Winter is Coming... from my macbook pro

[Sciz]

I am looking forward to this so much. Extra exciting when it's a site member, too! Huge congrats

[RPMiller]

This is fantastic news, Torstan!! Congratulations! When you become a big Hollywood cartographer, don't forget us.

[Valtharius]

That is excellent news! You do realize you are finalizing his world in cartography. His fantasy series is considered one of the most popular since Tolkien... yeah, Eddings, Moorcock and Feist are great, but Martin has taken fantasy to a whole new level. Congratulations and I know you will do a fantastic job!

~Val

[RobA]

Better get your amazon affiliate link set up! Looks like there might be a few purchases coming from the appreciative folks here!

-Rob A>

[RjBeals]

I'll be one of the folks making a purchase. Just saw this - great news! I feel somehow connected now to the book! I can't wait to see the awesome maps you come up wtih.

[Vorhees]

gratz indeed , love the books, love the Show and love your work , i cant wait for this book its a certain i will be getting it , again gratz mate

[Sinnyo]

Agreed - having just recently started watching the series on DVD, I've been wondering whether or not to try the books, and.. well. I always love a good map in a fantasy book, and this is about the coolest excuse I could think of to buy into Martin's books. Many congratulations, and have fun! I shall look forward to parting with money for this collection, once it's out.

[Steel General]

Awesome!!!

[Diamond]

So, after finally having the spare shekels to buy a copy of this, I have a few thoughts:

1. The maps are fan-freaking-tastic. Of course.

2. The paper quality is crap. It's too heavy to fold easily once opened, and the way the creasing was designed, color is already flaking away as a white line develops at the creases. At the points where creases meet, holes are already forming. The maps all seem to fold 'outwards', instead of 'inwards', which might've protected them a bit better. It's also a pain in the @$$ to try and get the folded maps back into their sleeves.

3. I feel like GRRM was kind of a dick for making it look like he did the lion's share (or all) of the work on the portfolio in this blog entry: Not A Blog - Maps! Maps!! Maps!!! But that seems to be nothing out of the ordinary for him. The more I learn about him, the more I think that while he is a gifted (if glacially slow and procrastinating) writer, he's kind of a let-down as a human being. YMMV. And even after being called out on not mentioning the actual artist (by someone in the comments on that blog entry), he still didn't go back and give credit where credit's due. Meh.

4. But congrats to Torstan for this opportunity! I hope it leads to many more great things for you, and by extension fantasy cartography in general.

[ravells]

I entirely agree with what Diamond said. GRRM is a dick on the issue of not giving credit where it is due.

The map is beautiful but it looks like GRRM is after the credit. In his post he says:

Got to admit, I am kind of a map geek myself. This one was more work than I anticipated, but I had a lot of fun doing it, and I hope you'll enjoy it as well.

When Andrew Males (someone I happen to know through the CG) pulled him up on it and said that it might be nice for GRRM to mention Torstan, GRRM's reply was:

Quite right. My mistake. I never worked directly with the artist on these, everything was through my editors, so I did not have the kind of personal relationship that I've enjoyed with Tom Kidd, Ted Nasmith, Marc Fishman, John Picacio, Marc Simonetti, etc. But there's no doubt that the art on these maps is magnificent.

GRMM then proceed not to edit his original post to mention Torstan. Ah well.

Well done, Torstan for producing such beautiful work. At least you'll get feted for it here and nobody will try to leave your contribution in the dark.