The Ice Dragon

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The Ice Dragon
The Ice Dragon (Novel).jpg
Author George R. R. Martin
Language English
Genre(s) short story; children's novel
Publisher Ace Books, anthology edition;
Starscape Books, 1st edition;
Tor Teen (US), Harper Voyager (UK), 2nd edition
Released 1980; October, 2007; October, 2014
Cover Artist Yvonne Gilbert; Luis Royo
Media Type Mass Market Paperback (2007); Hardcover (2014)
Pages 112 pages
ISBN 978-0765355393

The Ice Dragon is a children's novel by George R. R. Martin, first published in 1980 as a short story for adults in the anthology Dragons of Light. The story was reworked to make it more suitable for children[1] and published as a children's book in October 2007, with detailed pencil drawings by Yvonne Gilbert. It was published again in 2014, with painted illustrations by Luis Royo.[2] The original short story can be found in Martin's Dreamsongs anthology.

The book has eight short chapters, and is written in a poetic style. While several publishers say The Ice Dragon is set in the same world as A Song of Ice and Fire,[3][4] the story does not match the known history of ASOIAF, and Martin has refuted a connection on his Not a Blog.[5]

Synopsis

Adara was born in a long winter with the worst freezing cold anyone could remember. Her mother died giving birth to her. Adara loves the winter and feels attracted to the cold, preferring to play with snow and ice and ice lizards. She is apparently emotionless, and her skin is always cold to the touch. She feels that an ice dragon has always been in her life. When she was four, she touched an ice dragon for the first time, and she rode upon its broad, chilled back for the first time in her fifth year. The people of her town fear the ice dragon, said to be an untameable creature of legend. When it flies overhead, it leaves a desolate cold and frozen land. Adara is not afraid of the ice dragon, for she is a winter child.

When Adara is seven, war comes to her land. Fiery dragons from the North come and swoop down upon the peaceful farm that is Adara's home, their riders attacking her family. She and her ice dragon fly towards them, and the ice dragon fights the other dragons in order to protect Adara and her family. The ice dragon defeats the fire dragons and their riders, but afterwards the ice dragon is nowhere to be seen. Only a pond that had never been there before, a small quiet pool where the water is very cold. After the disappearance of the ice dragon, the cold leaves Adara. She is then finally able to smile, laugh, and weep like other little girls.

References and Notes