George R. R. Martin clarifies ‘The Rise of The Dragon’ is an art book, not an encyclopedia

Game of Thrones might be over, but George R. R. Martin is still out there rocking it. While all of us have been waiting for The Winds of Winter, that’s not all George is doing right now. Aside from helping develop the Game of Thrones prequel House of The Dragon and other spinoff shows at HBO, Martin recently announced another book to be released later this year, The Rise of The Dragon. There has been some confusion regarding what it is, and the author was kind enough to address the concerns.

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Martin wrote on his blog, Not A Blog:

“The official announcement lays out the basic facts about the book as well, so I won’t repeat that here. I just want to clear up a possible area of confusion. In my blog post of 3/9 (scroll further down), I made mention of “a lavish coffee table book coming later this year, an illustrated, condensed version of FIRE & BLOOD done with Elio Garcia and Linda Antonsson (my partners on THE WORLD OF ICE AND FIRE).” Yes, I was speaking of THE RISE OF THE DRAGON. The same book.”

“There has been some mention of RISE being an “encyclopedia,” but I do not think that is accurate… not unless the definition of “encyclopedia” has broadened considerably. It’s a history… covering the same years and events as FIRE & BLOOD… but not written “in world” by Archmaester Gyldayn, and much condensed from Gyldayn’s original text. My friends Elio Garcia and Linda Antonsson of WORLD OF ICE & FIRE fame handled the abridgement.

We needed a shorter book to make room for all the art. That’s the big thing about THE RISE OF THE DRAGON: it’s not an encyclopedia, it’s an art book. And a gorgeous one, I think. RISE will include 180 brand new illustrations from some of the finest fantasy artists in the world. Some of them will be full page. Many will be in gorgeous living (and dying) colors. Dragons, knights, battles, lords and ladies, castles… all the good stuff. So if you’re a fan of fantasy art, you may want to pre-order your copy now.”

Pre-order: The Rise of the Dragon (Amazon)

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