Well, I didn't get my "Snowcrash" mini-series for Festivus, but there are now a trio of projects that make for a damn fine substitute. Kevin mentioned the other day that George Clooney and Sci Fi are adapting Neil Stephenson's "The Diamond Age" for the small screen. Now comes word from Variety that George R. R. Martin's epic "Song of Ice and Fire" series has found a home at HBO.

Martin is currently at work on book five of the seven book series with the network planning to adapt each book into one season of the show. The stories take place in the seven kingdoms of Westeros and chronicle the violent history of the politics of the land. It's often very dark and, if given the same kind of scope as HBO's Rome, has the potential to be an amazing series. The project will be executive produced by David Benioff and D.B. Weiss. The plan is for Benioff and Weiss to write all the episodes each season, except one, which will be written by George R. R. Martin himself.

Sci Fi announced that George Clooney will be part of the creative team bringing the retro cyberpunk book 'The Diamond Age' to the channel. Neal Stephenson will adapt the miniseries from his novel, which I'll basically sum up as the adventures a young girl goes through as she comes into the possession of a talking "smartbook." Clooney and partner Grant Heslov will executive produce.

This is one of my favorite cyberpunk novels, and it may be blasphemy to some of you, but I like it a lot more than William Gibson's 'Neuromancer.' I'm glad Stephenson is writing this, and it'll be interesting to see what they manage to come up with. It's a fairly epic book in scope, following a girl from a very young age and stays with her as she blossoms into womanhood, so thankfully it's getting a miniseries treatment, and not "movie of the week" status.