I am pleased to announce the release of my first e-book: Cripples, Bastards, and Broken Things: The Unaffiliated Critic's Guide to Seasons One through Three of Game of Thrones.

 

As my regular readers know, my lengthy analyses of Game of Thrones could fill several volumes—and now they will. Cripples, Bastards, and Broken Things—now available for Kindle from Amazon Books—is the first of three volumes collecting my writings on this landmark and critically acclaimed series. Volume II (collecting my reviews of Seasons Four through Six) will appear in the next few weeks, and Volume III (covering Seasons Seven and Eight) shortly thereafter.

"But Michael," I hear you ask. "Why would I pay for content you're giving away for free on this very website?" And that's a reasonable question. Let me offer you a few possible answers:

1. Cripples, Bastards, and Broken Things contains content that isn't available on this website. Specifically, it contains a new introduction, and three exclusive, full-length essays on the first three episodes of Game of Thrones: "Winter is Coming," "The Kingsroad," and "Lord Snow." (I wrote a quick, "first-look" review of the series after watching these episodes—back before I took this show very seriously—but I never gave them the full, individual treatment.) Now, I've taken the opportunity to go back and examine these episodes through the lens of the series as a whole, teasing out how themes and storylines now reaching fruition were seeded right from the very beginning. These new pieces constitute over 20,000 words of new content that isn't available anywhere else.
2. Let's face it: The Internet wasn't really built for lengthy posts (which means I wasn't really built for the Internet). Personally, I think these reviews work very nicely in book-form: They combine to form a long, engrossing novel about a guy slowly realizing that the show he's watching has way more going on in it than just tits and dragons.
3. Buying the book is a great way to support The Unaffiliated Critic, while getting something cool in return. To date, I've written over a quarter of a million words on Game of Thrones. It's been a lot of work, but I've loved doing it, and I've genuinely appreciated those of you who have been kind enough to tell me how much these reviews enrich your appreciation of the show. But, if you'd like to say "Thank you," here in the final days of our mutual journey through Game of Thrones, ordering the book would be a nice way to do that. (If you wanted to buy the book and leave it a review on Amazon, that would be even better.)

Cripples, Bastards, and Broken Things is available right now on Amazon. Get it here, and subscribe to The Unaffiliated Critic below to be notified about the release of future volumes.