The Lands of Ice and Fire Author: Visit Amazon's George R. R. Martin Page | Language: English | ISBN:
0007490658 | Format: PDF
The Lands of Ice and Fire Description
- Hardcover
- Publisher: HarperVoyager (November 8, 2012)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0007490658
- ISBN-13: 978-0007490653
- Product Dimensions: 12 x 9.1 x 1.5 inches
- Shipping Weight: 3.2 pounds
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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