Should you read Fire, Ice, and Physics: The Science of Game of Thrones?

One of the best things about Game of Thrones and the A Song of Ice and Fire books on which they’re based is how rich they are. These are stories with their own highly developed sense of place, complete with unique history, flora, fauna and even laws of physics.

Game of Thrones is also wildly popular, and there have been many books over the years looking at it from different angles. For example, Winter is Coming: The Medieval World of Game of Thrones by Carolyne Larrington explores the historical inspirations behind the series, while a newer book that just came out in October of last year — Fire, Ice, and Physics: The Science of Game of Thrones by Rebecca C. Thompson — considers whether some of the things we encounter in the story would be possible in our world. Could dragons actually fly? Could seasons actually behave like they do on Westeros?

According to a review from Farah Qaiser on Massive Science — Qaiser is a scientist herself, a biologist — the answers to questions like this are mostly “no,” and sometimes “maybe,” if we bend the laws of physics just a wee bit. Take the wacky seasons of Westeros, for example. “Thompson] even allows for the tiny possibility that there may be a planet out there, with a chaotic axis, the right orbit and a moon that makes it ‘just unstable’ enough to have strange seasons like in Game Of Thrones, where winter is always coming.”

Other topics Thompson hits include how a giant wall could be constructed from ice (apparently ice can “behave like ketchup” under certain conditions, which sounds intriguing), why dragons are “bats, but with fire,” the genetic consequences of Targaryen inbreeding, and the science behind the various forms of death meted out on the show, including beheading, hanging, poisoning (it seems that the effects of the Strangler, the poison that killed Joffrey at his own wedding, are pretty similar to what happens when someone takes strychnine) and being burst at the stake. Sounds like a fun chapter.

And like a lot of Game of Thrones fan, Thompson is passionate about the source material, tossing in fan theories and referencing obscure details from George R.R. Martin’s novels. The whole idea for the book came when she was invited to speak at an event about “anything,” and naturally chose to explore the science behind all the blood, gore and death on the show. It sounds like the passion comes through, which will make reading the book fun even if there’s not a ton of practical applications for knowing why dragons’ wings probably aren’t big enough for them to actually fly, at least according to the laws of physics as we currently understand them.

Image: Fire, Ice, and Physics: The Science of Game of Thrones/MIT Press

If you’re interested, you can buy Fire, Ice, and Physics: The Science of Game of Thrones at most major retailers, including Amazon.

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