The thrilling history of the Targaryens comes to life in this masterly work by the author of A Song of Ice and Fire, the inspiration for HBO’s Game of Thrones.

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 know, every one is super pissed that good ol’ George is coming out with a book, and somehow it is not The Winds of Winter. We’ve only been waiting 2,555 days but who is counting? I want to be mad about this. But the writer side of me thinks this story may be apart of his process. The Targaryens history will be playing a HUGE roll in whats to come, and there are a lot of loose ends that haven’t been addressed. Like where the hell those eggs came from. There’s a possibility that even George didn’t even know where the eggs came from, so maybe he had to go and write a whole damn book about it to figure it out.

This book is probably necessary to the story line of GoT, from a creative stand-point.

Maybe this story got George’s juices flowing.

Maybe he’s going to blow our minds.

Maybe, George likes to torture us.

George likes to torture us.