Named for the minor "Star Wars" character who fans demanded to know more about, Boba Fett
Syndrome is most acute for any book or film series that has reached the level of phenomenon, when
minutiae becomes major. For Martin, this has meant not just the usual demands for the next "A Song
of Ice and Fire" fantasy novel (don’t ask, he’s still working on it), but constant letters and
emails asking for information on everything from dragons to Aegon Targaryen’s war against the Seven
Kingdoms.

Martin’s new book, released this week, is "The World of Ice & Fire: The Untold History of
Westeros and the Game of Thrones," 300 pages of back story and original artwork by the some of the
world’s top fantasy illustrators. He agreed to the companion volume in 2006 and expected it would take
just a couple of years. Naturally, it took longer. He intended to write some brief text to accompany the
drawings, but ended up setting down some 300,000 words, more than enough to make his editor’s "head
explode."

"It was bigger than I anticipated," he said during a recent telephone interview, acknowledging
that "The World of Ice & Fire" might have delayed still further the next "Ice and
Fire" novel. "I start these things that I think won’t take much time and they grow and
grow."

Martin said "The World of Ice & Fire" offers material already in the "Ice and
Fire" series, material he has long worked out in his mind and on paper, but had never released, and
material he invented entirely for the book, such as the section dedicated to lands on the other side of
the Narrow Sea. (Fans of Tyrion Lannister, be advised: Martin includes little about the character he has
called his favorite. He’s saving that for future books).

Time spent working on "The World of Ice & Fire" also means time spent on publicity, and
on Sunday the resident of Santa Fe, New Mexico came to New York and appeared before hundreds of fans at
Manhattan’s 92nd Street Y. Dressed all in black — black corduroys, black shirt, and black vest set off
by his white hair and beard — he was interviewed on stage by Salon.com critic Laura Miller and responded
to written questions from the audience.

Martin, 66, has completed five of seven planned novels: The most recent, "A Dance With
Dragons," came out in 2011, the same year the Emmy-winning HBO adaptation "Game of
Thrones" first aired. Martin said Sunday that one challenge is keeping track of so many characters
and events spread out over thousands of pages. Like a filmmaker hiring a continuity director, he works
with longtime "Ice and Fire" experts Elio M. Garcia, Jr. and Linda Antonsson, who run the fan
site www.westeros.org and are credited as co-authors of the new book.

"They displayed, right away, an almost obsessive knowledge of my world. In fact, I had to alter my
world because of that obsessive knowledge," Martin said, noting that they had caught errors in his
work.

A native of Bayonne, New Jersey, Martin loved comic books and writing as a kid and by high school had won
an award for a superhero story. He has been publishing books since the 1970s and began his "Ice and
Fire" series in the 1990s, intending to write a trilogy.

During his telephone interview, Martin said some of his fondest early memories were of reading
illustrated versions of "Treasure Island" and other classics and that he wanted "The
World of Ice & Fire" to have a similar appeal. He admires the Kindle, but prefers reading
on paper and thinks the new book is especially suited for its hardcover edition.

"My feeling was ‘Let’s make it a coffee table book and let’s fill it with some great fantasy art by
some of the top illustrators in the fantasy world,’" he said. "We’re at a time in publishing
history where you can have you stories in many different ways. But I’m still an old fart. I love a
physical book."