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Fire and Blood: The inspiration for 2022’s highly anticipated HBO and Sky TV series HOUSE OF THE DRAGON from the internationally bestselling creator of ... GAME OF THRONES (A Song of Ice and Fire) Paperback – 6 Aug. 2020
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THE INSPIRATION FOR HBO AND SKY’S HOUSE OF THE DRAGON
Centuries before A Game of Thrones, an even greater game began, one that set the skies alight with dragon flame and saw the Seven Kingdoms turned to ash.
The thrilling history of the Targaryens comes to life in George R.R. Martin’s FIRE & BLOOD.
So began the Targaryens’ bloody rule, with fire and blood. Setting brother against brother, mother against daughter, and dragon against dragon.
Chronicled by a learned maester of the Citadel, this thrilling and bloody history of Westeros tells the story of where the battle for the Iron Throne began…
George R.R. Martin's book 'Fire and Blood' was a Sunday Times bestseller w/c 24-10-2022.
- Print length752 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherHarperVoyager
- Publication date6 Aug. 2020
- Dimensions12.9 x 4 x 19.8 cm
- ISBN-100008402787
- ISBN-13978-0008402785
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From the Publisher
The Rise of the Dragon | Fire and Blood | The World of Ice and Fire | |
---|---|---|---|
A lavish illustrated history of the Targaryens | The story of House Targaryen | The illustrated history of the Seven Kingdoms | |
A Game of Thrones | A Clash of Kings | A Storm of Swords I: Steel and Snow | A Storm of Swords II: Blood and Gold | A Feast for Crows | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Series Order | Book One | Book Two | Book Three | Book Four | Book Five |
A Dance with Dragons I: Dreams and Dust | A Dance with Dragons II: After the Feast | The A Song of Ice and Fire Boxed Set | A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Series Order | Book Six | Book Seven | Books 1 - 7 | Prequel Novellas |
Product description
Review
‘A masterpiece’
SUNDAY TIMES
‘An epic take, viewed from soaring heights’
DAILY MAIL
‘A feast of pure imagination’
SFX
‘The sheer detail of the richly layered world [Martin] has created is astonishing, with narrative twists and turns aplenty’
SUNDAY EXPRESS
PRAISE FOR A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE:
‘Of those who work in the grand epic fantasy tradition, Martin is by far the best’
TIME MAGAZINE
‘Colossal, staggering…Martin captures all the intoxicating complexity of the Wars of the Roses or Imperial Rome’
SFX
‘Martin’s style is so vivid that you will be hooked within a few pages’
THE TIMES
‘I always expect the best from George R.R. Martin and he always delivers’
ROBERT JORDAN
Book Description
The inspiration for 2022's highly anticipated HBO and Sky TV series HOUSE OF THE DRAGON from the internationally bestselling creator of epic fantasy classic GAME OF THRONES
From the Back Cover
The thrilling history of the Targaryens comes to life in this masterly work by the author of A Song of Ice and Fire, the inspiration for HBO’s Game of Thrones.
With all the fire and fury fans have come to expect from internationally best-selling author George R.R. Martin, this is the first volume of the definitive two-part history of the Targaryens in Westeros.
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 and 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 did it become so deadly to visit Valyria after the Doom? What is the origin of Daenerys’s three dragon eggs? 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 and Blood is the ultimate game of thrones, giving readers a whole new appreciation for the dynamic, often bloody, and always fascinating history of Westeros.
About the Author
George R.R. Martin is the author of fifteen novels and novellas, including five volumes of A Song of Ice and Fire, several collections of short stories, as well as screenplays for television and feature films. Dubbed ‘the American Tolkien’, George R.R. Martin has won numerous awards including the World Fantasy Lifetime Achievement Award. He is an Executive Producer on HBO’s Emmy Award-winning Game of Thrones, which is based on his A Song of Ice and Fire series. He lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Product details
- Publisher : HarperVoyager; 1st edition (6 Aug. 2020)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 752 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0008402787
- ISBN-13 : 978-0008402785
- Dimensions : 12.9 x 4 x 19.8 cm
- Best Sellers Rank: 1,344 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- Customer reviews:
About the author
George R.R. Martin is the globally bestselling author of many fine novels, including A Game of Thrones, A Clash of Kings, A Storm of Swords, A Feast for Crows, and A Dance with Dragons, which together make up the series A Song of Ice and Fire, on which HBO based the world’s most-watched television series, Game of Thrones. Other works set in or about Westeros include The World of Ice and Fire, and A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. His science fiction novella Nightflyers has also been adapted as a television series; and he is the creator of the shared-world Wild Cards universe, working with the finest writers in the genre. He lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
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As with most such things, the TV series and the stories told in the books are quite different (S1 of the TV series was a faithful expression of the first book, to the extent that TV episodes exactly matched the book chapters but, after that, they drifted apart ever more markedly). This book is aimed, squarely, at the readers who are totally immersed in the fantasy world that GRRM created. The books often make passing reference to historical events that shaped the creation of this world (in this case, the creation of Westeros) without fleshing out those references, and this book seeks to provide the full back story; well, half of it!
This isn't a slim 'companion book' as it's just as massive as any of the full-blown novels. GRRM has chosen to use a different writing style, taking the viewpoint of a fictional historian rather than a protagonist, and the result is that it's all less of an immersive tale and more like a history textbook. The exciting stories are in there, they're just that bit more hidden. I confess that even I, a dyed-in-the-wool Ice & Fire fan, became a bit bored and reaching the end felt more like completing a marathon than the sadness that it's all over and there's nothing left to read.
But it isn't all over! I bought this book thinking that it would fill the complete the entire gap between the dragon-based invasion of Westeros and the beginning of the Ice & Fire books but, actually, huge as it is, it still only fills half the gap and GRRM promises to write a 'Volume 2' soon that completes the narrative. I'm not sure that I have the stamina for another round!
There are two major problems with this book, exacerbated in the e-book version. It's almost impossible to follow this story without having to hand a large map of Westeros and the surrounding world and also a family tree for all of those mentioned in the book. There is a simplified family tree of the Targaryens at the end of the book but, as usual, it's too small to see in the e-book so you'll need a print-out. Of course, given the Targaryen penchant for every form of incestuous marriage, even the basic family tree doesn't look like a 'normal' tree. All of the books have maintained a shameful tradition of omission and this one is the same; there are no maps included. I suspect that this is a cynically deliberate decision on the part of the publishers to try to make readers buy the (expensive) companion of GoT maps. Over the years, I've built up a small library of maps and so I could print off and keep to hand a map of Westoros but, without being able to refer to it constantly, following the plot in this book would have been all but impossible.
But I had a bigger problem with this book; something common to all of the books but far more evident here. In this world, siblings and children are often given very similar names, often, a child will have the same name as a parent or sibling with just one letter changed. Worse, some, grandsons and other relatives are often given exactly the same name as an ancestor, in their honour. GRRM is also prone to giving us long lists of names, often of people of whom we never hear again. The result is an utterly confusing conglomeration of names and characters of such complexity that it's extremely difficult to keep straight who's who.
So, having reeled off a long list of grumbles, I must also say that this is still a GRRM Ice & Fire book and, as such, I wouldn't have missed it for the world (this world or the fantasy one). Will I buy the 'volume 2' if and when GRRM gets around to writing it? Yes, of course I will!
So here's the test. If you aren't such a fan of the books that you don't already have your own maps of Westeros, don't bother buying this book. But if, like me, you do, then lap it up as the nerd that you truly are!
The book is unique in that it is compiled by eye witness accounts and therefore there are differences in opinion rather than one ‘true story’. Through this there is limited dialogue and lots of opinion. I really enjoyed the way it was told including sections where you have 3 different perspectives and you can choose your ‘truth’.
I would highly recommend this book and I devoured it very quickly. I am however giving it 4 stars as I felt the pace dropped in the last 1/4 of the book. I am wondering if this is due to the editing and I am aware that Martin has a sequel planned. At times it felt like a few different pieces of work blended together and wasn’t as seamless as earlier in the book. Well worth a read nevertheless.
For those who find all this a bit grim and macho, GRR Martin is pretty good at putting women front and centre, so there are plenty of notable female characters, not just doing queenly things, but also doing “manly” things like exploring the seven seas (or however many seas there are in this world) and riding dragons. In fact, the major war in the centre of the novel hinges on the female right of accession to the Iron Throne, i.e. whether a younger brother’s claim trumps an older sister’s.
It reminds me that I’m not keen on the Middle Ages really, and as a republican I’m not a big fan of kings and queens. However, I can see why so many fantasy novels are set in something that approximates to the European Middle Ages. Kings and queens, knights in shining armour, jousting and swordplay, men with longbows and crossbows. It’s all fertile ground for creating action-packed narratives and fully-rounded characters.
Unlike GRR Martin, I’m not usually a great fan of illustrated novels, but in this case, the illustrations by Doug Wheatley are generally very good and do add a lot to the novel. We also get a list of reigns and dates and a Targaryen family tree, which is helpful if you get your Aegons mixed up with your Aemons. My only gripe about this edition is that there is no map. Yes, I can picture Westeros in my mind and there are maps in other volumes, but I’m sure there are some names of towns and regions that I haven’t come across before and it would be nice to know whereabouts they are.
By the way, Fire and Blood begins with the Targaryen take over of Westeros, three hundred years before the TV series starts. In this volume we get about half-way through that period, so expect a sequel at some point.
In this edition, as a bonus, you get a transcript of a conversation between GRR Martin and the mediaeval historian Dan Jones. It gives a fascinating insight into how the author first conceived of Westeros and how he developed this complex world. Apparently, it all started with a dream about the incident – which is very vivid in the TV series – when Bran discovers the direwolf pups. And at first, the author thought of that as a fit subject for a short story, not for a massive series of several doorstep sized novels. He also talks about his interest in history, and how the great thing about being a fantasy writer, rather than a historical novelist, is that you can take a historical event or artefact and then let your imagination go. As an example, he tells how a trip to Hadrian’s Wall led to the Westeros Wall. The author also hints at future Westeros novels, including a sequel to this one.
I am also, I think like many others' reading 'Thrones', a Tolkien fan. In my first edition copy of the second impression of 'Lord of the Rings' from 1966 the publishers had the foresight to print a full scale folding B3 size map which folded out at the side of the book enabling the reader to follow at a glance. Over 50 years later with the aid of so called modern technology (in an age where we are constantly asked on our computers ..."share if you still read a paper copy of a book") I am still waiting! Is it too much to ask for the sake of your future viewing public to please consider adding an enlarged paper copy of the maps - "buy the hard back and get a free map"!