mwelser

[For whatever reason, this book was delivered to me already on October 16th.]

My first impression was similar to watching a gifted gamer on Youtube, observing the author guiding an avatar through the maze of a (computer) game, its rules known to him alone.

After several pages, the initial confusion gave way to fascination, fascination with the character, with the environment, with the language. Only one character interacting just with "things" - and still, I was spellbound.

This book has touched me - in an unexpected way, in an unexpected place.

"I don't know what other people will think. They probably won't like it. But I really enjoyed it." (taken from author's endnote)

Indeed.

Of the 12 maps the boxed set contains, some could have been left out - they just depict more of the same in various levels of detail.

There is only one map in the set ("Journeys") which will actually link to the story, all the others are just - maps.

I miss a better color index for the various travellers on the "Journeys" map (the color codes are nowhere explicitely shown), and I miss the chronological dimension, so there is no indication about Who was Where When...

Overall, a must-have for the hardcore Ice-and-Fire fans, but not up to my expectations.