Game of Thrones Pop-Up

Game of Thrones: A Pop-Up Guide to Westeros

I got this book a while back—actually, before I started reading the books. I bought it because it was a good pop-up that showed some ingenuity. And it was on sale.

Now, this bit of art by Matthew Reinhart was produced in 2014 and is said to have been inspired by the opening sequence to the HBO show. That opening sequence inspires a lot of us. 

Technically speaking, this is not a book. It unfolds to wide layout that generally speaking can be described as a map. It can be opened as a book, though, and that's even preferable if you want to catch all the details in each section. 

Of course, I still had to give the full layout a try. 

I don't have a huge dining table, but it's not tiny, either. And this map required that the extensions be used. In this shot, I don't have all the mini pop-ups unfolded, so Pyke and The Twins look like they're missing, but they're in there:

Pyke

The first time I encountered mini pop-ups I had a little squee moment. There have often been little add-on bits in pop-up books, usually (especially in children's books) a little interactive tab that can be pulled to create action in the scene. 

The Twins

Sometimes a flap can be opened to show an action that takes place as part of the scene, or reveal a secret that's not known to the protagonist. In the "Ology" books (I will eventually do a post about those) the bonus sections contain everything from examples of inventions to coloured lenses to help a reader see a hidden feature on the page. 


Most bonus pop-ups are simpler, because they're smaller than the main art on the page, size allows for greater complexity, so more detailed pops. But for some designers, the mini's are equally, or at least nearly as complex. 

If you're wondering why these pop-ups aren't standing firmly upright, that's because I'm more concerned with collecting than displaying. I don't force paper to do a lot of extending. They will last a lot longer as paper art by not unfolding them too often, or too far. 

So, I have to say that the most breathtaking of the sections of this book was "The Wall," one of the larger pop-ups, and one of the tallest. In the books, and the show, the Wall is depicted as formidable, massive and awe inspiring. I think this book did that justice: 

The Wall

You see four mini pop-ups and a fold out at the bottom of this spread. The fold out is for information on "The Black" the uniform of the men who are sent to the wall to defend Westeros from the Wildlings and other dangers north of it. The fold outs each contain their own descriptive text.

Down at the other end of the map, one of the fold outs for Kings Landing is a depiction of the Battle of Blackwater Bay, complete with explosions of green "wildfire" through the attacking fleet of Stannis Baratheon. 

The Iron throne is tucked into one of these mini pop-ups, too. I again have to say that I would not give in to the temptation of properly opening the throne. You will have to cope with this almost-open version or buy your own GoT pop-up book and stretch it out as you please.

New Pop Up Book

I've bought a lot of pop-up books, most of the time I buy when I come across one that grabs my interest. This little fella, though, I did not buy at that point. Why? Well it was coming on Christmas 2016 and people were asking me to give them some ideas of what to get me.

I literally held the book up to show one loved-one. I told another (and maybe sent an email), and gave hints that a third might ask if it had been purchased. Then I waited for Christmas.

Nada

So, I spent last year trying to find it. I suppose, for the sake of honesty, I should acknowledge that I did indeed find copies early on, but they were full-priced in my "only buy discount" store, so I passed, hoping to find one in my "buy new" store.

Nope. And no longer in the store I'd found it. And not in any store. I forgot the title and for some reason couldn't get close enough with google, but I did eventually find it online—something I worked out in the fall, so started hinting about.

Christmas came and…nada.

So, "screw it," says I, and ordered it online. A year after everybody else, I have my J.K. Rowling's Wizarding World: A Pop-Up Gallery of Curiosities.

Thank you internet.

What makes it interesting (besides the obvious)?
It's not trying to be a book. It's design is that of a display case.

The illustrations are well done and the designs are exciting—they're dynamic and whimsical and humourous, at least. Rowling has always been able to create material that's fit for kids, but also the kid in adults. That's refreshing. So many pop-up books are clearly for children, so of lessened interest to me as an adult.

The book has some creative bits, like different ways to make the text as pop-upish as the illustrations, and these aren't groundbreaking or anything, but somebody put some thought into them, so kudos for that. The little write up on Newt coming out of his case on the floor, pulls out from the floor. That's a subtlety they didn't have to include, but did.

There's a couple of parts that have to be manipulated by the reader. Floating candles in one part, and the anchoring of a bank vault for the niffler scene. My photos here don't do this vault justice. There are layers of paper cut inside that provide a nice detailed depth.

My one real complaint is that it's so damned short. Pop-ups get very thick, very fast, so most of them are shortish. But a few more scenes wouldn't have been too many.

Almost all the text in pop-up books are brief. It's either because text is hard to incorporate, and large amounts of it exponentially harder, or because there's some belief out there that people who like pop-ups are not going to be all that interested in reading large sections of prose.

I have a few books that contain either pop-ups or some other paper-arts enhancement that are first and foremost books (lots of text). They'll eventually get blogged about, I suppose.

I don't usually rate my books (except in Library thing where I faithfully rate with stars for the sake of organization) but if I were to give this one a grade, it would still be four out of five despite the brevity.

I'm sitting here, now, wondering why that is. It's a good book, but doesn't have the most "wow!" which is what makes pop-ups call my name. The only thing I can think of is that I like the subject matter enough for the book to get an automatic bump.

Maybe also it's because I had to wait a year to get it.