The Illustrated Edition - A Song of Ice and Fire

I just recently received and am really impressed! Such a beautiful book! Love the illustrations too! I hope that the author/ publisher comes out with other illustrated volumes like this one for the other 4 books since I would buy and then the dragon egg book ends to go with! Cannot wait to read! Love the HBO series and am hooked!!

I won't comment on the story...you can get thoughts on that from tons of places. What I will say is that this is a beautiful book. There is an illustration at the beginning of every chapter, and the 1st page of each chapter has a different format to set it apart. I'm not a huge fan of the big red band on the cover, but that's my only niggle. If you are a fan of this series, buying this is a no-brainer. I really, really hope they give this treatment to the rest of the series in the future (maybe once per year like the new Harry Potter books).

the book is great, this edition is pretty underwhelming.

its not great quality. the pages feel like newsprint.

some of the art is really high quality and others just look like xeroxes.

in particular, they use some of michael komarck's art, which is phenomenal, but they use black and white versions and crop them down. its not terrible, but its diasappointing.

this volume seems more like an opportunistic cash grab than an homage to the art of asoiaf.

if youre a hardcore fan you might like it. honestly, it just isnt that great.

I ordered this book because I love the show and wanted to read the book as well. I was looking for something that could potentially stay as a collection of the series. Illustrated hardcover edition should be perfect! I found this option here, it was on sale for 18$. I was going to buy it later but rushed since it was such a good deal. I waited for a week and I finnally received it... everything seemed as I wanted. Beautiful illustrations and good quality book. But then I notice there is a huge nasty ink stain on the bottom! Wow.. is that how new books are sold now? Now I cannot get a replacement for the same price. At least they are willing to refund.

The mass media tends to ignore fantasy stories, especially high fantasy stories. After all, they require actual imagination.

But one of the few stories that has wormed its way into our consciousness -- partly because of the brilliant TV adaptation -- is George R.R. Martin's fantasy epic A Song Of Ice And Fire. And the first volume, "A Game of Thrones," is a powerfully complex, gritty story, plenty of grime, blood and a tangle of convoluted plots and counterplots -- and this illustrated edition brings an extra punch of beauty, grit and creativity to the tale.

The castle of Winterfell is thrown on its ear when King Robert Baratheon of Westeros arrives to ask Eddard Stark to be his Hand. But soon after he agrees, he receives a message from his mentor's widow, informing him that Queen Cersei's family, the Lannisters, are secretly plotting against the king -- and that they are killing off anyone who might be a threat to them.

One of his younger sons is gravely wounded when he sees something shocking, and the acid-tongued dwarf Tyrion is framed for the crime. And across the Narrow Sea, exiled princess Daenerys Targaryen is wed to the barbarian lord Khal Drogo, so that her brother can invade Westeros and take back the throne. Daenerys quickly grows in strength and wisdom, but will pay a terrible price to achieve it.

And Eddard's illegitimate son Jon joins the Night's Watch near the Wall -- but has little idea of the horrors that are approaching. As Stark takes to his new duties, he begins investigating the death of his predecessor, and begins to uncover a shocking secret about the queen and her children. Treachery, death and war will be brought to Westeros, and war will begin with the blood of the good-hearted.

"A Game of Thrones" is truly an epic story -- it takes place over the length and breadth of Westeros, and stretches across to Dothraki lands across the sea. There are countless plot threads woven into one enormous, bloodsoaked tapestry, linked together even if they are technically separate. Lots of plot threads are left dangling, but in such a way that you end up wanting to know what happens next.

And Martin writes in a vivid, unromanticized style -- his world is a bleak, wild place shrouded in winter, full of cold stone walls, grimy medieval atmosphere, windswept steppes and dark seedy plots. He doesn't shy away from graphic violence or sex, but the focus here is always on the clashing families, battles and seedy plots of the queen. And despite that focus, there is still a hint of the magical in this fantasy -- talk of dragons, the White Walkers and their undead wights.

It also has a wide-ranging cast of characters, from fiery little girls to dissolute kings. The most powerful are Eddard Stark, an admirable and charismatic man who seems destined for ruin because of his search for the truth; Daenerys grows from a pale, frightened wallflower into a strong queen who loves (and loses) people close to her; and a bunch of rich characters like Tyrion, Jon, Catelyn, the evil Cersei and her brother/lover Jaime, and many others.

And this edition has -- joy of joys -- pictures! These illustrations are from a variety of artists including Magali Villaneuve, Levi Pinfold, Marc Simonetti, and Ted Nasmith, often cobbled together from part art calendars and the official guides to the universe of A Song Of Ice And Fire. And while obviously these all have their own distinct style, they do enhance the experience with some shared traits -- they're very detailed and atmospheric, with a strong emphasis on realism.

And we have a lot of beautiful images here, from both the past and present -- Bran perching atop a gargoyle, the finding of the Direwolf pups, the first appearance of the Others, gorgeous images of Winterfell, the Wall, Jon riding through the snow, Daenarys dreaming of dragons, Sansa and Gregor Clegane, a giant ice spider, a dragon fighting an army, Tyrion being held at multiple swordpoints, and many others. The only problem I have is that too few of the illustrations are colored, with most being (appropriately enough) shades of black, white and grey.

"A Game of Thrones: The Illustrated Edition" adds an extra, visual dimension to a truly spellbinding book, tearing away the rosier veils of high fantasy. Bloody, complicated and full of richly-developed characters.

The writing style of A Game Of Thrones is hard to describe. The book is rather thick (about 800 pages) but it never feels like you sat too long on it. The story moves forward swiftly, the descriptions are never too overwhelming so they don't interfere with the wonderful flow of the story. The metaphors let you see perspectives and characters much clearer and the easy way Martin shows us this world are just amazing and intoxicating.

Not only the writing style kept me reading this book but also the wonderful, deep characters. As you might now, there are quite a few of them. In the beginning I was struggling to remember them all, and even know I don't know every peasant's name, but I do not care to either. The main characters' perspectives are the Stark family along with other characters. Not one of them comes too short, neither is flat or uninteresting and every one of them has their own ways of thinking and their charm. Every author who decides to write things in different perspectives is met with a challenge of making the characters original. Martin excelled in this.

The plot if not clear yet, or should I rather say, the grand scheme of things. I have a few assumptions and my bf grinned when I told him my thoughts but I still don't know for sure. That is because I never watch an episode of the series unless I have read it before. I don't want to be spoilered.
I fell in love with the brave, shy Sam and strong, hot-headed Jon. My female favourite is clearly Dany and I want to read more of those, naturally. But even though most of the book is about war, maidens in distress, knights, revenge and secrets, I mostly don't care about those aspects at the moment. I was most fascinated by the Others and my gut feeling that all of Westeros will be doomed if they're not stopped. BUT there are not a lot hints at such an outcome in the book, so this is no spoiler, but rather my own assumption.

It was fun guessing and assuming what's bound to happen next and feeling, hoping and fearing with the characters as all of them had to go through some sort of trial, find their true elves, their honor or home. I can't wait to read the second part A Clash of Kings.

The reason why I only gave 4 stars are personal ones. As I said, I would have liked to know more what is going on at and beyond the wall. Also, I read A Game of Thrones along with two other books so I felt that I needed a really long time ( for me anyway) to get through it because I really didn't want to rush anything.

If you are looking for an interesting read where you have to think a little bit, read about true knights, wars and magical creatures, this book is definitely something for you! Go ahead and start today!

I know this is not about the book, but I just fell in love with Khal Drogo of the series.

Thoroughly enjoyed this book. I had the advantage of having watched and in some cases re-watched the TV series, which helped me to mentally keep the characters straight and there are a lot of them!- providing mental images. The text was easy to read and fast paced which is hard to image in an 850 page book or so. This volume was very similar to the content of the TV show (or should I say vice versa?) with some slight variation. The mental images conjured up by the book were however all the more awesome. I'd recommend this for those who like to read and have/haven't seen the TV series.

This review pertains to this illustrated edition, not the content of the story.

I am a fan of illustrated editions, but this book does have some problems. The cover of the book is okay, but there is no texture on it and it feels a bit cheap. The big red band on the front is a bit much when compared to the classic styling around it. There is no dust jacket for this edition which I actually like because it looks cleaner. The cover is not extremely durable and arrived a bit bent on the top corner. There is also a large sticker that was attached to the back of the book which was difficult to remove without affecting the cover itself.

There is a full color map on the inside pages of the cover which looks great. The paper used feels thin except for certain pages with illustrations. The illustrations themselves are great for the most part, but a little inconsistent since multiple artists contributed to this edition. None of the illustrations have a description anywhere in the book which can make it difficult to ascertain which characters are being portrayed. Most of the pictures are in black and white and do not look like they were reproduced in great detail when compared to the originals. Many of the art pieces are placed before that part in the story which feels rather lazy.

Overall, I like this edition, but it looks like they took some shortcuts that makes it feel much less impressive in the end.

I was really looking forward to the illustrated edition of GoT, and finally had a look at it the other night. It is definitely not worth the $50 in-store price. Flipping through, there are a lot of so-so black and white illustrations on mediocre quality paper, and a very few full color illustrations. The full color illustrations are typical generic fantasy fare, and if anything, detract from the story rather than adding to it. The Harry Potter books are now being released as illustrated editions - the books are oversized, the art is unique and charming, and the entire book is printed on heavy, gloss paper. The Harry Potter editions are just $40 compared to the GoT illustrated $50, and the quality is infinitely better than this mediocre effort. Having looked at the book, it looks like a cynical Christmas season money grab. Not very impressive.

This book was amazing! 5/5 stars. Every chapter was as good as the last and the plot twists kept me on my toes. I will be continuing the series but I’m worried by the time I get to the sixth book it still won’t be released.

I was initially going to wait until I found a used copy of the book and purchase it at a cheaper price. I already have two copies of the book. But after I flipping through a copy at the store (and seeing the at it was 40% cover price I purchased it. While many of the drawings are recycled from art books and calendars (which are out of print). Some of the drawings are new and very lovely.. It was drawing of a pregnant Dany on page 698 which persuaded me to go ahead and purchase the book. The type set is new and different from the original publication and the paper is of excellent quality . And the book has a nice heft to it. It is a great addition for those who find magic in holding a great book and magic in Mr. Martin's series.

I love the story, but this printing is awful. Not because of the quality of the materials, but because the illustrations contain MAJOR SPOILERS! They show up pages before the illustrated events occur in the story, and give away crucial plot points before they happen. If you haven’t seen the show beforehand, DO NOT BUY THIS EDITION OF GAME OF THRONES.

20 years? Of what? Waiting around? We are going to celebrate this guy's delays after delays after complete radio silence?!? I'll pass on that celebration. Give this fat old guy more money if you want, I'm not.