November's Book: Fire and Blood

Fire & Blood by George R.R. Martin

Fantasy (2018 - 711 pp.)

Finally, after almost nine years, the world of A Game of Thrones comes to this blog.

Fire & Blood is the prequel* to George R.R. Martin's smash hit A Song of Ice and Fire series. Over a roughly 142-year span, an unnamed chronicler** tells a series of roughly chronological stories centering on the Targaryen monarchy. their dragons, their wars, their pinnacles and their nadirs. The chronicler discusses numerous fabricated sources, analogous to The Navidson Record in Mark Danielewski's classic horror novel House of Leaves; from the somber Septon Eustace to the bawdy Mushroom, they make entertaining additions to what otherwise could have been an encyclopedia.

The chronicle format drags the reader right into the action, blazing through Aegon's Conquest and family before listing off the greatest, cruelest and worst kings of the early Targaryens. Aegon I, astride his famed dragon Balerion, flanked by his sister-wives Visenya and Rhaenys, establishes Targaryen dominance over the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros.^ Maegor the Cruel is a truly formidable character, creating enemies all over Westeros who, nonetheless, never seem able to take him down. Jaehaerys I is arguably the main character of the book, having the longest and most prosperous rule; he is a favourite of mine due to his role as conciliator between various warring parties, a role I play whenever I can. Viserys I oversees the greatest proliferation of dragons in Westerosi Targaryen history, yet is unmotivated to mend the rips sprouting in his family. Prince Aemond is a prodigy-level dragonrider who enters multiple duels on dragonback and wins most of them. Princess Aerea's turn riding Balerion ends far less romantically.

Ancestors of the characters in A Game of Thrones make varying levels of cameo, often in surprising ways. The second most powerful house of Westeros is Velaryon, a house unseen in the sequential books. Starks make brief appearances, Lannisters slightly longer ones. What amazed me, though, was the nearly unbroken hundred-year span of the Baratheons serving the Targaryens as faithful allies. This especially put the events of Robert's Rebellion into greater context for me, as the rebel propagandists of A Game of Thrones make their side out to be a sworn adversary of the Targaryens. Maybe not so much...

As a general rule, the more swashbuckling a character or scene is in Fire & Blood, the more I like it. Although Martin does a great job of introducing characters like Rego Draz, the hated-but-effective Master of Coin, and does well to show how financially strained King's Landing often gets, Martin is at his best when someone is swinging a sword. Less convincing scenes include the various brothels and pleasure gardens, each of which could be any of the others, and the endless proliferation of younger siblings who no doubt end up dying in some gruesome way or another.

Martin's writing is extremely accessible, yet Fire & Blood lags when Martin introduces tidal waves of characters, sometimes to only appear in one paragraph. While it is commendable in-world that the chronicler can relate all this information, it is hopelessly confusing after a while. Worst of all, the reader cannot use Martin's dramatis personae at the back of the book to any real effect, as some of the greatest suspense comes from not knowing who will win the throne during one of many succession crises. Looking up the characters would spoil major plot points. I did double takes whenever characters had suspiciously normal-sounding names; after so many pages of characters like Visenya Targaryen, encountering characters with names like Tyler Hill or Sara Snow was jarring.

Fire & Blood is sold on the cover as showing "300 Years Before A Game of Thrones, Dragons Ruled Westeros". Naively, I assumed Fire & Blood would cover all 300 years. Instead, it covers Westeros from Aegon's Conquest up until the end of the Dance of Dragons, a bloody intra-Targaryen civil war that makes the War of the Five Kings look like a picnic by comparison. I reached the end wanting more. Compounding this shortage is the inconsistent pacing. The first 128 years of the book (1-128) take place from pages 1-390. The next fourteen years (129-142) take places from pages 391-711. What had moved at a fast clip suddenly turned into a book that was effectively about the Dance of Dragons. I liked the faster style of the first half, although the second half was interesting as well, especially the Daemon/Aemond dragon duel.

Fire & Blood is a fun read, but it is for readers who have already read the five sequential books so far. One also has to wonder why all this energy wasn't put into The Winds of Winter.^^

Ease of Reading: 7

Educational Content: 1

*Fire & Blood takes 300-158 years before A Game of Thrones. There could quite easily be a second prequel as well.

**This is the only spoiler I'll give. I thought the revelation of the chronicler's identity would be a major plot point. Whose house was this chronicler's? What motivation did the chronicler have for telling this story? Was the chronicler a Targaryen... or perhaps from a rival house, like a Stark or a Lannister? Sadly, the chronicler's identity is never revealed.

On the topic of spoilers, this is one of my extremely rare entries with essentially no pinpoint citations. Fire & Blood is so plot-packed, almost any citation feels like a spoiler.

^Except Dorne, of course. The book's numerous Dornish Wars are testament's to Dorne's ongoing independence.

^^I've ranted on Quora about the unreasonable delay of The Winds of Winter. Martin had the opportunity of a lifetime to release a new book while the HBO show was still in its run. Other than the basically coincidental release of A Dance with Dragons two months after the show's premiere, Martin did not release a sequential book during the show's run. Opportunity wasted?