‘The Ice Dragon’ – George R.R. Martin (Harper Voyager)
Page Count: 120 Pages
I was in Wimbledon, for work, on Tuesday and as I normally do when I’m there, I spent my lunch break nipping in and out the charity shops, on the hunt for a bargain or two. There wasn’t an awful lot, this time round, to be honest but that’s the way the hunt can sometimes go. What there was though was an absolutely lovely looking copy of George R.R. Martin’s ‘The Ice Dragon’ and it was only £1.50 so of course I bought it ;o) I reckoned at least one of my daughters would like it but it had been a few years since I read it last (okay, seventeen years…) so that’s exactly what I did last night… Quick thoughts follow after the blurb (the book is only 120 pages long so quick thoughts are all I have).
The ice dragon was a creature of legend and fear. When it flew overhead, it left in its wake desolate, frozen land. No man had ever tamed one.
Adara first glimpsed the ice dragon as she played in the snow long after the other children had fled the cold. But Adara was not afraid: she was a winter child, born during the worst freeze that anyone could remember. In her fourth year she touched the dragon, and in her fifth year she rode upon its back for the first time.
Then, in her seventh year, on a calm summer day, fiery dragons from the North swooped down upon the peaceful farm that was Adara’s home. And only a winter child, and the ice dragon who loved her, could save her world from destruction.
Before I get into the book itself, I’d just like to cast a reproachful look in the direction of Harper Voyager for using the blurb to market ‘The Ice Dragon’ as a ‘Westeros’ book (I took that bit out to avoid any confusion). The fact that there is nothing, in the plot, that places the book in Westeros was a big clue and a quick look online confirmed it. ‘The Ice Dragon’ is not a Westeros book but you can see the seeds of what would eventually become important parts of ‘A Song of Ice and Fire’.
With that out of the way then, ‘The Ice Dragon’ proved to be a great way to pass an hour last night. There’s not a lot of it (hence why it only took the hour to read) but it is brimming over with atmosphere and although the story doesn’t offer too many surprises, the backdrop of war (that gradually becomes far more up close and personal) lends it an air of urgency that makes it a real page turner. This is especially true in some particularly brutal scenes where we see a beaten army head south, past Adara’s farm, and that wasn’t enough… What is it about GRRM and his fantasy books, where he takes one of his more likeable characters and, well… you know what he does to his more likeable characters. That scene hurt.
Get past those moments though and ‘The Ice Dragon’ is one part love story and another part, a ‘coming of age’ tale where the choice to be made is horrible but somehow all the more vital when you realise what is at stake. What will Adara give up, her family or who she is? And again, that’s what keeps the pages turning.
‘The Ice Dragon’ is perhaps a little too predictable but by the end, that ‘flaw’ becomes part of its overall charm. It may not be a book that I read regularly but I won’t leave it seventeen years before I read it again.
P.S. I can’t believe I went through the whole post without mentioning Luis Royo’s stunning art in this edition. I can never seem to find the right words to discuss/describe artwork but lets just say that it complements the plot perfectly.
Then, in her seventh year, on a calm summer day, fiery dragons from the North swooped down upon the peaceful farm that was Adara’s home. And only a winter child, and the ice dragon who loved her, could save her world from destruction.
Before I get into the book itself, I’d just like to cast a reproachful look in the direction of Harper Voyager for using the blurb to market ‘The Ice Dragon’ as a ‘Westeros’ book (I took that bit out to avoid any confusion). The fact that there is nothing, in the plot, that places the book in Westeros was a big clue and a quick look online confirmed it. ‘The Ice Dragon’ is not a Westeros book but you can see the seeds of what would eventually become important parts of ‘A Song of Ice and Fire’.
With that out of the way then, ‘The Ice Dragon’ proved to be a great way to pass an hour last night. There’s not a lot of it (hence why it only took the hour to read) but it is brimming over with atmosphere and although the story doesn’t offer too many surprises, the backdrop of war (that gradually becomes far more up close and personal) lends it an air of urgency that makes it a real page turner. This is especially true in some particularly brutal scenes where we see a beaten army head south, past Adara’s farm, and that wasn’t enough… What is it about GRRM and his fantasy books, where he takes one of his more likeable characters and, well… you know what he does to his more likeable characters. That scene hurt.
Get past those moments though and ‘The Ice Dragon’ is one part love story and another part, a ‘coming of age’ tale where the choice to be made is horrible but somehow all the more vital when you realise what is at stake. What will Adara give up, her family or who she is? And again, that’s what keeps the pages turning.
‘The Ice Dragon’ is perhaps a little too predictable but by the end, that ‘flaw’ becomes part of its overall charm. It may not be a book that I read regularly but I won’t leave it seventeen years before I read it again.
P.S. I can’t believe I went through the whole post without mentioning Luis Royo’s stunning art in this edition. I can never seem to find the right words to discuss/describe artwork but lets just say that it complements the plot perfectly.
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