A new app called A Game of Thrones: Get into the Books allows fans of the HBO series to take baby steps toward reading A Song of Ice and Fire.
Designed by HarperCollins UK, the app helps fans wade into George R.R. Martin’s magnum opus by offering brief excerpts from the first five books. Fans program their progress in both the literary and televisual versions of the epic story into the app, and are shown accordingly spoiler-free selections.
According to HarperCollins, A Game of Thrones: Get into the Books is meant to serve as a “bridge” into Martin’s writing for fans of Game of Thrones who may be intimidated by the dense bestselling novels.
“We are thrilled to be able to offer this new way into the books, and to enable TV fans to discover how much they have to look forward to from the reading experience,” said publishing director Jane Johnson.
The app currently includes 40 excerpts from the five published books in A Song of Ice and Fire, none of which takes more than half an hour to read. Fans will be able to experience famous (or infamous) moments from Game of Thrones as Martin portrays them, as well as following maps and accessing more detailed information about the players and places of Westeros.
Ironically, A Game of Thrones: Get into the Books arrives just as fans of the series have run out of books to get into. Season 5 of the HBO series covered the events of A Dance with Dragons, the latest published book in the series. As book readers wait hungrily for book six, titled The Winds of Winter, Game of Thrones will push forward into indisputable spoiler territory.
Unless George R.R. Martin manages to publish The Winds of Winter before next spring, of course. In the meantime, A Game of Thrones: Get into the Books is available for download on iTunes UK.
Game of Thrones season 6 will air in Spring 2016.