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Fire & Blood (novel)

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Fire & Blood
First edition cover
AuthorGeorge R. R. Martin
IllustratorDoug Wheatley
LanguageEnglish
SeriesA Song of Ice and Fire
GenreFantasy
PublisherBantam Books
Publication date
November 20, 2018[1]
Publication placeUnited States
Pages736
ISBN978-1-524-79628-0
Preceded by
 

Fire & Blood is a fantasy book by American writer George R. R. Martin and illustrated by Doug Wheatley. It tells the history of House Targaryen, the dynasty that ruled the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros in the backstory of his series A Song of Ice and Fire.[2] Although originally planned for publication after the completion of the series,[3] Martin revealed his intent to publish the history in two volumes as the material had grown too large. The first volume was released on November 20, 2018.[1]

The second half of this first volume (an expanded version of The Princess and the Queen) has been adapted into the HBO series House of the Dragon, a prequel to Game of Thrones.[4]

Publication history

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In 2014, more than 200,000 words were removed from the manuscript of Martin's companion book The World of Ice & Fire and were incorporated into Fire & Blood.[5]

In February 2017, Elio M. García Jr., Martin's co-author for The World of Ice & Fire, reported that he had spoken with Martin at WorldCon 75, held in 2017 in Helsinki, about the first volume of Fire & Blood. According to García, in addition to the never-published material developed for The World of Ice & Fire, Martin also created entirely new material for the book, having "worked on just fleshing out a bit" the long reign of King Jaehaerys I Targaryen, which was previously only mentioned in "Heirs of the Dragon", an unpublished text that Martin abridged to form the novelette The Rogue Prince.[6]

On July 22, 2017, Martin revealed on his blog that the material for Fire & Blood had grown so large that the decision had been made to publish the histories of the Targaryen kings in two volumes. The first volume, simply called Fire & Blood, covers the history of Westeros from Aegon's Conquest up to and through the regency of the boy king, Aegon III Targaryen. While the first volume of Fire & Blood has been published, the second volume was largely unwritten as of July 2017.[7]

In April 2018, when announcing the publication date, Martin revealed the manuscript to be 989 pages long.[1] An excerpt was revealed in October 2018.[8]

Contents

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Rather than a novel, Fire & Blood takes the form of a scholarly treatise about the Targaryen dynasty written by a historian within the world of A Song of Ice and Fire, Archmaester Gyldayn.[9][10][11] Gyldayn cites a variety of fictional primary sources for the historical events he describes, whose accounts sometimes conflict with each other, reflecting medieval methods of historiography and thus making Gyldayn an unreliable narrator from the reader's perspective.[12][13]

  • "Aegon's Conquest" describes Aegon I Targaryen's conquest of the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros.[14] More or less the same version was published in The World of Ice & Fire.[8]
  • "Reign of the Dragon – The Wars of King Aegon I" and "Three Heads Had the Dragon – Governance Under King Aegon I" follow Aegon I's reign after his Conquest. While his reign is briefly glossed over in The World of Ice & Fire, no parts of the chapters have been published before.
  • "The Sons of the Dragon" focuses on the lives of Aegon I's sons, King Aenys I Targaryen and King Maegor I Targaryen, ending with Maegor's death and the ascension of Aenys's son Jaehaerys I Targaryen to the throne. An abridged novella of the same name was previously released in October 2017 in the anthology The Book of Swords.[15]
  • The long reign of Jaehaerys I Targaryen is described over seven chapters.
  • "Heirs of the Dragon – A Question of Succession" focuses on the succession crisis following the deaths of Jaehaerys' sons and the eventual reign of his grandson Viserys I. The novella The Rogue Prince, previously published in the anthology Rogues in 2014, uses the majority of this text,[16] which was adapted in the first season of HBO's House of the Dragon.
  • "The Dying of the Dragons" is split into six chapters and focuses on the Dance of the Dragons, the succession war between Rhaenyra Targaryen and her younger half-brother Aegon II. An abridged version was included in The Princess and the Queen,[17] which was published in the anthology Dangerous Women in 2013. These chapters form the primary basis of House of the Dragon.
  • "Aftermath – The Hour of the Wolf" describes the aftermath of the Dance and the ascension of Rhaenyra's young son Aegon III to the throne, while the book's four final chapters cover the early period of Aegon III's reign, when the realm was ruled by his regents.

Fire & Blood is illustrated in a similar fashion to A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. The book contains more than seventy-five black and white illustrations by Doug Wheatley.[18][1]

Reception

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Fire & Blood received mixed reviews from critics. According to Book Marks, the book received "mixed" reviews based on eight critic reviews with three being "rave" and two being "mixed" and three being "pan".[19] In Books in the Media, a site that aggregates critic reviews of books, the book received a (2.81 out of 5) from the site which was based on eight critic reviews.[20]

Hugo Rifkind of The Times described it as "interminable, self-indulgent crap."[10] Roisin O'Connor of The Independent faulted the book for its dry tone and stated that reading it feels like "you've been assigned a mildly interesting, but often tedious, piece of homework".[9] Publishers Weekly stated that "Martin's evocative storytelling style and gift for gripping narrative are mostly absent from this dry history".[21]

Conversely, Dan Jones of The Sunday Times praised the book, calling it "a masterpiece of popular historical fiction".[22] Similarly, Chris Lough of Tor.com described the book as "... the best Song of Ice and Fire book in 18 years",[23] a comparison to A Storm of Swords.

Adaptation

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The HBO series House of the Dragon, a prequel to Game of Thrones, is based on material from Fire & Blood, which covers the Dance of Dragons civil war. The show is produced by Martin, Vince Gerardis, Ryan Condal, and Miguel Sapochnik (also showrunner).[24]

Notes

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References

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  1. ^ a b c d Not a Blog: Fire & Blood: On The Way (April 25, 2018)
  2. ^ Martin, George R.R. (March 12, 2014). "The Rogues Are Coming..." Not A Blog. Archived from the original on March 17, 2014. Retrieved November 17, 2021 – via LiveJournal.
  3. ^ Martin, George R.R. (December 2, 2013). "The Dangerous Women Are Coming". Not A Blog. Archived from the original on November 7, 2015. Retrieved November 17, 2021 – via LiveJournal.
  4. ^ "House of the Dragon writers praised by George RR Martin for season 2 change". The Independent. July 9, 2024. Retrieved July 21, 2024.
  5. ^ Not a Blog comment: Ten Thousand Ships (May 20, 2014)
  6. ^ Westeros (February 22, 2018). "Westeros.org Discusses... Worldcon" – via YouTube.
  7. ^ Not a Blog: The Swords are Drawn (July 22, 2017)
  8. ^ a b "A FIRE & BLOOD Excerpt just for YOU! - Not a Blog". georgerrmartin.com.
  9. ^ a b O'Connor, Roisin (November 20, 2018). "Fire and Blood, George R. R. Martin, review: New Game of Thrones book is exhaustive but often tedious". The Independent. Retrieved November 24, 2018.
  10. ^ a b Rifkin, Hugo (November 17, 2018). "Review: Fire & Blood by George R. R. Martin — a dire prequel to Game of Thrones". The Times. Retrieved November 24, 2018.(subscription required)
  11. ^ McNutt, Myles (May 9, 2022). "This summer, be free of the need to read Fire & Blood". Polygon. Retrieved September 22, 2022.
  12. ^ Goslin, Austen (August 18, 2022). "House of the Dragon is missing its source material's most fun character". Polygon. Retrieved September 22, 2022.
  13. ^ Mondschein, Ken (August 27, 2022). "Badgering on Mushroom: Historiography and Outsiders in House of the Dragon". Medievalists.net. Retrieved September 22, 2022.
  14. ^ Youtube: Westeros.org Discusses... Fire & Blood, (Retrieved on July 27)
  15. ^ Not a Blog: A Bit More (Fake) History (January 31, 2017)
  16. ^ r/asoiaf.com: (Spoilers Extended) The Possibilities for GRRM's New Novella in the Book of Swords Anthology
  17. ^ Not A Blog: The Princess and the Queen (August 31, 2013)
  18. ^ Not a Blog: Hugo Nominations Open (Feb 7th, 2018) – comment (Feb 14th, 2018)
  19. ^ "Fire & Blood: 300 Years Before a Game of Thrones (a Targaryen History)". Book Marks. Retrieved January 16, 2024.
  20. ^ "Fire and Blood Reviews". Books in the Media. Archived from the original on November 28, 2021. Retrieved July 11, 2024.
  21. ^ "Fire & Blood". Publishers Weekly. November 20, 2018. Retrieved November 24, 2018.
  22. ^ Jones, Dan (November 18, 2018). "Review: Fire & Blood by George R. R. Martin — the Game of Thrones prequel is a masterpiece of popular historical fiction". The Sunday Times. Retrieved November 24, 2018.(subscription required)
  23. ^ Lough, Chris (November 21, 2018). "Fire & Blood is the Best Song of Ice and Fire Book in 18 Years. But Will Anyone Read It?". Tor.com. Archived from the original on November 24, 2018. Retrieved November 24, 2018.
  24. ^ Patten, Dominic; Andreeva, Nellie (October 29, 2019). "'Game Of Thrones' Prequel House of the Dragon Gets Straight To Series Order From HBO". Deadline Hollywood.
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