The history starts right at the beginning before everything happens, and then moves on to just before where the novels and TV series start. The World of Ice & Fire can be said to be the history book of the Seven Kingdoms, the world created by George R.R. However the most helpful and critical reviews have been the mixed ones.
This book was released in late October 2014 and now, four months later, it has over 700 favourable reviews on Amazon.