A special edition illustrated by famous fantasy artists will be released to mark the 20th anniversary of the first book in the series.
The first book A Song of Ice and Fire was released in 1996. Martin wanted to write three books during the next three years and end the story of the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros. Now, twenty years later, he works on the sixth book in the series and writes original content for the TV series that became one of the most popular in the history of television.
“Reviews were generally good, sales were... well, okay. Solid. But nothing spectacular. No bestseller lists, certainly,” the writer recalls those days on his blog.
He says book tours and autograph sessions in bookshops attracted modest crowds, the number of people attending these events didn’t exceed 100, and no one came to a presentation in St. Louise. “I actually drove four patrons out of the bookshop, allowing me to set my all time "bad signing" record at minus four,” Martin recalls ironically.
Things have changed significantly since then. The first book was made into a film twenty years later, the series attracts millions of viewers around the world and Martin’s books are read in more than 40 languages. All bestseller lists now include his works. Table games, vending machines, video games, toys, coins, colouring books, t-shirts and other merchandise were inspired by his book. The past twenty years have changed the writer’s life and career. He didn’t stop publishing his works, and the story A Song of Ice and Fire has turned into a cultural phenomenon.
To celebrate the important anniversary, George Martin and Bantam Spectra publishing house will release a special illustrated edition of A Song of Ice and Fire. It will contain 73 black-and-white and 8 coloured original illustrations created by artists specially for the anniversary edition. The list of artists includes the best fantasy illustrators, such as John Picacio, Paul Youll, Gary Gianni, Didier Graffet, Arantza Sestayo, Magali Villeneuve, Marc Simonetti and many others. It will be the first edition of the book to feature a collection created by a team of artists.
The special anniversary edition titled A Game of Thrones: The Illustrated Edition, will be released on October 18 at a price of $50.
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