"Tell them the North remembers. Tell them winter came for House Frey"
By MARTIN, George R.R. , 1996
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A Song of Ice and Fire.

  • Author: MARTIN, George R.R.
  • Publication place: London,
  • Publisher: Harper Collins,
  • Publication date: 1996-2011.
  • Physical description: First Editions, first UK printing of all five books in the series. Octavo (232 by 152mm).

    'A Game of Thrones', 1996: [6, incorporating 2 maps], 694pp, [2], signed "G.R.R. Martin" on title, white endpapers, red cloth over boards, lettered in gilt on spine, dust jacket.

    'A Clash of Kings', 199: [10, incorporating 2 maps], 742pp, signed "G.R.R. Martin" on title, white endpapers, blue cloth over boards, lettered in gilt on spine, dust jacket.

    'A Storm of Swords', 2000: [16, incorporating 4 maps], 974pp, [2], inscribed "to Steve, Keep your sword sharp, G.R.R. Martin, Chicon 2000" on half title, white endpapers, blue cloth over boards, lettered in silver on spine, dust jacket.

    'A Feast for Crows', 2005: [10, incorporating 3 maps], 754, [20], signed "G.R.R. Martin" on title, black endpapers, red cloth over boards, lettered in gilt on spine, dust jacket.

    'A Dance with Dragons', 2011: [14, incorporating 3 maps], 1016pp, [10], signed "G.R.R. Martin" on title, grey endpapers, grey cloth over boards, lettered in silver on spine, dust jacket.
  • Inventory reference: 22171

Notes

The Books
George R. R. Martin's 'A Song of Ice and Fire' series follows the intertwined stories of host of characters, of whom 24 have chapters told from their point of view, as they attempt to navigate (and survive!) the bloodthirsty world of Westeros, Essos and the lands beyond. In the first book, 'A Game of Thrones', the Stark household move from their northern home of Winterfell to the southern metropolis of King's Landing, where they must adapt to its ways and avoid its many perils. Simultaneous plot lines tell of affairs abroad, as the exiled heirs to the Targaryen throne attempt to rally support, and in the far north, where the Night's Watch guard Westeros from what lies beyond The Wall.

The subsequent books, 'A Clash of Kings' and 'A Storm of Swords', continue to focus on the political intrigue and bloody conflict of Westeros, but also venture further afield, with Jon Snow travelling into the dangerous northern territories, and Daenerys Targaryen sails westwards to Slaver's Bay, where she soon establishes power with the help of her three dragons. In the fourth book, 'A Feast for Crows', more of Westeros is explored, with characters travelling to the Iron Islands, Dorne, Braavos and The Vale, while in 'A Dance with Dragons', the map is extended even further to encompass lands "across the Narrow Sea". Millions of readers across the globe eagerly await the sixth and seventh books in the series, 'The Winds of Winter' and 'A Dream of Spring', which are likely to extend the world of 'A Song of Ice and Fire' yet further.

The Maps
When Martin began to write 'A Game of Thrones' in 1991, he drew a map of Westeros, divided into overlapping North and South sheets, which he eventually gave to his publishers to have prepared for the first edition. The artist James Sinclair was responsible for transforming Martin's sketches into publishable maps, which finally appeared in print in 1996.

The maps in the first novel have relatively few details, limited to important locations in the story, such as "Winterfell", "Castle Black", "Highgarden" and "King's Landing". Mountains, woodlands and lakes are represented pictorially and dashed lines form routes between notable cities. The lack of a scale bar, combined with the form of Westeros, which resembles that of the British Isles, led some readers to drastically underestimate the scale of the huge land.

Finding himself with 1400 pages of manuscript, Martin cut short 'A Game of Thrones' and moved the rest of his work into a second book, 'A Clash of Kings', which in turn had to be split into two works, the third being 'A Storm of Swords'. Both of these featured new cartographical material: 'A Clash of Kings' has the same map of Westeros as 'A Game of Thrones' as well as a new map of 'King's Landing' in US editions; 'A Storm of Swords' includes two new maps drawn by Martin, one of 'The Land Beyond the Wall' and one of 'The Lands of the Summer Sea'. While in American editions, these maps were again produced by Sinclair, Harper Collins preferred the hand-drawn style of Richard Geiger for UK editions. Geiger also updated the map of Westeros, adding new details such as inns and bridges. Geiger's maps immediately became popular, despite several errors, both in spelling and geography.

In the early 2000s, Martin again ran into his usual problem: his next book was growing beyond publishable length, and so he again split it into two: 'A Feast for Crows', published in 2005, and 'A Dance with Dragons', which appeared in 2011. The split was a geographical one, with 'A Feast for Crows' focussing on the characters in King's Landing, Braavos, Oldtown, Dorne and the Riverlands, and 'A Dance with Dragons' in the North and across the Narrow Sea. Naturally, both came with new maps. Sinclair returned to update his map of Westeros with new locations and routes, and made a new map of the Iron Islands and western Westeros. As a result of an administrative error, however, the publishers included the original maps from 'A Game of Thrones' rather than the updated version, a mistake that was again corrected later.

The fifth and most recent book in 'A Song of Ice and Fire', 'A Dance with Dragons' again features new maps - of Valyria, the Free Cities and the lands beyond the Wall - by Jeffrey L. Ward. Ward had also prepared new maps of North and South Westeros, and yet, due to another administrative error, these never made it into the first UK edition.

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