Since pretty much page one of A Game of Thrones, a terrible threat has been hanging over the land of Westeros — the Others, those supernatural butchers who raise the dead. And now at last, in his new book The World of Ice & Fire, George R.R. Martin gives us details about what would happen if the Others win. Spoilers ahead...
At first glance, Martin's new book might seem like just a throwaway tie-in volume, a drip of methadone for everyone who's in withdrawal symptoms awaiting the next novel in the series, The Winds of Winter. But The World of Ice & Fire is surprisingly jam-packed with information, and does a lot to flesh out the already rich world-building of Martin's series. And there are tons of gorgeous illustrations, some of which we're featuring here. |
He better release the Winds of Winter soon.
Basically, the new book answers the question: what would come out of an extended bullshit session between Martin and the geekiest of ASOIAF geeks? The Swedes from westeros.org lay out their version - much of which we've seen elsewhere - and Martin corrects them, verbosely. Most of his material had to be cut, but will be reassembled into an eventual companion to ASOIAF that he playfully calls the "GRRM-arillion". (Get it? Wink, wink. But Martin would NEVER encourage comparisons to Tolkein. Ever.)
Is Martin trolling or procrastinating? Who knows? If he's trolling, he does a masterful job of disguising it as procrastination.