Fire & Blood by George R.R. Martin

Fire & Blood, A Targaryen History #1

Author: George R.R. Martin
Published: November 20th, 2018
Publisher: Bantam Books an imprint of Penguin Random House
Rating: 5/5

Goodreads synopsis

With all the fire and fury fans have come to expect from internationally bestselling 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.

My thoughts

I will start by saying that this is NOT a NOVEL this is a HISTORY BOOK, and I think this is the best history text book I have read in my whole entire life! There is so much to learn about this crazy, amazing family and this book is an absolute best in giving you everything you need to know about the Targaryen family.

The Targaryen were born to rule and that they did, you have your good Targaryen and your bad Targaryens, one of my favorites were king Jaehaerys and Queen Alyssane and their ninthborn child Princess Saera. I won’t go into too much detail about Saera but oh my she was something else her chapter was one of the best but let me say not all ends well for her or maybe it does, we didn’t really get much information on her after everything was said and done. But King Jaehaerys and Queen Alyssane in my opinion were one of the best Targaryen, I really enjoy their history, they were the ones who really built King’s Landing.

And of course we get all the kings and queens history and who rule when and how they came to be and all the backstabbing and political things we know about game of thrones, this book gives you all and it comes with some amazing illustrations and dragon battles as well.