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3.89 AVERAGE
3.89 AVERAGE
It's not long enough; What am I suppose to read now?
But seriously thou - this was great!
But seriously thou - this was great!
To be fair, my edition is a pdf file created from the text the author put online quite a while ago (before the story was supposed to be part of an anthology) and therefore has only 57 pages.
But they are glorious 57 pages!
As with the 3 stories about Ser Duncan the Tall and Egg, I enjoyed this novella about the World of Westeros and Essos tremendously.
The writing style seems to always be great with this author and the stories themselves are very well throught through. Moreover, I do believe that there is some key information to the solution of some of the mysteries in the main story arch.
Hopefully, there will be two more novellas relating to this one as promised and hopefully all 3 will be published in one extra book like the others! That would be awesome!
But they are glorious 57 pages!
As with the 3 stories about Ser Duncan the Tall and Egg, I enjoyed this novella about the World of Westeros and Essos tremendously.
The writing style seems to always be great with this author and the stories themselves are very well throught through. Moreover, I do believe that there is some key information to the solution of some of the mysteries in the main story arch.
Hopefully, there will be two more novellas relating to this one as promised and hopefully all 3 will be published in one extra book like the others! That would be awesome!
3.5 stars rounded up.
All I have read of Martin's work so far is the Song of Ice and Fire series, and while this novella takes place in an earlier time in the same world, it has a lot of interesting differences. Some are good, and a few are bad. One thing Martin does again and again in ASOIAF is reuse certain phrases across different characters' narratives, and in this story he abuses ellipses. I don't mind a few phrases with ellipses in long stories, but I swear in 100-odd pages he uses at least a dozen. Most readers probably wouldn't mind, but that many ellipses... it almost becomes a running joke by the end. In ASOIAF, the battle scenes and courtly intrigue are tempered with feasts and weddings and long journeys, but The Princess and the Queen is almost entirely the former. If you are more partial to battle scenes (with 900% more dragons than ASOIAF!!) and love lots of betrayals and cruel deaths then this story is absolutely for you. If you're interested in the history of Westeros, and particularly of the reign Targaryeans, then read this novella. If you want to know what happens when dragons fight, or even just what ASOIAF would be like with lots of big, old, fierce dragons, then this will scratch that itch. If you want a hero to root for, along the lines of Jon Snow or Dany, then you probably won't enjoy this as much. I know it isn't completely fair to compare this to ASOAIF so much, but even the book the novella is in directs readers of the series and fans of the tv show to the story.
The characters in the story are Rhaegar, Dany, and Viserys's ancestors, all of whom were given a dragon egg to nurture into a dragon they'd ride or make a connection to an existing dragon whose rider was no longer living. Some of the dragons in the story are the first dragons who came to Westeros from Valyria only about 130 years before, which is pretty cool.
Spoiler alert: in true Martin form, TONS of people die, and so too do a lot of dragons. I didn't like that part, but it was interesting to see the ways that dragons can be killed both by other dragons and by humans. In ASOIAF, sometimes it seems like the people of Westeros believe dragons to be invincible.
I have always cheered on Dany and her three dragons, but now it is clear why she chains them. In the world of ASOIAF, dragons really are terrifying, hard to control, and unpredictable. Having the biggest dragon definitely puts one at an advantage, but even in a world where only three living dragons exist, other dragons put a damper on that perceived power. Dany is pretty smart to know that; probably Viserys told her about the Dance of the Dragons that this story discusses.
One thing that I really liked about this story was the way that it is told. It is written like a historical account that maesters and scholars in Westeros would read, or Samwell Tarly would find in the ancient library under the Wall. It isn't as character-driven as ASOAIF, but to me it reads much more as fantasy than the novels. The parallels with ASOAIF, like a woman who sees the future in fire, offense and favor at a tournament, and even recognizable family traits passed down for a couple hundred years make it fun to read.
The other thing that I enjoyed, in a weird way, was that there really are no winners in this story. Everyone gets screwed in the end, some worse than others, but the ending isn't happy for anyone. If you've read all five of the currently-published ASOIAF novels (as of April 2016), you'll know that a similar theme has occurred time and time again and will probably continue into the last two books that Martin is still working on.
If you're patiently (or not) waiting for these two forthcoming ASOIAF novels, read this story. If nothing else, it will quell your thirst for Westros for a little while, and it might make you look at the events of ASOIAF a little differently. History often repeats itself, after all.
All I have read of Martin's work so far is the Song of Ice and Fire series, and while this novella takes place in an earlier time in the same world, it has a lot of interesting differences. Some are good, and a few are bad. One thing Martin does again and again in ASOIAF is reuse certain phrases across different characters' narratives, and in this story he abuses ellipses. I don't mind a few phrases with ellipses in long stories, but I swear in 100-odd pages he uses at least a dozen. Most readers probably wouldn't mind, but that many ellipses... it almost becomes a running joke by the end. In ASOIAF, the battle scenes and courtly intrigue are tempered with feasts and weddings and long journeys, but The Princess and the Queen is almost entirely the former. If you are more partial to battle scenes (with 900% more dragons than ASOIAF!!) and love lots of betrayals and cruel deaths then this story is absolutely for you. If you're interested in the history of Westeros, and particularly of the reign Targaryeans, then read this novella. If you want to know what happens when dragons fight, or even just what ASOIAF would be like with lots of big, old, fierce dragons, then this will scratch that itch. If you want a hero to root for, along the lines of Jon Snow or Dany, then you probably won't enjoy this as much. I know it isn't completely fair to compare this to ASOAIF so much, but even the book the novella is in directs readers of the series and fans of the tv show to the story.
The characters in the story are Rhaegar, Dany, and Viserys's ancestors, all of whom were given a dragon egg to nurture into a dragon they'd ride or make a connection to an existing dragon whose rider was no longer living. Some of the dragons in the story are the first dragons who came to Westeros from Valyria only about 130 years before, which is pretty cool.
Spoiler alert: in true Martin form, TONS of people die, and so too do a lot of dragons. I didn't like that part, but it was interesting to see the ways that dragons can be killed both by other dragons and by humans. In ASOIAF, sometimes it seems like the people of Westeros believe dragons to be invincible.
I have always cheered on Dany and her three dragons, but now it is clear why she chains them. In the world of ASOIAF, dragons really are terrifying, hard to control, and unpredictable. Having the biggest dragon definitely puts one at an advantage, but even in a world where only three living dragons exist, other dragons put a damper on that perceived power. Dany is pretty smart to know that; probably Viserys told her about the Dance of the Dragons that this story discusses.
One thing that I really liked about this story was the way that it is told. It is written like a historical account that maesters and scholars in Westeros would read, or Samwell Tarly would find in the ancient library under the Wall. It isn't as character-driven as ASOAIF, but to me it reads much more as fantasy than the novels. The parallels with ASOAIF, like a woman who sees the future in fire, offense and favor at a tournament, and even recognizable family traits passed down for a couple hundred years make it fun to read.
The other thing that I enjoyed, in a weird way, was that there really are no winners in this story. Everyone gets screwed in the end, some worse than others, but the ending isn't happy for anyone. If you've read all five of the currently-published ASOIAF novels (as of April 2016), you'll know that a similar theme has occurred time and time again and will probably continue into the last two books that Martin is still working on.
If you're patiently (or not) waiting for these two forthcoming ASOIAF novels, read this story. If nothing else, it will quell your thirst for Westros for a little while, and it might make you look at the events of ASOIAF a little differently. History often repeats itself, after all.
I love the Song of Fire and Ice series and I was really interested in reading something from the past in this world. It was fun to see a time when the Targaryens and dragons ruled Westeros. I would definitely be interested in reading more during this time.
I've nudged this down from 4 to 3 stars after listening to the audio version. It's a cracking little history of an exciting time in Targaryen history, and more than ably narrated by the dulcet tone of Iain Glenn. But it seemed to make for a more dry affair having it read to me, and it made it more difficult to follow the lists of names and sides and battles that transpired. I bought the audio version of A History of Ice and Fire at the same time as this, but the experience is making me reconsider and wonder if I shouldn't just re-read the beautiful hardback version.
[Originally read from 4-8 August 2014]
[Originally read from 4-8 August 2014]
Holy hell, that was intense. The writing was quite good, probably better than the writing in the Dunk and Egg novellas and possibly the main series. Considering how in depth and informative this was, I'm a bit surprised that Martin is still planning on publishing the first part of Fire and Blood.
adventurous
fast-paced
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
This doesn't read like his ASoIaF books. He doesn't have enough time in a novella to weave the threads in an organic fashion. So to get to all the plot twists, it has to read like an oral history. That's okay, it's a good one.
Not essential reading, but close to it. I enjoyed seeing what politics and warfare looked like when there were still (many) dragons in Westeros.
Not essential reading, but close to it. I enjoyed seeing what politics and warfare looked like when there were still (many) dragons in Westeros.