The Lands of Ice and Fire Author: Visit Amazon's George R.R. Martin Page | Language: English | ISBN:
0345538544 | Format: PDF
The Lands of Ice and Fire Description
Review
Praise for A Song of Ice and Fire 'After five volumes Martin is, if anything, a better writer than when he started. If you're watching A Game of Thrones on HBO, you're foregoing the great pleasure of Martin's deft prose...' Time Magazine 'A Game of Thrones has captured the imaginations of millions for the same reason the archetypal dramas of Homer, Sophocles or Shakespeare have lasted for millennia. They show us the conflict between self-sacrifice and self-interest, between the human spirit and the human ego, between good and evil. And when we look up from the page we recognise those same conflicts in the world around us and in ourselves' The Guardian 'It is hard to accept that something that enormous and that popular is as good as people tell you it is' Independent 'A Game of Thrones grabs hold and won't let go. It's brilliant.' Robert Jordan 'Colossal, staggering... Martin captures all the intoxicating complexity of the Wars of the Roses or Imperial Rome in his imaginary world... one of the greats of fantasy literature.' SFX 'Fantasy literature has never shied away from grandeur, but the sheer-mind-boggling scope of this epic has sent other fantasy writers away shaking their heads... Its ambition: to construct the Twelve Caesars of fantasy fiction, with characters so venomous they could eat the Borgias.' Guardian 'Such a splendid tale. I couldn't stop till I'd finished and it was dawn.' Anne McCaffrey
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
About the Author
George R. R. Martin is the #1
New York Times bestselling author of many novels, including the acclaimed series A Song of Ice and Fire—
A Game of Thrones, A Clash of Kings, A Storm of Swords, A Feast for Crows, and
A Dance with Dragons. As a writer-producer, he has worked on
The Twilight Zone, Beauty and the Beast, and various feature films and pilots that were never made. He lives with the lovely Parris in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Jonathan Roberts grew up in a old farmhouse between a ruined castle and a Bronze Age fort, so lands of the imagination were never far away. These days Roberts illustrates maps of real and imaginary worlds for a wide range of clients, from brides looking for an unusual wedding map to Wizards of the Coast and IDW comics for the many lands of Dungeons and Dragons. Along with his own illustration work for books and games, Roberts has curated New York gallery shows of maps by illustrators around the world.
- Series: A Game of Thrones
- Poster: 16 pages
- Publisher: Bantam; Map Mti edition (October 30, 2012)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0345538544
- ISBN-13: 978-0345538543
- Product Dimensions: 12 x 9 x 1.5 inches
- Shipping Weight: 3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
NOTE: After some thought and use of the maps, I've downwardly revised my rating from 4 to 3. Left the review as-is, but explanation at the bottom.
ORIGINAL:
I'm a bit of a map nut, having ran a website for hand-drawn maps for a fantasy MMO, and had those maps printed in various guides as well as creating my own ebook. I also get into collecting and reading about maps and mapping techniques.
First, this is not a map book, but a collection of poster-sized maps that each focus on an interesting area of the world. They have individual cities like Braavos and King's Reach, but also a map of the entire known world and other large sections (like the whole of Dothraki). I was expecting a book, and was honestly a little disappointed since I was hoping for essentially a reference manual so I could keep track of things while reading.
That said, the maps themselves are great. They're printed on fairly heavy paper, and printed quite well, folding out to probably 3' x 2' (just a guess). The colors are well chosen to give you a good sense of the subtle changes in terrain, but simple and muted enough to keep the map focused on locations, kind of like a good National Geographic map. You can really see this in the "Beyond the Wall" map, because it's hard to make snowy terrain and large tracts of forest look interesting, but the maps manages exactly that (although it looks less cold than I expected it to). The inking is very well done as well, with lots of detail that is really obvious on the complicated city maps, but no less detailed on the broad geography maps even if it's more subtle.
NOTE: I have edited my review to 1 star from 2, but left my review the same as it was. My explanation is at the bottom.
I should say I hate giving this two stars. I want to give it 4 stars, or even 3.. but I have a reason for giving it 2. The maps themselves are gorgeous. The work done on them is fantastic, and the quality of the cartography is everything I was hoping for. So why 2 stars? Well, I don't know if this is the type of paper they are printed on, or the way they are folded, or the ink, but every single one of my maps has a white line on the creases where the paper tore a little. On top of that the paper is really thick, which actually is not good on maps like this because whenever you unfold them it causes the paper to bind up. I know these things are really anal, and it sounds like I have OCD, but a list price of $40 (I paid amazon price of $25) is a lot to pay for just 12 maps, and I don't think it is too much to ask that you get maps that are going to last a while. Even though they have some issues, I would still buy them again.. so maybe 2 stars is unfair. I just think people should understand that they are not as good of quality as they maybe could be.
EDIT: After opening the maps back up I have decided to give them 1 star. I have now only opened them up twice, both times I have been exceptionally gentle with them (I used to work in a historical document repository, so I have some idea how to carefully handle documents), and I noticed something unacceptable. On the map, where the creases from the folds cross, the folds have made the paper so weak that there will soon be holes in the middle of the map. Like I said, I have opened these maps exactly 2 times; I would maybe expect that kind of wear after more extensive use, but not from opening it twice.
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