The Ice Dragon

A short and sweet novella you can finish in an evening. It’s friendly enough for any age to read with the classic beautiful writing style of George RR Martin.It’s not connected to A Song of Ice and Fire either so returning fan of GRRM’s work or not can enjoy!

And all of us who approach this book after reading A song of Ice and Fire should have in mind that it has nothing to do with such a series. Other than dragons, of course.This is a short story written obviously for children or young teenagers, easy to read, quite simple and with a little touch of magic. A fairy tale about a little girl and an ice dragon.Not an awesome book, but still quite nice to read.If you want any young person to get into fantasy, go ahead and buy this book for him/her.

With a fairly simple storyline about a little girl, a loner and misfit named Adara, who befriends a dragon this is basically ‘Game of Thrones’ for children. There is a fairy tale aspect to it, and, as with all good fairy tales, it does have some darker moments. But even so this is still very much a novella for younger readers in terms of tone and style as well as with its basic plot, reasonably low word count and considerable amount of page space taken up by artwork.Primarily events take place during a period of war between two undisclosed factions, both of which have warriors that ride dragons into battle. The Ice Dragon of the title is clearly something different to these other dragons though and it is made quite clear that such a creature is not normally ridden.The blurb on the back of the book claims that the story is set in Westeros. Supposedly this would be in a period much earlier than the events of the ‘A Song of Ice and Fire’ novels. However, this novella was originally published as part of a short story collection by various authors in 1980, well before ‘A Song of Ice and Fire’ and the creation of Westeros. There isn’t really anything in particular story wise other than the inclusion of dragon riders that link them. The world of ‘The Ice Dragon’ actually seems to be a forerunner to Westeros and there are perhaps earlier versions of ideas in that saga present here. In this way ‘The Ice Dragon’ will have some interest to fans of ‘A Song of Ice and Fire’/’Game of Thrones’.The artwork, which is new to this edition, is decent enough but nowhere near as good as that on the cover. Interestingly it is in black and white which kind of adds to the bleakness of the winter themes and Adara’s loneliness/semi-isolation.Although quite pricey for the length of the text, the hardback is a nicely presented volume. making it a worthwhile collection edition.

It's fine

Arrived quickly and In perfect condition, expected it to be an expansion to the world of westeros and a song of Ice and fire but that was on me for not reading the description. Still a quick and enjoyable read by Martin nonetheless.

Nice little book to read. Definitely not like game of thrones but still a nice little read. Not a lot happens really as far as the storyline but I enjoyed it.More for younger readers although it does have some 'darker' scenes/references but not too intense.

Beautifully illustrated. Quick read, about 130ish pages. Large lettering. Suitable for younger readers.

Considering I paid for this, not cheap either, it was a complete waste of time. VERY short - felt it was about 5 pages long. Seemed to end in the middle of things. Just a money spinner??

Molto bella e brevissima fiaba

After the finale of season 7 of GOT, I found this book and was very intrigued. I expected more but this is just a short story about and ice dragons powers and a little girl. If you are deep into the GOT world, then you can buy this. Small coffee table read!

El libro llegó rápido y en buenas condiciones. La edición es hermosa y la historia muy bonita.

This is a sparkling gem of a little book. It appears to be a children’s book, but there are more layers to it than just that.Adara is a little girl who was born in the dead of a very cold winter. It was said that the cold got in and killed her mother as she was born, and got into Adara too, leaving her cold and unfeeling. She seemed to be separate from her family.She loved winter, spending all her time making ice castles and playing with ice lizards, who were so cold that a normal child’s touch would kill them. And she especially loved the ice dragon that came for her every winter. Ice dragons were supposed to be ill omens, signifying a long, hard winter, and most people didn’t like them. But Adara was friends with the ice dragon, and it eventually let her ride it.There was a war going on in their province. Adara’s uncle, Hal, was a dragon rider for the king. He rode a regular fire-breathing type dragon, and every year in the spring, he would stop by on his way to the war in the north. Even though he was nice, Adara did not like to see him because his coming meant winter was a long way away.As Adara grew older, the war began to go badly. Hal urged her father to leave as the enemy was almost certainly coming. But he wouldn’t do it. Adara decided that she would stay whatever her father decided to do.Finally, enemy dragons appeared at their farm. They burned the neighboring farm. Miraculously, the ice dragon appears for Adara, even though it is the middle of summer. She urges him to take her away to the land of always-winter. But then she hears her father’s scream, and she changes her mind and asks the dragon to take her back and to help her.He does, but the cost is very great.

Nice little book by GRRM. An absolutely beautiful quality thick hardcover with stunning art design. And unusually, was packaged correctly for such a book, perfect and was packaged so no way to be damaged.5/5 in all aspect very happy. Good price too.If you're a GRRM reader or collector of ASOIAF. Get this, is fairly cheap and the quality and art design of the hardcover is stunning for your collection looks beautiful