Fire & Blood: 300 Years Before A Game of Thrones

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The history of the Targaryens comes to life in this masterly work, the inspiration for HBO’s Game of Thrones prequel series House of the Dragon.

“The thrill of Fire & Blood is the thrill of all Martin’s fantasy work: familiar myths debunked, the whole trope table flipped.”—Entertainment Weekly

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 & 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 was it so deadly to visit Valyria after the Doom? What were Maegor the Cruel’s worst crimes? What was it like in Westeros when dragons ruled the skies? 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 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 & Blood is the first volume of the definitive two-part history of the Targaryens, giving readers a whole new appreciation for the dynamic, often bloody, and always fascinating history of Westeros.

Praise for Fire & Blood

“A masterpiece of popular historical fiction.” —The Sunday Times

“The saga is a rich and dark one, full of both the title’s promised elements. . . . It’s hard not to thrill to the descriptions of dragons engaging in airborne combat, or the dilemma of whether defeated rulers should ‘bend the knee,’ ‘take the black’ and join the Night’s Watch, or simply meet an inventive and horrible end.”—The Guardian

Contents:

Aegon’s Conquest
Reign of the Dragon—The Wars of King Aegon I
Three Heads Had the Dragon—Governance Under King Aegon I
The Sons of the Dragon
Prince into King—The Ascension of Jaehaerys I
The Year of the Three Brides—49 AC
A Surfeit of Rulers
A Time of Testing—The Realm Remade
Birth, Death, and Betrayal Under King Jaehaerys I
Jaehaerys and Alysanne—Their Triumphs and Tragedies
The Long Reign—Jaehaerys and Alysanne: Policy, Progeny, and Pain
Heirs of the Dragon—A Question of Succession
The Dying of the Dragons—The Blacks and the Greens
The Dying of the Dragons—A Son for a Son
The Dying of the Dragons—The Red Dragon and the Gold
The Dying of the Dragons—Rhaenyra Triumphant
The Dying of the Dragons—Rhaenyra Overthrown
The Dying of the Dragons—The Short, Sad Reign of Aegon II
Aftermath—The Hour of the Wolf
Under the Regents—The Hooded Hand
Under the Regents—War and Peace and Cattle Shows
Under the Regents—The Voyage of Alyn Oakenfist
The Lysene Spring and the End of Regency
Lineages and Family Tree
A Conversation Between George R. R. Martin and Dan Jones
Dedication
By George R. R. Martin
About the Author & the Illustrator

Hours to read: 21 - 23
Total words: 264k