You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.
Take a photo of a barcode or cover
5.09k reviews for:
De opkomst van het huis Targaryen van Westeros
Niels van Eekelen, George R.R. Martin, Jet Matla, Renée Vink
3.97 AVERAGE
5.09k reviews for:
De opkomst van het huis Targaryen van Westeros
Niels van Eekelen, George R.R. Martin, Jet Matla, Renée Vink
3.97 AVERAGE
My friends often ask me if the Germans have a word for an unusual experience. So it is jarring to grasp for a word that captures enjoying a work, but feeling sad or resigned that the artist did not make better use of his time. Far be it from me tell someone what to write, of course. The Winds of Winter will blow in their own time. Folks oughtta get off GRRM's back! But I could not help reading Fire & Blood with an eye to ASOIAF. Sure, it is, undeniably, fun. And there is plenty of grist for the mill. Obsessives like me will have to revise some theories. GRRM has answered some open questions, which I won't spoil for you. But I'm not entirely sure these are questions that needed answering. A backstory ought to have a little mystery. And of course we look forward to Winds. I bought it, though. And promptly read it. In the end, I suppose, like all addicts I am a hostage of my supplier. GRRM is the sole manufacturer of my drug of choice. "Dance!," he says. And I do as I am told. You already know if this book is for you—and if you are reading this it probably is. Recommended if you share the disease. Others are warned to stay away. Learn from our example.
By far my favorite out of the books set in ASOIAF (which clearly seems to be a hot take on here
E proprio quando casa Targaryen era in crisi, ecco il plot twist.
Da sempre fan di game of thrones, non potevo non leggere il libro che racconta di una delle casate più forti e iconiche del mondo del ghiaccio e del fuoco.
Incesti, conflitti, intrighi e soprattutto draghi che volano a destra e a manca sopra i Sette Regni.
Aegon, Rhaenys e Visenya aura potentissima, come i loro draghi.
Jaehaerys e Alyssanne: mi piacerebbe un romance su di loro ma non è nello stile di Martin.
La Danza de Draghi: l'evento cardine della casata e della storia semplicemente meraviglioso.
Aspetto con ansia il secondo volume, sperando che Martin si ricordi che ce ne deve un secondo in quanto questo non arriva alla caduta di casa Targaryen.
( oltre a questo anche the winds of winter, se possibile: forse chiedo troppo lol).
È stato un felice ritorno a casa.
"A quel punto si scatenò la tempesta, e i draghi danzarono."
Da sempre fan di game of thrones, non potevo non leggere il libro che racconta di una delle casate più forti e iconiche del mondo del ghiaccio e del fuoco.
Incesti, conflitti, intrighi e soprattutto draghi che volano a destra e a manca sopra i Sette Regni.
Aegon, Rhaenys e Visenya aura potentissima, come i loro draghi.
Jaehaerys e Alyssanne: mi piacerebbe un romance su di loro ma non è nello stile di Martin.
La Danza de Draghi: l'evento cardine della casata e della storia semplicemente meraviglioso.
Aspetto con ansia il secondo volume, sperando che Martin si ricordi che ce ne deve un secondo in quanto questo non arriva alla caduta di casa Targaryen.
( oltre a questo anche the winds of winter, se possibile: forse chiedo troppo lol).
È stato un felice ritorno a casa.
"A quel punto si scatenò la tempesta, e i draghi danzarono."
adventurous
informative
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Very interesting with loads of backstory for the world of ASOIAF and especially the Targaryens (of course), although occasionally hard to get through some of the 60+ page chapters. The artwork is absolutely beautiful as well and I found myself looking forward to the illustrated pages when I could tell I was coming up to one. Definitely recommend for anyone who loves ASOIAF, especially since the wait for Winds of Winter seems to have no end in sight.
adventurous
informative
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
adventurous
emotional
informative
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Book Review
Title: Fire & Blood by George R. R. Martin
Genre: Historical, Fantasy, Dragons
Rating: 4.5 Stars
George R. R. Martin’s Fire and Blood trades the immediacy of A Song of Ice and Fire for the grandeur of a sweeping dynastic chronicle, and nowhere is this more evident than in its treatment of the Targaryens’ triumphs and tragedies. Styled as a history compiled by Archmaester Gyldayn, the book spans from Aegon the Conqueror’s invasion through the reign of Aegon III—the Dragonbane—and delivers an epic narrative of dragons, wars, and familial ruin.
The book begins with Aegon I, the Conqueror, and his sisters Visenya and Rhaenys, whose dragons forged the Seven Kingdoms into one realm. Martin portrays Aegon not simply as a conqueror but as a king who ruled with calculated restraint: his dragonfire subdued lords, but his policy of granting clemency kept the realm intact. Still, early on we see the seeds of future conflict. When Harrenhal fell in a torrent of dragonflame, chroniclers remark that “the mightiest castle of men was made as ash by fire from the sky,” a haunting prelude to the devastation dragons would later unleash on their own kin.
The centerpiece of the book is undoubtedly the Dance of the Dragons, the brutal civil war between Princess Rhaenyra and her half-brother Aegon II. Their rivalry, sparked by disputes over succession, spirals into an internecine conflict that annihilates the very creatures that once secured Targaryen dominance. Martin doesn’t shy from the horrors: young princes are sent to their deaths on dragonback, cities burn, and even children are not spared.
Perhaps the most harrowing episode is the death of Prince Lucerys Velaryon, whose dragon Arrax is slain mid-air by Aemond Targaryen’s Vhagar. Chroniclers recount how “the boy’s cries were lost in the storm, and only the sea received him.” This single act transforms a succession dispute into a blood feud. Later, the cruelty deepens when Prince Joffrey Velaryon attempts to mount his mother’s dragon, Syrax, only to be thrown to his death in the chaos. The text describes the scene with grim detachment, noting that the prince’s body was “broken like a doll upon the stones.”
The war culminates in Rhaenyra’s own brutal downfall. Betrayed and captured, she is fed alive to Aegon II’s dragon, Sunfyre—a moment that demonstrates Martin’s unflinching willingness to depict the savage reality of power struggles. A witness is said to have remarked that her screams “echoed so loud they shook the walls of Dragonstone.” It is an execution that feels both grotesque and inevitable, the tragic fate of a queen who once sat the Iron Throne.
What lingers after the Dance is not triumph but ruin. The civil war leaves the Targaryens decimated, their dragons nearly extinct. By the reign of Aegon III—dubbed the Dragonbane—the once-mighty beasts are reduced to pitiful shadows of their former selves. The maesters note that the last dragon of his reign was “small, misshapen, and weak of wing,” a cruel symbol of a dynasty that destroyed its own legacy.
Fire and Blood succeeds because Martin imbues this faux-history with the same moral complexity as his novels. There are no clear heroes—Rhaenyra is both a wronged heir and a vengeful tyrant; Aegon II is a usurper, but one propped up by factions terrified of a ruling queen. Even the dragons, magnificent as they are, become instruments of destruction that consume friend and foe alike.
For casual readers, the density of names, dates, and shifting allegiances may feel like a slog. But for those invested in the lore of Westeros, the book is a treasure trove. It offers the origins of conflicts that echo through Game of Thrones—themes of legitimacy, succession, and the fragility of dynastic power.
As Archmaester Gyldayn himself reflects, the Dance of the Dragons proved that “Targaryens were no closer to gods than to men; their fire could warm, but also consume.” That, perhaps, is Martin’s ultimate lesson: unchecked ambition and pride can reduce even the most glorious dynasty to ashes.
Obviously, there are also a wealth of links to the House of the Dragon and Game of Thrones TV shows and many plot elements are expanded on or explained in Fire & Blood. The most direct connection lies in the Dance of the Dragons, the civil war that is the central conflict of House of the Dragon. Where the show dramatizes the tension between Princess Rhaenyra and Aegon II, the book presents multiple conflicting accounts. For example, Gyldayn cites both the “official court historians” who justify Aegon II’s claim and the “common gossip” that insists Rhaenyra was the rightful heir. The show seizes on this ambiguity, transforming footnotes into living, breathing characters.
Many pivotal TV moments come straight from Fire and Blood’s pages, for example, Aemond Targaryen’s fateful slaying of Prince Lucerys is framed in the book as a moment that changed the war irrevocably—Gyldayn notes that “blood demands blood, and so the realm was drowned in it.” On screen, this is rendered as one of the most shocking sequences in Season 1, grounding the spectacle in Martin’s text while amplifying the tragedy.
The book also enriches Game of Thrones retroactively. In the original series, Daenerys Targaryen often invokes her ancestors as symbols of her destiny. With Fire and Blood in hand, readers see the darker reality behind the legends she venerates. The Targaryens were not flawless dragonlords but deeply human figures whose ambition frequently turned to folly. For example, Rhaenyra’s fall—burned alive by Sunfyre at her half-brother’s command—serves as a grim counterpoint to Daenerys’s own fiery rise. Both women claimed a throne in the name of justice, yet both revealed the destructive cost of power.
Even smaller details from Game of Thrones resonate more deeply after reading Fire and Blood. The extinction of the dragons under Aegon III explains why Daenerys’s hatching of Drogon, Rhaegal, and Viserion is treated with such awe—it is the revival of a legacy thought lost forever. When Tyrion tells Daenerys in the show that her ancestors “made the world tremble,” the book provides the historical weight of exactly how they did so, and how it all unraveled.
In this way, Fire and Blood is both a work of history and a kind of Rosetta Stone for Martin’s larger saga. It shows us the origins of the myths echoed in Game of Thrones and gives House of the Dragon its tragic backbone. Martin’s pseudo-archival style may frustrate readers longing for a traditional novel, but it also allows the TV adaptations to breathe life into the dry record, transforming chronicle into character drama.
Very torn on this book. Partly loved the historian take on the long stretch of events covered here--especially getting intel on the conflicts and convergences of differing narratives that were wrote down, how far out from the events themselves the authors wrote them, and the various motivations for truth telling and embellishing the previous authors may have had. As great of a feat the compendium is, however, another part of me missed greatly the first hand look into the inner thoughts of characters as things happen, the definite and suspenseful nature of the narrative when it is more immediate, and the extra time that could be taken with characters in an up close view. Also, I know it's kinda supposed to reflect British/Royal cultures with the repetition of names, but I still hated so many characters having the same names. Further, there's just /so much/ war, fighting, pandemic, and procreation/succession discussion, it really outweighs other plots that could be recorded, and it's so brutal and bleak, it gets to be a bit much (which I guess is history often, but it doesn't make a great reading experience, especially late in the book, to be stuck with ' oh another battle. Oh another three deaths of main characters. Oh they're fighting again. Oh they had more kids. And now they're kids are fighting too. I'm /so/ surprised.') still, it's an impressive compilation of fantasy GOT world history, with mostly interesting details and amusing commentary on different stories dovetailing from each other while the dedicated author picks up the pieces, and it's interesting to see the ways the show decides what to keep, alter, and remove, so I'll probably read the sequel (if it's ever finally finished/released.)
adventurous
dark
informative
Loveable characters:
Yes
adventurous
relaxing
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Content Warnings
Minor: Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Suicide, Trafficking