The World of Ice & Fire: The Untold History of Westeros and the Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire) Hardcover – October 28, 2014

beautiful work, with tales divided into segments by chronology and geography and theme, and lots of beautiful pictures of beautiful lands and beautiful people and even some ugly people, and a really unsettling picture of old Aegon 1 looking very Nick Nolte-like.It's written in the frame of a Maester writing in-universe for King Joffrey/Tommen, in full honesty and maintaining a balance of realism with regards to ancient legends and stories, not being afraid to call out that "Brandon the Builder" appears inconsistently over several millennia, undoubtedly meant to insinuate many figures/architectural works in Westerosi history all merged and ascribed to a singular "Brandon the Builder"the book is quick with pre-history, but goes to painstaking detail on the First Men and their factionalism, the Andals coming like Vikings in overwhelming numbers and succumbing to the same in-fighting and factionalism, and so on. Familiar names and family names appear, with an unwritten implication (and in some cases, explicitly mentioned) that certain names and persons may not have actually existed in the time periods the singers and bards write they do.The book goes over the Valyrian period quickly, gives several pages to Nymeria and the 10,000 ships, and goes over each Targaryen king of Westeros in a "The Twelve Caesars" fashion, complete with indent editorials containing snippets of text written by contemporaries who may or may not be exaggerating or lying (such as the dwarf called 'Mushroom', playing the role of a Claudius by pretending to be a fool to get in close with the Targaryen court). Then it goes over each of the Seven Kingdoms' major landmasses and their histories, with some being surprisingly more interesting than others, such as the mysteries around Oldtown and the possibly fictitious "Maze Makers", the way the First Men of the Vale held out longer and harder than most other kingdoms against the Andals, the three ethnically diverse factions making up the Dornish (Salt Dornes, Sand Dornes, Sea Dornes).The last 1/4th of the book goes over Essos and the Summer Isles and briefly touches on other areas, fully fleshing out the world of Ice and Fire in a way likely that will never be touched upon in the TV series or in the books (such as the empire of Yi Ti and Leng, ASOIAF's Chinese, Mongol, Japanese, other east Asians) or similarities with Earth history with diversions like that of an interesting game of Civilization (slavers constantly raiding the Summer Isles, where the natives are black, only to have the Islanders be the first to invent Longbows and ocean-faring galleons to defend themselves).The book's only single major drawback, which is frustrating in its absence, is the lack of enough MAPS. Each of the Seven Kingdoms gets a piece of a map of their lands at the start of each chapter, but no place else gets a map beyond the single generic one at the start of the book. As such, lands and locations which show up over and over and over again all throughout the book (such as the Stepstones, the Broken Arm of Dorne, the Rhoyne river, all of Southoryos) are never shown on maps relative to other locations so you have no way of comprehending scope and scale of certain things without looking outside the book.Going to write this review, I saw on Amazon a listing for a separate book "The Lands of Ice and Fire" advertised entirely as maps of this world, so it seems the plot all along was to keep maps out so people would buy two separate works. weaklooking at a map of the Known World on the ASOIAF wiki shows the geography so clearly, with locations of cultures and lands placed in such a suspicious way, such as having the east Asian looking Yi Ti in the far east, the Viking-like Andals at the very western tip of Essos, the Dothraki Sea being a large steppe area, north of which near where Moscow would be is a place coyly named Mussovy. All of which plays perfectly to my running theory that the world of Ice and Fire is actually very distant post-apocalyptic Earth, continents misshapen over time and technology (as well as imprecise mapping), "magic" is remnants of old technology, and the White Walkers are actually androids, using nanobots to make Wights out of people's bodies,

After reading about ice and fire there is one quote that caught my eye and that was that the past is not certain, is made up of different people and we only get a glimpse of it through very distinctive lens so we never know what really happened but we can guess. If we want to understand our present however and hope for a better future, we must look at the past and not just memorize events and dates but learn about our ancestors' mistakes.There is no other way to learn, the maester writes. And this is why I love Martin's saga because no one else writes the way he does. I am sure there are other sagas that are just as good, but no other imaginary world compares to his. In his new book, Martin has expanded the world of game of thrones besides the two continents of Westeros and across the narrow sea with the free cities,Volantis and the other key places that figure in the story, but has mentioned other places with other civilizations and kingdoms with kings, queens, tribal leaders, republics that are just as complex as the ones found in Westeros. At the same time the book is written in the same format of his other books, so the voice we hear in this book is that of a maester who is not himself sure of what the truth is so he always cautions the readers to take fantastical accounts with a grain of salt, and consider other sources.This is a great addition to the Song of Ice and Fire and for those who want to know the mysterious origins of all the races and groups, you guys should read this books. It's not very long and for history buffs who also enjoy watching the tv show, prepare to be blown away because as you read you realize that the world of game of thrones is more based after our world than we imagined. First Men who crossed a straight path of land "that bridged the narrow sea and connected the eastern lands with the land in which the children and the giants lived" sounds a hell of a lot like the straight of Bering and then the Andals coming to Westeros and with their new customs sound like the Anglo-Saxons and many characters that we already know and love we find who they are based on after reading about their mini biographies and also many important events. But the biggest boon is the Iron Islands. As a fan of crazy, gothic and dark science fiction stories like HP Lovecraft who inspired many contemporary horror writers like Anne Rice, Stephen King and movie makers like O'Bannon and Ridley Scott; we find that the Iron Islanders were fierce and mighty warriors with customs much like the Norsemen and Vikings of taking salt wives, and that their drowned god or "deep ones" (who are rumored to be the ones behind the construction of hightower in the Reach) are much like the Chthulhu (sorry if I spelled that wrong) and the way they are described are very scary! And we also learn more regarding the Lannisters, for one that you should have never messed with the late Tywin Lannister or he will kill you and your entire family and second that their castle is enormous! It's considered the biggest one in Westeros and it is a shame we haven't seen it in the series because then viewers would see why the Lannisters are truly power, it's not just their men at arms but their great castle which is on top of a great mountain of endless gold mines.And third, we learn about other continents and how their laws in customs are more progressive than those in Westeros. I fell in love with the Summer Isles (Princess Xanda Qo driving the slavers away and subsequent generations have done the same ever since and the isles is overall amazing, and even when they fight they won't take slaves or torture or hurt others as they do in Westeros or other parts of the world and they have a very open attitude regarding sex with their worship of the god and goddess of love, beauty and fertility) and besides Dorne (which we learned a lot from them, and the great union of the awesome Nymeria and Prince Martell) it is now my favorite place on Westeros.

The World of Ice & Fire: The Untold History of Westeros and the Game of Thrones is an absolute must-read for any fan of the series! The depth of detail and world-building is phenomenal, offering a rich history of Westeros and its many houses. The illustrations and maps bring the story to life, making it feel even more immersive. It’s an incredible companion to the books and show, providing background and context to everything we love about the world of Game of Thrones. A fantastic read that enhances the lore and is perfect for fans who want to dive deeper into this epic universe!