Amazon.com: Customer reviews: A Game of Thrones: The Illustrated Edition: A Song of Ice and Fire: Book One (A Song of Ice and Fire Illustrated Edition 1)

Top positive review

Almost perfect.. but has flaws

Reviewed in the United States on February 22, 2017

This is a really amazing book. I love the TRUE hardcover with the image imprinted on the cover itself (not just a dust sleeve). The story is obviously is top notch. But 2 things really bugged me.

1) some of the images at the beginning of the chapters actually spoil what happens in the chapter. Not so great for first time readers. (I am not a first time reader but I thought this was a very important thing to point out)

2) half of the full page color images are actually printed IN THE WRONG CHAPTER. Example: the image of bran in the woods should be in a bran chapter, however it is 3 pages later in a Tyrion chapter. Now I am not sure if this is something wrong with my copy specifically or for every copy, but that is what I received so that is what i am going to review. It was really distracting when I'm reading about Tyrion and suddenly I get a full page color image of a scene from the last chapter.

These two things take away a star. This book is very close to perfect in my opinion but those 2 things just bummed me out.

If these are not a big deal to you, then this book is a must have for any fan of the series/show

213 people found this helpful

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Corbin

Disappointed Beyond Belief, Do Not Purchase as a First Read

Reviewed in the United States on June 11, 2019

I cannot get across how utterly disappointing this edition of A Game of Thrones truly is. The binding is stellar, the covers have an excellent feel to them, and the artwork inside is absolutely gorgeous. All of that, however, is let down but the idiotic editor who chose where the artwork inside the book went, and the embarrassing forward.

The forward is utterly irrelevant to the book itself and stands only to make two political statements (telling the Lannisters to "check your privilege" and using "Make Westeros Great Again" to draw clumsy allegory to real world politics) and spoiling three portions of the book. Yes, the forward actually goes out of its way to spoil three moments in the book, perhaps under the ridiculous assumption that you've already seen the HBO TV series and excusing them as "being easy to see coming" and "foreshadowing". The man who wrote the forward not only comes across as arrogant and nasty, but bumbling and dull headed.

Onto the illustrations. While beautiful, a good chunk of them (perhaps a fourth) are actually placed in the wrong chapters or flat out spoil events that will happen in the future. Again with the spoilers; it strikes me that the editors for this edition have no regard for the integrity of the work and care more for filling the pages with pretty colors. This problem could very easily be solved by only placing illustrations at the end of chapters (showing events that have happened or are happening at the chapter close) or by placing all of the illustrations at the end of the book. Placing them at the beginning of the chapter (with some near the end of certain key chapters) only serves to spoil the upcoming events. These aren't just illustrations of the landscape or people, but actual depictions of events.

I can find no good aspects of this book beyond the tactile feel of the cover and the quality of the illustrations itself. Save yourself some hard earned money and read one of the originally published editions, spoiler free.

126 people found this helpful

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From the United States

Corbin

Disappointed Beyond Belief, Do Not Purchase as a First Read

Reviewed in the United States on June 11, 2019

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126 people found this helpful

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Not worth the extra cost

Reviewed in the United States on July 24, 2019

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Let me first get out of the way: A Game of Thrones is an amazing book. I've read hundreds of the things (thousands?), and A Game of Thrones is up there, probably in the top ten. I mean, just look at my username if you want an example of how strongly I feel about these books. I love them.

That said, this is not the best format to read it in, especially not for those who have not read the book before.

The foreword is the first hint that the quality of this production is sub par. I'm not sure who "John Hodgman" is, exactly, but in his foreword—which reads like a glorified Reddit comment, clocking in at a scant 3 pages—is not worth the 5 minutes he probably took to write it up. In it, he includes 2 spoilers—one major one—and a ham-fisted, completely out-of-place reference to modern American politics that had me scratching my head. This was pretty disappointed to me, as special editions of books I love usually include illuminating, interesting forewords written by people whose opinions you'd be eager to hear. Judged within those parameters, this Hodgman fellow falls far short.

Anyone expecting a version of Game of Thrones illustrated to the standards of Martin's other illustrated works such as the wonderful Fire & Blood and A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms will find this falls below their expectations. Though some of the illustrations are quite lovely in a vacuum, the vast majority of them serve to spoil the coming chapter. Some of them, inexplicably, are completely out of place. Incredibly disappointing.

If you're a new reader, then you absolutely should NOT read this version. Pick up the original hardcover instead. However, if you're a mega-fan looking for a new edition to re-read, I suppose this might serve if you ignore the awful foreword.

The only people I'd really recommend this version to are those who are fans of the show but have yet to read the books. The spoilerish illustrations won't ruin anything for you since you already know (generally) what's going to happen, and the illustrations are numerous enough that it might assist you in removing the actor's faces from your head as your read, replacing them with the characters as they are in the books. Jon Snow, for example, is a young, unattractive teenager—a far cry from the strapping, handsome Kit Harrington who plays him in the HBO adaptation.

9 people found this helpful

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E. Scheidt

Disappointing

Reviewed in the United States on October 22, 2016

Verified Purchase

I love A Song of Ice and Fire. My review is not against the story, or against the artwork. I am disappointed in the cheap quality of this illustrated edition. I had high expectations, especially after The World of Ice and Fire.

The cover feels nice enough, though it is slightly damaged right out of the packaging. No big deal.
The maps in the front and back covers of the north and south are colored , lovely, and much more legible than previous versions.

Getting excited, I started to page through; I could not help but feel let down.
The paper texture is nothing special or luxurious.
A table of contents for the images would have been nice. There are art credits at the end but not a list of each picture's content.
The vast majority of pictures feel like black and white photo copies. These black and white pictures are placed at the beginning of each chapter. Many feature the most dramatic scene from within the chapter. This unfortunate arrangement results in starting several chapters with a spoiler. I first noticed this on page 140 at the beginning of Catelyn's chapter. There is a picture of Summer mauling the man with the knife. This scene does not occur until page 145. It would have been stronger to have this picture on page 146. This happens again and again. Maybe not a huge deal if you have already read the series but I would have greatly preferred it if the publisher had cared enough to figure out the best location for each picture within the story. A first time reader should definitely steer clear. Also, it may have looked nicer if the images did not fill the entire page edge to edge with no margins or decorative border, but that is just a stylistic choice.

Some of the pictures will be familiar as they have been recycled from art found in World of Ice and Fire. In World they were in color. Page 636 was on 116 of World. Page 764 was on page 9. Page 486 was on pg 46. Inexplicably, pg 268 has a picture of Ser Elmo Tully from pg 160. That just feels sloppy.

In addition to the photo copy illustrations, there are a handful of higher quality glossy colored pictures throughout (not numbered), the backs of which are completely blank. They serve to make the black and white pictures more disappointing by the comparison. A few of these are placed more appropriately within the story. But not all. Aroung page 436 a picture from the previous Bran chapter appears within a Tyrion chapter. Plus this picture is all wrong as it has Theon aiming at Stiv from the front not from behind. The picture after page 757 shows what will happen to Ned on page 761. Big spoiler there. A great picture of Dany is at the end of a Jon chapter instead of at the end of the book.

I was really looking forward to this edition. Had I known how poorly the publisher would handle the material, I would not have bought it. I will not buy future illustrated editions of the books of the series.

198 people found this helpful

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Daniel

Disappointed

Reviewed in the United States on January 16, 2019

Verified Purchase

Firstly, the only reason it got 2 stars is the content of the writing. The story itself is great. I purchased this version of the book for the illustrations. I had really high hopes, but now I cant help but think this was just a cheap cash grab. The depictions of the characters don't match the descriptions given in the text. It's like the illustrator(s) didnt even read the book. In addition, the same character will look completely different in each illustration. I really wish I hadn't wasted my money on this.

2 people found this helpful

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Hillary Bogus

Not what I pictured

Reviewed in the United States on January 30, 2019

Verified Purchase

Great book just not quite what I expected. I was thinking it would be like the illustrated Harry Potter or Percy Jackson books. It was more like the book with occasional picture pages. I returned it and got the GOT graphic novels instead.

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Nice binding and cover

Reviewed in the United States on March 18, 2019

Verified Purchase

Nice price I use it on my coffee table. The paper weight is thin and almost see through so I ended up buying it for my Kindle and am actually reading it there instead.

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