Fire & Blood: 300 Years Before A Game of Thrones (The Targaryen Dynasty: The House of the Dragon)

J. R. R. Tolkien labored at his mythology for a majority of his adult life, from the trenches of World War I until his death. He mostly thought it unpublishable. He was interested in the great histories, in the sweeping sagas, in the stories that were written not as modern novels, but as texts that might have jumped straight out of the world he created. Some of Tolkien's mythological material made it into 'The Lord of the Rings.' Much of it did not. He wanted to publish the histories--the Silmarillion saga--alongside the books we all know today, but the publishers turned him down repeatedly. He died without seeing any of that work published, and when his son Christopher tried to make one cohesive text from the massive amounts of material, much of it was bastardized. Only later did Christopher edit and release over a dozen volumes of original texts, showing us a bit more of the scope of the history Tolkien had imagined. Why am I telling you this about Tolkien in a review for GRR Martin? This should seem fairly obvious by now: GRR Martin has the same longing Tolkien did. He has the same love of the grand, sweeping historical epic. So far he has been giving us his 'Lord of the Rings,' his drama of the minutiae, but in the process he got caught up in the grand and glorious visions of the Targaryens, just as Tolkien was swept up into the glories of the First Age. It’s no mistake this book is being called the “GRRMillion.” Martin's popularity is granting him a chance that Tolkien unfortunately never had in his lifetime: To create his myth IN FULL. To give us the grand sweep of things in the greater world, beyond just the characters we know and love in 'A Song of Ice and Fire.' Please accept this book for what it is, rather than complaining about what it does not aim to be. And what exactly is it? An artefact from Westeros. It should be read not as a book Martin wrote, but one he transcribed, from the original text by Archmaester Gyldayn. It will require some work on the part of the reader. The lines have been drawn, and we are being asked to fill in the colors with our imaginations. This participatory reading is what can make history so engaging—it takes work, but the work pays off. We have two choices: We can claw after the next GoT book, complaining that the author hasn’t yet met our demands. Or we can allow the author a chance to fill out his universe. For my part, this stuff is more exciting than the series proper. We get to see the bigger picture that all of the Song of Ice and Fire is a part of. If you don't want this sort of thing, simply move on rather than ruining the experience for others. I remember what it felt like to sit down one day as a boy and open 'The Silmarillion.' I was holding the Bible of the Elves. It was a piece of that world. It was a text that might have been read by a scholar in Minas Tirith. It was magic. Martin has the chance to give us this now. Imagine being Samwell Tarly, sitting in the Citadel's library, opening up this ponderous and magical tome about the history of the Targaryens for the first time. Why now, though? Why not wait until he's finished telling the main story? For my part, I'd rather follow the passion of a writer than get mediocre work demanded by fans. Martin created this universe for us; let him follow his vision for how it should proceed. He was caught up in the glorious history of his universe as he was telling his story, and he wants us to have it in all of its rich complexity. I can only wish that Tolkien had had the same opportunity in his lifetime. We only see fragments of what that might have been. But Martin is giving us his own great mythology, in his own lifetime, whole and complete; and I am a boy again with wonder. This, my friends, is going to be a feast.

The release of Fire and Blood has been met with a great deal of controversy, primarily centered around it not being the forthcoming A Song of Ice and Fire entry "Winds of Winter". It is also not a step-by-step guide on how to build a time machine, nor is it a cancer cure. Fortunately it does not claim to be any of these things, so let's focus on what it is. Fire and Blood is both figuratively and literally a lovingly illustrated portrait of the (fictional) history of the Targaryen Dynasty (up to the start of King Aegon III's reign). Unlike the perspective characters whose eyes we see the world of ASOIAF through, Fire and Blood feels as if someone reached into the ASOIAF universe and brought one of their textbooks into ours. It is history the way George RR Martin likes it, an honest portrayal of humanity with all the betrayal, brutality, struggles, emotions, love, and sex intact. Lore attributes the tome's authorship to Archmaester Gyldayn, who chronicles the experiences of the Targaryen generations through multiple sources of first and second hand accounts. This makes many of the happenings feel alive, as Gyldayn frequently points out sources' respective motivations, discusses rumors, songs, and likelihood of certian people's alleged actions that brings forth an ambiguity that asks the reader to decide for themselves what actually transpired. Although it is written in manner detached from those who encountering the events, the reader feels the weight of the decisions being made, the joy and despair of Targaryen home life, the thrill and terror and abhorrence of war. I loved this book. I found it difficult to put down, and could not wait to start reading it again. I shouted in anger at a character who I felt was making a terrible decision, I laughed at the jester Mushroom's antics, I felt the love of a Targaryen King and Queen and pride in (some of) their children, the horror of a disturbing and mysterious death, and wept tears of joy when two brothers were reunited. This book contributes so much to the mythos of ASOIAF. It is true that a good deal of the book has appeared in short stories published in other works and parts of The World of Ice and Fire, but there is much that is new and although I already knew a lot of what happened, I had a fantastic time reading it and am looking forward to rereading it. Fire and Blood was part one of two, and just like the continuing adventures of Dunk and Egg and the next books in the A Song of Ice and Fire series, I can't wait to read what's next.

If you like A Song of Ice and Fire – and I’m talking about the novels rather than the TV series – and you want to learn more about the history of Westeros, you’ll love this book. It’s not written as a conventional novel, more as a narrative history. What I mean is that the ostensible narrator is not an omniscient GRR Martin but a master writing several centuries after the event and relying on several contemporary sources of dubious accuracy. If that doesn’t sound very exciting, don’t worry, there is plenty of excitement here. And plenty of action too, of the kind you associate with Game of Thrones: wars, conspiracies, betrayals, beheadings, poisonings going on all over Westeros, with additional dollops of violence and mayhem floating in from across the Narrow Sea. 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.

Crazy Book, Great story and Gory details. Makes you completely immersed in the world created by George RR Martin.

The book is great but the handling of the book could have been better. Arrived with a few bumps and bruises.

I am only part way through, but I am thoroughly enjoying the book. It is written in the style of a historian--narrating not from the perspective of the characters, but from what has been said over the years by various authors. I am enjoying getting to know characters spoken about but who were not an integral part of the Song of Ice and Fire series (particularly given they had passed away a long time ago by that point).

W kwestii estetyki mogę powiedzieć że okładka współgra z pozostałymi książkami z serii wydawnictwa Harper/Voyager. Herb Targaryenów na okładce jest "wybity" ponad poziom okładki oraz wraz z tytułem książki pięknie odbijają światło. W środku, poza właściwym tekstem, znajdują się ilustracje obrazujące opisywane wydarzenia. Co do treści, to należy pamiętać że narracyjnie różni się od książek głównej serii - w "Fire & Blood" mamy do czynienia z kroniką historyczną. Nie zmienia to faktu, że polecam ją każdemu fanowi twórczości Martina, czy też jego serialowych adaptacji - szczególnie tym którzy czekają na kolejny sezon "House of the Dragon". Książka dostarczona w doskonałym stanie, w ciągu 5 dni roboczych (zamówiona we wtorkowy wieczór - dostarczona w poniedziałek). Wysyłka z magazynu w Wielkiej Brytanii. Jeżeli dobrze posługujecie się językiem angielskim, to nie widzę powodu żeby przepłacać za dwu-częściową polską edycje, podczas gdy oryginał robi to taniej i w jednej książce.