'A Song of Ice and Fire' won the Brand/Series Identity category at BBD&P Awards 2022
A Clash of Kings arrives fresh from the battlefield. The second volume of The Folio Society’s bestselling realisation of George R. R. Martin’s fantasy masterpiece ‘A Song of Ice and Fire’ is illustrated by Jonathan Burton.
The fight for the Iron Throne heats up in A Clash of Kings. George R. R. Martin barely gives the reader time to recover from the shocks of the first book as four potential kings come into contention. Meanwhile, our favourite characters face extraordinary trials simply to survive. Following on from The Folio Society’s wildly successful edition of A Game of Thrones, this unique two-volume set is packed with details that fans will love, including specially designed chapter headings and spectacular bindings. Jonathan Burton returns to capture all the grandeur, spectacle and emotion, with six colour illustrations and a double-page spread in each volume. Described by Martin as ‘masterpieces of the bookmaker’ art’, these are the finest editions of this generation’s most celebrated fantasy series, and if the first volume is anything to go by, A Clash of Kings will soon be as rare as dragon eggs.
A Song of Ice and Fire' series won the Brand/Series Identity category at the British Book Production and Design Awards 2022.
‘The Folio Society’s splendid new editions … are masterpieces of the bookmaker’s art lavishly illustrated by Jonathan Burton. Book collectors and fantasy fans alike are going to delight in these volumes … I know I will.’George R. R. Martin
Production Details
Bound in three-quarter blocked cloth with a printed and blocked cloth front board Set in Vendetta with Esmeralda as display 888 pages in total over two volumes 6 full-page and 2 double-page full-colour illustrations per volume Printed in black & gold throughout 8 illustrated chapter openers and 9 illustrated house sigils 5 Kings and their Courts and 8 family trees in Volume 2 Printed endpapers Coloured tops Blocked and printed slipcase with printed illustration inside 10˝ x 6¾˝
The long summer is over, and winter is coming
The King is dead, and the Seven Kingdoms have been thrown into the chaos of a civil war. In the sky a blood red comet sears the heavens – it is surely an omen of disaster, and disaster certainly looms for many in Westeros. The Night’s Watch are ranging far beyond the Wall in hopes of discovering what has happened to their missing brothers, but their mission takes them deep into dangerous wildling territory. Robb Stark has been declared ‘King in the North’, but if he hopes to keep that title – and his head – he will have the fight of his life. And to the east, young Daenerys Targaryen turns her eye towards the Iron Throne. With fire and blood, she will take back what was stolen from her.
A feast of unique details
A set of family trees, updated to reflect the births, deaths and new alliances since the events of A Game of Thrones, keeps the reader from confusing their Mallisters with their Mormonts. Meanwhile, the Kings have dedicated entries in this edition, with genealogies and descriptions of their banners. As each chapter focuses on a different character, Jonathan Burton has designed individual sigils too: a lion resplendent on an open book for Tyrion Lannister; a ship with an onion on its sail for Ser Davos, the onion knight. The endpapers are emblazoned with the sigils of each of the Houses, and even the slipcase holds a surprise – the inside has been printed with a fiery portrait of Melisandre, the red priestess of R’hllor.
The fantasy journey of a lifetime
It is difficult to assess the impact of George R. R. Martin’s masterpiece. Selling millions of copies across the globe, ‘A Song of Ice and Fire’ hasn’t only changed the fantasy genre, it has garnered the admiration of readers who have never before picked up a fantasy book in their lives. At its heart lies a relentlessly gripping story, one filled with terrible loss, incredible triumphs, and an epic journey that rivals any in fantasy fiction. A Clash of Kings is even more explosive than its predecessor, with more twists and shocks as the consequences of the events in A Game of Thrones are played out. As ever in Westeros, the path to the Iron Throne is littered with corpses.
About George R. R. Martin
George R. R. Martin is a celebrated author of fantasy, horror and science-fiction stories and novels. He began publishing short stories in science-fiction and fantasy magazines in the early 1970s, and his first novel, Dying of the Light, was published in 1977. Martin went on to work as a television scriptwriter in the 1980s, before – discouraged by the limitations of the medium – he returned to writing fiction, beginning work on the epic fantasy series for which he is best known, ‘A Song of Ice and Fire’, inspired by medieval England’s Wars of the Roses. The first instalment, A Game of Thrones, was published in 1996; the fourth volume (A Feast for Crows, 2005; Folio 2021) and fifth volume (A Dance with Dragons, 2011; Folio 2022) earned Martin best-seller status. The winner of multiple Nebula and Hugo Awards, as well as the 2012 World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement, Martin has also received three Emmy Awards for his work as a producer on the HBO adaptation of his ‘Song of Ice and Fire’ novels, Game of Thrones.
About Jonathan Burton
‘[Illustrating A Game of Thrones] became much more involved than I ever imagined with the universe of characters, costumes, settings and creatures all needing to be interpreted in an original way whilst being true to the book. I threw myself into this world 100% and relished in its rich and strange visual atmosphere bringing together medieval romanticism, dark drama and chilling horror. Delicious.’
Jonathan Burton has worked as an illustrator since 1999, after graduating with an MA from Kingston University, London. He has been awarded two silver medals from the Society of Illustration in New York, two Awards of Excellence from Communication Arts, and has received the Overall Professional Award for 2013 from the Association of Illustrators. For The Folio Society he has also illustrated Cover Her Face by P. D. James, Nineteen Eighty-Fourby George Orwell, the full 'A Song of Ice and Fire' series by George R. R. Martin and the entire Hitchhiker's series along with an extraordinary limited edition of Adams’s comedic space odyssey. Most recently, he illustrated the Folio edition of The Enchanted Wood. Jonathan lives in Bordeaux, France.
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