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3.97 AVERAGE
3.97 AVERAGE
A history book for a fictional world is right in my wheelhouse. I ignored it for years, angry about the pace of the main series and the feeling that it would never end. I should not have done that :)
“Dragons are animals of fire and blood” LETS FUCKING GOOOOOO
adventurous
informative
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
dark
informative
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
dark
informative
reflective
tense
slow-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
I absolutely loved delving into the lore of Westeros with this book. Having it be written from the perspective of a maester in the world, working with what information is available to him, offers an immersive look into the scholarly world surrounding the Iron Throne. It can read like a textbook at times, and as usual GRRM likes to dump lists of names on us, making it a bit hard to digest at times. Easily a must-read for anyone interested in learning more about the world of ASOIAF.
Listen, I’ve more or less disliked every book in this series. This one rocks tho. More of this. I want a textbook. Thanks
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
did not expect this literal history textbook to be what finally got me out of my reading slump but what can I say... the targaryens are just that iconic...
honestly I think the writing style made it much easier to get through-- f&b being written like an actual textbook but with dragons is like. the coolest thing ever imo. and I've also really been missing this world since finishing got six months ago-- hotd wasn't nearly as interesting to me and I quit like four eps into season one, and I started trying to read asoiaf but book one follows the show so closely that I keep getting bored... it's just such a massive doorstopper of a book T_T but I was surprisingly invested in this thankfully!!
i think my favorite parts were by far the aegon i through jaehaerys/alyssane era and then certain parts of the dance/aftermath-- everything to do with targaryen family politics and drama was always very interesting to me. jaehaerys & alyssane's abundance of children were honestly the best part of the book, and everything with aerea?? I was glued to the screen, I read this in like 4-5 sittings of 2-3 hours each and I think even that is impressive ngl T_T the viserys i through aegon iii era wasn't nearly as fun imo, including the dance T_T I think I just knew too much of the plot going in and tbh it just got frustrating past a certain point... I didn't pick this up to read convoluted descriptions of battles T_T
speaking of being convoluted why on earth did grrm feel the need to list every goddamn house that went to every goddamn battle omg it got to the point that I would read about two armies attacking and be like 'so who's fighting for who again...?' and thankfully it would always clear itself up in the end but like. bro I cannot keep track of all that T_T I honestly think stretching out the reading process any longer would have made me forget even more, I would argue this is meant to be read in a short period of time because otherwise how on earth are you supposed to remember who rhaenys/rhaella/rhaenyra/rhaena/etc are?? especially when they keep naming their children after each other omfg T_T
but anyway. aegon iii's regency was arguably the most boring part of the whole story... I do not care about lys/myr/pentos or even dorne tbh can we focus guys T_T I think it went a little too far into detail during the dance and especially its aftermath, did we need a detailed description of how every betrayer was punished after every change of allegiances?? (sidenote how does anyone in westeros have hands left??)
I also have beef with where this chose to end... I think it would have made more sense to finish aegon iii's reign and give the dying of the dragons its proper prominence... ending after his regency is an interesting choice because?? I don't think he does anything grand (that I necessarily care about rn at least) during his reign except watch the dragons die T_T and that was the part I was most interested to see ngl, how the dragons died out... it's so sad throughout the whole book as the older/bigger dragons keep dying out, balerion's death in particular definitely marked a turning point as the end of targaryen glory imo, and then all of king's landing killing the dragons in the pit holy shit??
okay lastly a most likely incomplete list of my favorite characters/people I was rooting for and always enjoyed reading about lol: all the velaryons but specifically lord oakenfist(!), baela, & the sea snake, jaehaerys & alyssane, rhaenys i, alyssa, benjicot blackwood, balerion, daella (poor girl), all of the children really, especially that girl at the maiden's ball whose horse was named twinklefoot, etc etc the list goes on... separate list of characters I didn't necessarily(?) like but were extremely engaging: maegor, visenya, rhaena, saerra (again all of jaehaerys & alyssane's children ngl), daemon (ofc), aemond, cregan stark, princess aliandra of dorne, aerea, etc etc again the list goes on... there are so many characters in this book that it's actually insane I'm probably forgetting like ten people per list.
additional list of people I outright hated!!: maegor again, every greyjoy and the entire concept of salt wives fuck you, alicent & otto, the shepherd, unwin peake, androw farman... and after a while aegon ii & aemond. also viserys for being a lazy idiot (and sleeping with his like thirteen year old wife??)
anyway I think that's enough of an essay, clearly I enjoyed this very much lmao, if we ever get book two I will be first in line <33
(very very last sidenote, I need more lore about old valyria omg. the way the aerea sideplot made me sit up and take notice it was so profoundly disturbing but like what did they see omg, I neeeed to know every single thing about it, I will read a ten book series on dragon lord politics istg, the entire concept is so cool?? and then the doom?? yeah sorry i have to know what happened)
honestly I think the writing style made it much easier to get through-- f&b being written like an actual textbook but with dragons is like. the coolest thing ever imo. and I've also really been missing this world since finishing got six months ago-- hotd wasn't nearly as interesting to me and I quit like four eps into season one, and I started trying to read asoiaf but book one follows the show so closely that I keep getting bored... it's just such a massive doorstopper of a book T_T but I was surprisingly invested in this thankfully!!
i think my favorite parts were by far the aegon i through jaehaerys/alyssane era and then certain parts of the dance/aftermath-- everything to do with targaryen family politics and drama was always very interesting to me. jaehaerys & alyssane's abundance of children were honestly the best part of the book, and everything with aerea?? I was glued to the screen, I read this in like 4-5 sittings of 2-3 hours each and I think even that is impressive ngl T_T the viserys i through aegon iii era wasn't nearly as fun imo, including the dance T_T I think I just knew too much of the plot going in and tbh it just got frustrating past a certain point... I didn't pick this up to read convoluted descriptions of battles T_T
speaking of being convoluted why on earth did grrm feel the need to list every goddamn house that went to every goddamn battle omg it got to the point that I would read about two armies attacking and be like 'so who's fighting for who again...?' and thankfully it would always clear itself up in the end but like. bro I cannot keep track of all that T_T I honestly think stretching out the reading process any longer would have made me forget even more, I would argue this is meant to be read in a short period of time because otherwise how on earth are you supposed to remember who rhaenys/rhaella/rhaenyra/rhaena/etc are?? especially when they keep naming their children after each other omfg T_T
but anyway. aegon iii's regency was arguably the most boring part of the whole story... I do not care about lys/myr/pentos or even dorne tbh can we focus guys T_T I think it went a little too far into detail during the dance and especially its aftermath, did we need a detailed description of how every betrayer was punished after every change of allegiances?? (sidenote how does anyone in westeros have hands left??)
I also have beef with where this chose to end... I think it would have made more sense to finish aegon iii's reign and give the dying of the dragons its proper prominence... ending after his regency is an interesting choice because?? I don't think he does anything grand (that I necessarily care about rn at least) during his reign except watch the dragons die T_T and that was the part I was most interested to see ngl, how the dragons died out... it's so sad throughout the whole book as
okay lastly a most likely incomplete list of my favorite characters/people I was rooting for and always enjoyed reading about lol: all the velaryons but specifically lord oakenfist(!), baela, & the sea snake, jaehaerys & alyssane, rhaenys i, alyssa, benjicot blackwood, balerion, daella (poor girl), all of the children really, especially that girl at the maiden's ball whose horse was named twinklefoot, etc etc the list goes on... separate list of characters I didn't necessarily(?) like but were extremely engaging: maegor, visenya, rhaena, saerra (again all of jaehaerys & alyssane's children ngl), daemon (ofc), aemond, cregan stark, princess aliandra of dorne, aerea, etc etc again the list goes on... there are so many characters in this book that it's actually insane I'm probably forgetting like ten people per list.
additional list of people I outright hated!!: maegor again, every greyjoy and the entire concept of salt wives fuck you, alicent & otto, the shepherd, unwin peake, androw farman... and after a while aegon ii & aemond. also viserys for being a lazy idiot (and sleeping with his like thirteen year old wife??)
anyway I think that's enough of an essay, clearly I enjoyed this very much lmao, if we ever get book two I will be first in line <33
(very very last sidenote, I need more lore about old valyria omg. the way the
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
Decent story, but the whole unreliable narrator trope was so tiring