pic of the letter from the Publisher is good enough evidence it happened

Nope, that could just be guerrilla marketing hype. I want to see a picture of page 357 as proof.

 

[Steel_Wind]

Nope, that could just be guerrilla marketing hype. I want to see a picture of page 357 as proof.

Encounter Analysis_Mode_on: I don't think a BBEG would say something like this.

Seems to me you are most probably playing the part of the 2nd level redshirt in tonight's adventure. Something tells me it's not going to end well for you.

 

[Steel_Wind]

On a more serious note, I have read that the IMDB message boards which discuss the HBO series now feature several topic threads, the ttles of which are blatant spoilers for ADwD.

This is particularly loathsome as those forums are frequently visited by poeple who are looking for casting reports on season #2. Please stay away from IMDB's page on HBO's Game of Thrones until you have read ADwD.

I did a earch on A Dance with Dragons on Google using the "in the past 24 hours" date delimiter. By the time you get to page 3 on Google, the spoilers start showing up quickly. "I'm averting my eyes oh Lord!"

I would expect the same thing as has already happened on IMDB will probably happen on Amazon's various discussion threads on the book. Don't scroll down if you are buying ADwD though Amazon!!

Some asshats have hit "like" on discussions spoiler titles, causing that to flow to their Walls on Facebook and before you know it, you are screwed. If you are a Facebook user with a bunch of "friends" acquired through playing some Zynga game -- be careful.

Essentially, the bastages are putting the spoilers in topic headers everywher and it becomes EXTREMELY difficult to avoid reading any spoilers if you hit many geek spots on the Net. Frankly, I'm a little worred about EN World, too. So far, so good.

Lastly, there are a number of bookstores in Germany which have put the book on the shelves in light of Amazon.de's actions yesterday. While there is a lot of squawking from the publisher, it looks like hundreds (if not thousands) more copies have hit the streets in Germany in violation of the supposed street date embargo.

Not to be outdone, it appears that Amazon in Japan shipped the book as well!! No reports yet on how many copies, but the end result is that there are HUNDREDS of copies out there in the wild for certain -- and it may well be more than a thousand after the small book sellers in Germany started selling it too.

Simply put: there are not enough copies of ADwD out there to get your own (and so innoculate yourself from the spoiler effect by simply reading the book first), but there are WAY MORE than enough copies out there to ensure that the spoller effect on the Internet is about to climb and get even worse in the next 12 days.

End Result: It's pretty much a clusterf#@k right now.

And as for more evidence re "pics or it didn't happen"?

 

[jonesy]

This is a depressing thread.

 

[Alaxk Knight of Galt]

Yeah, I'm avoiding ASOIAF sites now. I've waited 11 years to see what happens next with these characters, don't spoil me days before I get the book!

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

And as for more evidence re "pics or it didn't happen"?

Clearly a 'chop.