The World of Ice and Fire is out, as you can see here, and I can finally say: “I worked on it too!”.

Thousands of Game of Thrones fans were eagerly awaiting it, but possibly not as much as all the artists who have been working on it for – umm how long? – at least a couple of years I think.

I, for one, couldn’t wait to publish all this work, even just to show friends and family why I spent a respectable number of nights working after I had just got home from work.

It was EXTREMELY tiring, but I loved every minute of it.

To those who haven’t been following the teasers for this release, I’ll give the rough idea I have been giving to my friends: The World of Ice and Fire is to A Song of Ice and Fire what the Silmarillion is to The Lord of The Rings.
Ok, it’s not exactly that.
But you get the idea.
It’s about what happens before A Song of Ice and Fire.

The author explains what it’s all about in this interview:

I can’t describe how happy and proud I am to be among all the amazing artists who made The World of Ice and Fire one of the best illustrated books in a long time.
As a fan of A Song of Ice and Fire myself, this has been for me the equivalent of illustrating The Lord of The Rings directly for Tolkien.

At some point George R.R. Martin even had one of the publishers send me pictures of his personal dioramas, as a reference for one of my illustrations.
I giggled. Very unprofessionally, but I giggled with glee.

So, this has been such a great effort that I feel I must thank some people.

First of all, Rosebud Eustace and Delia Greve of Becker&Meyer, who have been helping (and enduring) us ALL along the way.
Then of course the people at Random House.
Last but not least, my wife, for sitting next to me all those nights watching TV Series and helping in lots of different ways.

I published all my World of Ice and Fire illustrations in their own page here.
However, I’ll also write a detailed blog post for each one over the next few days.

by Paolo Puggioni