Fire and Blood by George R. R. Martin with illustrations by Doug Wheatley is the
first book in a new series. This series is a prequel series set before Game
of Thrones. This series is about the House Targaryen and their rule of
Westeros alongside their dragons. This is about how the Iron Throne came to be
and more. The author chose to write this book as a historical work set in the
universe, so dialog is very limited. It reads more as a history textbook than
as a novel. Several situations are written to be ambiguous with multiple story
points and scenes contradicted by the historical sources that the book is
supposed to be drawn from.
The book is written in way to allow a
lot of flexibility for any adaptions HBO might choose to make. This is set up by having the historical
sources disagree on several key points along the way in the read. It is like if
we had multiple versions of the Bill of Rights with widely differing ideas and
concepts. Which version would be the one to base everything on? If it
bothers you when an author chooses to leave a situation up to interpretation,
this novel will bug you at multiple points.
Most of the book is a -- what
happened and potential reasons why --- kind of story. There is plenty for fans
of Game of Thrones to enjoy. There is mystery, violence, and
more. The illustrations of the characters as well as selected scenes are
incredible and highly detailed.
Since this is written by George R. R.
Martin and is not derived from an existing television show, it has the usual
issues that works by him feature. The book is excessively long with scenes that
could easily have been eliminated to make the read more streamlined and would
have no impact on the tale. In addition to being long winded, George R. R.
Martin is also well known for using repetitive dialogue at certain points and
clearly has some words he enjoys using as many times as possible. If one
is also unaware, George R. R. Martin’s actual books tend to be far more graphic
than the tv show. There is more incest, sex, rape, and extremely violent
actions in the books and such things are told in great detail. What HBO put on
television with their adaptation of his series, was a massively tamed down and far
more streamlined version of his writing. This book is very much an adult
only kind of book and should not be read by most kids or teens.
If those parts in the televised
series made you uncomfortable, please understand this book as well as his other
books in general rise things to a totally different level. For readers open to
what some would call the negatives around this book and they had enjoyed the
television show, they should enjoy this book. It is written in a way to clearly
be only part one in a series so the story just stops at a certain point which
may annoy some readers.
Despite all these issues, I did enjoy
Fire and Blood by George R. R. Martin with illustrations by Doug
Wheatley. It also scratched that Game of Thrones itch and it will
probably scratch yours too.
My hardback reading copy came from the Skillman Southwestern Branch of the Dallas Public Library System.
Scott A. Tipple ©2020
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