More generally, you might be here because our analysis of "A Storm of Swords" has made you curious about mathematics. Maybe you are rethinking your impressions on what mathematics is all about. In my interview in the Quartz article about "Network of Thrones", I paraphrase a meme introduced by Keith Devlin in the early 1990s: mathematics is the science of patterns. Devlin revisited this catchy description in his 2012 blog post, where he wrote: "thinking of mathematics in terms of patterns is far more reflective of the bulk of contemporary mathematics than is the computational-centric view of the subject that still seems the dominant one in society at large." Obviously, I agree.

I frequently teach Discrete Mathematics, an introductory college-level course on the kind of pattern-focused mathematics that Devlin talks about. I am keenly aware of the paradigm shift that this course requires, since I de-emphasize computation in favor of understanding and explaining. To help my students with this transition, I tell them: "Imagine that during high school English class, you only got to study grammar, and that you were finally allowed to start reading novels once you got to college. That's kind of how mathematics is taught: you focus on the grammar (computation) rather than the beautiful things that you are able to do with it." This analogy is imperfect (just as Devlin acknowledges about his "science of patterns" catch phrase). But this flawed analogy does help to open students' minds. It encourages them to revisit what they think it means to "do mathematics."

What is Network Science all about? We are surrounded by networks, both visible and invisible. Amazingly, these various network structures display some remarkable similarities. Network Science studies empirical network data with tools to describe these patterns, and develops models to capture the forces that shape them. If you want to know more about Network Science, here are some books that I'd recommend.

In what follows, I will revisit the Game of Thrones network that Jie and I created from "A Storm of Swords," the third book of "A Song of Ice and Fire." There's nothing new here that doesn't appear in the article... at least, not yet.