A Song of Ice and Fire : Fire and Blood (The inspiration for HBO’s House of the Dragon TV tie-in edition): The inspiration for 2022's highly ... of epic fantasy classic GAME OF THRONES

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.

I have had this book pre ordered for months. I cleared my entire month of December to keep it open so I could read this behemoth. If truth be told, I am not a huge Targaryen fan. I personally prefer the Starks but I was interested in some of the tantalizing questions this book promised to answer. This book promises to answer what The Doom really was and the source of Daenerys’s dragon eggs. Spoiler alert, I still don’t feel like I have answers to those questions but I did learn a lot about Westeros and the Targaryen empire. Try as I might, I could not keep every one straight. Westerosi history can be so convoluted and confusing, but for the most part I’ve kept pretty up to date on the family lines etc. However, the Targaryen one always throws me for a loop because of all the inner marrying and way too many Aegon’s. I did pretty good up until the Dance of Dragons in this lengthy history book. I thought Martin did an excellent job trying to keep a very complicated history not only interesting but also understandable. This book does NOT read like the typical ASOIAF books, it does in fact read more like a history book but it’s way more exciting than any history book I’ve read recently. There is a lot of ground to cover in this book and a lot of characters to focus on. I was disappointed that this book is only part one of two. I was hoping that it would take us all the way up to Robert’s Rebellion but sadly we will have to wait to get all the juicy details until the original series is finished I would guess. I thought it was fairly easy reading with an interesting subject (Westeros is anything but dull) but after a while all the treason, marrying, killing, and political problems became overwhelming. I loved reading about King Jaehaerys and his sister queen, Alysanne. I thought Alysanne’s visit to The Wall offered a lot of intriguing possibilities for the rest of the books. I also loved learning about the swords Blackfyre and Dark Sister. I think that learning the history of these blades will somehow play a role in future books. Even though this book isn’t the long awaited book in the ASOIAF series, The Winds of Winter, but I thought it gave readers a little teaser for what is to come in the future book. I also hope that GRRM will write a book similar to this about the Starks. I think the Starks and the Targaryen’s arguably offer the most interesting and important histories in Westeros for the period in which the ASOIAF books are written.

I enjoyed this book, but it felt drawn out. I do recommend reading this book if you want to know how the targaryen dynasty started.

Bought as a gift. Came in mint condition. Great price for the hardback 🙏

This book is a very good read especially for GoT fans. This book offers you so much background history that sheds much light to the turmoil in the seven kingdoms as well as the "curse" of being a Targayren. Having dragons is one thing but having loyal humans is another and the latter is scarier. The book did well to highlight powerful women and their contributions to the Westerosi's history. This was particularly very refreshing. So much foreshadowing in this book its crazy and I get giddy everytime I pick up on these hints. This book had its own version of the characters from the GoT series we've all come to love. For instance there was a character similar to Lord Baelish who was even more cunning, destructive and consequential in the history of the Seven Kingdoms

Good packaging and book qualitu

Ciltli versiyonunu aldım ve bir günde gayet iyi durumda geldi. Kitap bir tarih kitabı gibi yazılmış. Osmanlı padişahlarının dönemlerini kısaca anlatan bir kitap gibi düşünün. Game of Thrones'tan yaklaşık birkaç yüzyıl önce, Targaryen hanedanının Valyria'dan kaçıp, sonrasında Aegon önderliğinde Westeros'u ejderhalar ile nasıl fethettiğini ve sonrasında nasıl hüküm sürdüklerini anlatıyor. Şu an yaklaşık sayfa 200 civarlarındayım, HotD dizisindeki olaylara daha gelemedim ama meraklısına okuması zevkli ve sürükleyici gelecektir diye düşünüyorum. Tabi böyle bir kitabı almadan önce Game of thrones evrenine ne kadar meraklısınız veya House of the dragon dizisi sizi ne kadar meraklandırdı bunu bence bir sorgulamanız gerekiyor. Öyle diğer kitaplar gibi hikaye kitabı değil çünkü. Bir yazarın kendi kafasında kurguladığı evrenin tarihini okumuş olacaksınız sonuçta. Her ne kadar kitapları ve dizileri sevsem de böyle bir düşününce garip geldi :D Eğer genel anlamda Game of thrones evrenine meraklıysanız (kitapları, dizileri vs. okuyup izlediyseniz) bence alınacak bir kitap ama ben sadece dizi izliyorum casual takılıyorum detaylara takılmıyorum diyorsanız da çok bir şey kaçıracağınızı düşünmüyorum.

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).

The design is perfect and looks amazing. As for the book itself, it reads like a historical chronicle, tracing the Targaryen lineage from Aegon’s Conquest to the early stages of the Dance of the Dragons. It's written from a maester’s viewpoint to tell the story. It’s less a novel and more a richly detailed history, so expect more lore than character-driven plot. Definitely worth checking out.