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

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Took me a minute to get in my head some of the characters I know weren't going to pop up. I still loved it - BECAUSE DRAGONS - and stuff.

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.” 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. My review of Fire & Blood is sure to be a different take than any other review. In such light,. My review may be the least helpful to most readers. Why? I have not yet successfully read any works of Mr. Martin, because I find them a daunting challenge. Note that I state challenge, not that his writing is unappealing or uninteresting. What I mean is, I greatly respect his ability to weave great yarns. I just have difficulty in immersing myself into the worlds he creates. Segundo, es una saga que me gustaría tener en mi estantería pero está descatalogada, que hay cosas que por la serie ya sé, pero sé que muchas cosas no aparecen o personajes. Pero hace años que la vi. Ahora que empecé a leer en digital se me encendió la lamparita en la cabeza, y estoy leyendo "Canción de Hielo y Fuego".The aesthetic of this book is gorgeous; easily one of the most beautiful books I own. I mean it, the cover art of both editions is stunning, the typography inside the book is beautiful, the font used (Centaur) was easy to read, and most of all, Doug Wheatley’s artworks were simply spectacular to look at. As for the enjoyment factor, I really wouldn’t call this an enjoyable read, it was more like a homework reading that I gladly imposed upon myself of my own will. This book took me almost three weeks to read; that’s an extremely long time for me to spend reading a single book. For a bit of comparison, I finished reading The Crippled God (385k words) in four days and Oathbringer (450k words) in six days. 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. The thrill of Fire & Blood is the thrill of all Martin’s fantasy work: familiar myths debunked, the whole trope table flipped.”— Entertainment Weekly WARNING: This book is NOT a novel. It is written like a history book with no dialogue, and everything is all tell and no show.

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.I mention all this so you can skip my review if you are already a Martin fan, because what little light I might shed on the topic probably will be of little use or interest to you. The gods and the Free Cities had other plans, however. Even as the king’s ships were beating their way north, envoys from Pentos and Tyrosh called upon His Grace in the Red Keep. The two cities had been at war for three years and were now desirous of making peace, but could not agree on where they might meet to discuss terms. The conflict had caused serious disruption to trade upon the narrow sea, to the extent that King Jaehaerys had offered both cities his help in ending their hostilities. After long discussion, the Archon of Tyrosh and the Prince of Pentos had agreed to meet in King’s Landing to settle their differences, provided that Jaehaerys would act as an intermediary between them, and guarantee the terms of any resulting treaty. But as much as I love the Conqueror, my true alliances (and my heart) lie with King Jaehaerys I and his wife, the Good Queen Alysanne. Prior to reading Fire and Blood, I paid both of them no mind, but now I'll never forget them. They are one of my all-time favorite characters. Jaehaerys ascended the throne in 48 AC at the age of fourteen to rule the Seven Kingdoms for the next fifty-five years until his death of natural causes in 103 AC. What a mood! Archmaester Umbert famously declared that Aegon the Dragon and his sisters conquered the Seven Kingdoms, but it was Jaehaerys the Conciliator who truly made them one. George Raymond Richard "R.R." Martin was born September 20, 1948, in Bayonne, New Jersey. His father was Raymond Collins Martin, a longshoreman, and his mother was Margaret Brady Martin. He has two sisters, Darleen Martin Lapinski and Janet Martin Patten. Fire and Blood has been aptly described as Martin’s version of The Silmarillion, providing a pseudo-scholarly review of the history of the world (or rather, an exceedingly narrow slice of the world) made famous by A Game of Thrones and its progeny.