Jump to content

Is the text worth it, besides the artwork?


Recommended Posts

My reply must have been lost in the system!



I don't see how 7 1 star reviews constitutes a conspiracy against the book. The same can be said of 34 5 star reviews. It isn't a 5 star book. It is a history. I am fairly positive that if a trolling website wanted to troll this book, they would accomplish more than 7 1 star reviews. I think people genuinely disliked the book.



I have read the book. I own it. I gave it a 3 -star. It had great pictures and while I didn't like the writing so much, I liked the information present in the writing (for the most part). However, there wasn't a whole lot of new material there either.



It was exactly as I expected it to be.


Link to comment
Share on other sites

Issue is just the stupid politic of Amazon and other sites to allow reviews to be published by non-purchasers, coupled with a small number of detractors announcing they were going to post reviews without reading the book.

It happened that a few very negative reviews came first and probably before anyone had recieved the book, while some of the first positives were downvoted, so people may have thought it was a larger conspiracy at this stage.

(finally about "that other site" posters, you can probably find the number of their reviews by counting the ones using the word "fanfiction" to describe the book or singling co-authors ; many still gave it a 2 or 3 - be it to avoid being downvoted as trolls or sincere).

I wouldn't go so far as calling it fan fiction. A lot of the material was known and out there on the Wiki, they just had to put it into context. They didn't just make the shit up. That being said, it was extremely wordy. That is probably my biggest issue with it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I was pleasantly surprised to see that my simple, 2 or 3 sentence post about "the other" site generated 2 pages worth of discussion over there.



I'd like to thank whoever copied and pasted my post from here to there for putting in so much effort to call attention to my words. It's you, my fans, who make this all worth it. I do it for you!


Link to comment
Share on other sites

DG,

A fourth printing is getting the go ahead and I think I'll be able to get a lot of corrections in before that goes to print. But... I have no idea how exactly you go and find one of those.

The digital editions, IIRC, update when the publishers submit updates.

That said, all the errors are annoyingly minor -- there's nothing that changes anything wildly -- so if you don't mind that, go ahead now.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

DG,

A fourth printing is getting the go ahead and I think I'll be able to get a lot of corrections in before that goes to print. But... I have no idea how exactly you go and find one of those.

The digital editions, IIRC, update when the publishers submit updates.

That said, all the errors are annoyingly minor -- there's nothing that changes anything wildly -- so if you don't mind that, go ahead now.

I really prefer a copy of the book itself for this one. I was looking at it in Barnes and Noble the day it came out and the book is just too beautiful to have electronic. I think I will just get it now because it looks like a lot of the "errors" are minutae that I don't even know lol.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

What about MAPS?

Are they maps good?

Are they detailed?

Will I need a magnifying glass to read them?

I like maps...

They look weird and confusing with too much colour, they're not very detailed and look much worse than the Lands of Ice and Fire. They're also missing many castles which weren't placed in previous maps either.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Love the look of the maps myself, but they were an effort to fit within the "maesterly work" manner of things rather than much of the other art which is "out of world". Michael Gellatly, the artist, has placed them here.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The "problem" is called jealousy "I can't publish my fanfic without being called names by people like Linda but they can write something I can arguably (forgetting Martin himself say it's not) describe as fan-fiction". :bawl: :crying:

If you look in their forum they have the exactly same arguements about the mush.

It's just pathetic

It's not just that. It's the fact they're bitter because the book release is taking forever while GRRM does other things. Which brings the question, what is going to happen when he release the book and the book is actually good? I'm sure no one will say "oh, well, the wait was worthy!".

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Some dead horses deserve an extra kick or two.. but as you say. Time to move on.



I wasn't able to get any reading done the last day or two, I'm just about to read the Stormlands section, has always been a favorite region of mine.


Link to comment
Share on other sites

Love the look of the maps myself, but they were an effort to fit within the "maesterly work" manner of things rather than much of the other art which is "out of world". Michael Gellatly, the artist, has placed them here.

Still, the text could've been easier on the eye, and towns and cities should've had proper icons rather than circles. It took me a while to notice some of them.

As for the "maesterly work", why wouldn't the archmaester include so many castles? I was hoping I'd finally see where Barristan's home castle is located, but Harvest Hall was nowhere to be found.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I doubt Yandel made these himself, though. I expect they're copies of maps in the Citadel's archives, and ... well, they can't show everything. I mean, they could, I suppose, but in this case, no, presumably for aesthetic reasons (it'd be quite crowded on a map suitable for inclusion in a tome if it had EVERYTHING, given the fact that it's all by hand...) The real reason, of course, is that George does not place things on maps until he actually needs to... and he hasnt' necessarily provided the most-up-to-date maps to artists because they're too mess or what have you.

Re: art, Marc Simonetti has also shared some of his art at his Facebook photo stream.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Tangent - Someone up thread mentioned the FFG card game and said it was mediocre? That's insane. It's one of the best and deepest card games I have ever played and I played a bunch of them. Back when it came out I knew some hard core MTG players who all switched over to the GoT CCG due to it being so damned good.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The "problem" is that GRRM has been very outspoken about fanfiction, so when suddenly his 2 most notorious fans publish a book within his canon you can't expect his detractors not to pick that up. I know it's not fanfic per se, but it's somewhere in the middle.

I don't think that's a problem, though. If anything, GRRM has been holding his IP back for being too hands-on. When he does approve derived works by third-parties, he tends to make several bad deals. The 2 videogames are insultingly bad, the graphic novel art sucks, the RPG book is uninspired at best, the company who used to make illustrated versions of the books was shut down, the facebook game is horrible, and the card game is mediocre. The board game is quite good, though.

Anyway, his franchise lacks other novellas/books. He must know plenty of young, qualified writers willing to work on his universe. Why not let one of them write a trilogy set in the East or something like that? It could be set thousands of years before the ASOIAF books and would have no influence in his work, the same way the Old Republic in Star Wars won't change the new trilogy.

It's not really in the middle though is it. It's basically condensing his words, getting stuff on paper etc and afterwards George approved everything they wrote. It's not like stories were invented. Or that stories were invented, and then published without his approval. It's canon. George needed help to write all of this history down, or it would never ever have been published. Never.

Also, I liked the art in the graphic novels, it's more than fine.

Finally, while I'm blown away by the artwork, I also really like the maps by Gellatly.

Beautiful and legible.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...