The World of Ice & Fire - Review

The World of Ice & Fire was an amazing journey from beginning to end. The illustrations throughout the book were just gorgeous and I've never seen a better collection of art in a book. It's like George R.R. Martin was Nick Fury & gathered the Avengers of Sci-Fi/Fantasy illustrators to work on this book. Even the packaging & design of this book was awesome. The cover, the material the book was made out of, and the pages had the design of a historical tome which gave some real authenticity and specialty to this book. It made me feel like I was a scholar, or more fitting, a Maester of the Citadel just doing some leisurely reading. It's hard to go into details about the histories and events itself because it will not only spoil this book, but also spoil stuff in the "A Song of Ice and Fire" series for those who haven't read it yet, so I have stayed away from that & this will be more like a breakdown of the contents of this book and a sales pitch of why you should read it. 

Image: The Golden Empire of Yi Ti.

Section 1 - Ancient History:

This section includes fascinating stories/events such as "The Dawn Age", 'The Long Night', "The Doom of Valyria" and many more. Most of these stories are already told in George R.R. Martin's ASOIAF series but you only get bits and pieces and little sprinkles throughout the 5 books so far. Elio and Linda did a fantastic job compiling all those sprinkles and giving us a fully detailed account of those histories.

Section 2 - The Reign of the Dragons:

Section 2 covers the beginning of the near 300-year Targaryen dynasty with "Aegon's Conquest" and this section seems to be all George R.R. Martin's material, without any edits or compilations. Sections 1 & 2 are my favorite sections throughout book because it has the most storytelling and page-turning elements where as some other sections might feel like reading a history book. These first 2 sections also serve as a timeline from the origins of this world, all the way to the events that occur directly before 'A Game of Thrones' (Book 1) starts off.

Image: Aegon I Targaryen and his 2 sisters, Visenya and Rhaenys.

Section 3 - The Targaryen Kings:

Section 3 continues the timeline with the Targaryen Dynasty but switches styles. It gives a biography of the many Targaryen Kings who ruled over Westeros, detailing exactly how long they reigned & it gives a snapshot of their life, their accomplishments, and their downfalls. This section was definitely different from the previous 2 but equally fantastic because it mixes a biography style with a narrative structure and it left me craving for more info about each individual King. It never felt repetitive either. Each King was unique, with their own personalities, accomplishments, and downfalls so it never felt rinse-and-repeat.

Section 4 - The Fall of the Dragons:

The 4th section details the event famously known in the ASOIAF books as "Robert's Rebellion" and it's aftermath, which was phenomenal. It felt like I was reading a direct prequel to "A Game of Thrones" and I never wanted it to end. It would have been better if we actually learned more to this story but I guess George R.R. Martin is saving that for 'The Winds of Winter' (Book 6) and 'A Dream of Spring' (Book 7) of the ASOIAF series.

Section 5 - The Seven Kingdoms:

This section switches formats and delves into the origins of each kingdom, their respective notable old kings/legendary figures, details about the ruling House along with the other houses loyal to them, a vivid description of the ruling House's castle & more. It was really interesting to learn about the legendary/ancient figures of these different kingdoms and their origins. My favorite, from a story telling perspective, was the Iron Islands because it had a Lovecraftian element with the ancient krakens and sea dragons (which was AWESOME btw). The specific pages detailing the ruling castle of each of these Kingdoms was also my favorite portion of this section because it was complimented with gorgeous artwork of the respective castles which really compliment the vivid and detailed descriptions George gives for each structure and brings them to life.

Image: Robert Baratheon vs. Rhaegar Targaryen during the Battle of the Trident.

Section 6 - Beyond the Sunset Kingdoms:

This section focuses on the places in Essos such as the 9 Free Cities (Braavos, Pentos, Lys, Myr etc.), the Summer Isles, Asshai, Yi Ti etc. It also covers the mysterious continent of Sothoryos and the places/seas between Essos and Sothoryos. It was great to learn more about the places in Essos because they aren't featured that much in the main 'A Song of Ice & Fire' series of books. Places such as Asshai, Sothoryos, and the 9 Free Cities were my favorite sub-sections. This section, however, was a bit of a slog to get through. I still enjoyed about 75% of the pages in this section but this was probably the weakest section of the entire book in my opinion.

Appendix:

The book ends with a great appendix that shows the family trees of House Stark, Targaryen and Lannister which was really helpful to understand the many different brothers and fathers and uncles and mothers etc. It also included a great overview of all the previous Kings of Westeros in a timeline format and showed which years they reigned and when the next king took over. The events/histories of this book were so detailed, entertaining and such page-turners that it didn't even feel like a history book or encyclopedia. Some people see those words (history book & encyclopedia) and are immediately turned off because they think it would be very long, and tedious but this book is exactly the opposite. This book was very fun and I wanted it to have even more pages and art.

Image: Asshai by the Shadow.

[Final Thoughts & Rating]:

The production design was jaw-dropping, the illustrations were breathtakingly gorgeous and even though I previously knew some of the stories in this book, it was told in such a complete and entertaining way, (unlike in ASOIAF where we could only learn bits and pieces at a time), that I didn't mind at all. It was complimented by the artwork which fit in perfectly within each story/section and never felt it was forced onto a certain page. I learned a lot about George R.R. Martin's world and histories from this book and I recommended it to veteran ASOIAF readers just to get a complete sense of certain histories/events and to enjoy the gorgeous artwork, but I also recommend it to readers who have never read ASOIAF. It will give a bit of context to the world so when you finally read ASOIAF, you will know what events that the characters are vaguely referring to. By some chance you don't like the book, at the very least it's a great coffee-table book or a book to prominently display on your bookshelf and you can just browse through the amazing artwork alone and it would be worth it.

Rating: 8.75/10

*My Rating System*

5 Stars (9-10): Amazing
4 Stars (7-9): Very Good
3 Stars (5-7): Average to Good
2 Stars (3-5): Bad to Mediocre
1 Star (1-3): Terrible

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