The A Song of Ice and Fire books by George R.R. Martin have had no shortage of gorgeous cover artwork over the years. From the fantastic original US covers featuring scenes from the books to the solid-colored tomes which released around the time HBO's Game of Thrones television adaptation was coming out, readers have had plenty of editions of this landmark fantasy series to choose from for their bookshelves. Now, another new printing of A Song of Ice and Fire is on the way, and even by ASOIAF's lofty standards, this one looks pretty special.
George R.R. Martin's minions took over his Not A Blog this week to announce that A Song of Ice and Fire is receiving a gorgeous new box set. Due out this October, the set brings together the first five books of the series with striking artwork that's unlike any to have graced the series to date. Feast your eyes, and then we'll discuss what went into making the box set below:
"The new design tries to capture the vastness of Westeros and the dangerous journey readers will encounter. There is a raw and gritty quality to linocut and woodcut art. A certain starkness that seemed to fit the stories, and a long history to the art form that felt right for this world."George R.R. Martin's Not A Blog
And here's the full box set, which shows off how the spines look when placed together as well as some gorgeous typography on the box itself:
Suffice to say, this is a pretty eye-catching set. I'm especially a fan of how each book cover incorporates an "ASOIAF" logo, which also appears on the box itself. It's strange to realize, but many of the older printings of the series don't actually have the series title itself represented anywhere on the cover. I love that this new version leans into it.
"This cover design process paired linocut artist Mark Seekins and designer Tim Green, with art direction from David G. Stevenson," wrote Martin's minions. "They worked together to develop sketches and carve the designs into blocks of linoleum, where the raised areas were inked and pressed onto paper. The covers feature several colors, which required separate blocks for each color layer. The finished prints were then photographed and incorporated into the covers."
In case you're curious, linocut art is similar to woodcut art except on linoleum sheets, which allows for a great range of expression since the artist doesn't need to work around wood grains. It has a long history that traces all the way back to the 5th Century, which feels pretty fitting for A Song of Ice and Fire. Tim Green, Mark Seekins, and art director David G. Stevenson were clearly firing on all cylinders when they came up with the design for this set.
The blog post confirms that the box set will release in October of 2024, but as of this writing we don't have an exact date within the month. It also doesn't lay out any plans to release these gorgeous books individually; if you want the nice new covers, you've gotta go all in on the set!
It's an exciting time in Westeros. Between this news, House of the Dragon airing its second season on HBO, and everything else Martin has been saying about his work on the blog of late, there's been plenty to get excited about:
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