#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The history of the Targaryens comes to life in this masterly work, the inspiration for HBO’s upcoming Game of Thrones prequel series House of the Dragon“The thrill of Fire & Blood is the thrill of all Martin’s fantasy work: familiar myths debunked, the whole trope table flipped.”—Entertainment WeeklyCenturies before the events of A Game of Thrones, House … Weekly
Centuries before the events of A Game of Thrones, House Targaryen—the only family of dragonlords to survive the Doom of Valyria—took up residence on Dragonstone. Fire & Blood begins their tale with the legendary Aegon the Conqueror, creator of the Iron Throne, and goes on to recount the generations of Targaryens who fought to hold that iconic seat, all the way up to the civil war that nearly tore their dynasty apart.
What really happened during the Dance of the Dragons? Why was it so deadly to visit Valyria after the Doom? What were Maegor the Cruel’s worst crimes? What was it like in Westeros when dragons ruled the skies? These are but a few of the questions answered in this essential chronicle, as related by a learned maester of the Citadel and featuring more than eighty all-new black-and-white illustrations by artist Doug Wheatley. Readers have glimpsed small parts of this narrative in such volumes as The World of Ice & Fire, but now, for the first time, the full tapestry of Targaryen history is revealed.
With all the scope and grandeur of Gibbon’s The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Fire & Blood is the the first volume of the definitive two-part history of the Targaryens, giving readers a whole new appreciation for the dynamic, often bloody, and always fascinating history of Westeros.
Praise for Fire & Blood
“A masterpiece of popular historical fiction.” —The Sunday Times
“The saga is a rich and dark one, full of both the title’s promised elements. . . . It’s hard not to thrill to the descriptions of dragons engaging in airborne combat, or the dilemma of whether defeated rulers should ‘bend the knee,’ ‘take the black’ and join the Night’s Watch, or simply meet an inventive and horrible end.”—The Guardian
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It read like a history, then the character of the Targaryens became an integral part of the story. Eben thpugh the reader knew their flaws, there was a sense of expectancies about their strengths that kept them spellbound until the final word on the last page.
This is a money grab book. Encycolpedias are more exciting to read. If you want to read an encyclopedia and dry spitting out of the story of how the realm was made, I guess this is for you. Extremely disappointed in this. I wanted character voices, not some dry quick tale of how things happened.
Terrible waste of time
i recommend this for die-hard fans. It starts with the Targaryens conquering of Westeros and a lot of history is crammed into too few pages. Many battles, traitorous acts, and all the familiar houses of nobility come into play, but mostly, power lies with those who have the dragon power. You never know what will be significant so you wade through endless detailed descriptions of alliance building efforts. Some horrifying acts of retribution occur.
Certainly puts in perspective how Game of Athena’s got to the lace the book series began. Especially the dragons.
This book has a very stunning, that I was waiting a long time, but now I am very happy that released, and I am very keen to get it on my hands on. Thank you George.R.R.Martin, your fiction the second beautiful story after The Bible.