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isaakatreviews 's review for:
Fire & Blood
by George R.R. Martin
adventurous
dark
informative
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I love 'House of the Dragon', so I was very excited to check out 'Fire and Blood', yes, to see the history of Westeros, but more than anything, find out how the rest of that story goes, because I'm too impatient to wait for the next seasons. Beyond now being even more excited for what comes next, I loved this book in its own right.
What I will say straight away is my biggest issue is that it often feels quite cold and distant. By nature of what the book is, it couldn't have been different, but it did mean I struggled to care or connect with the story at points. All the malarky with the Free Cities honestly just bored me, as did some of the Regency stuff.
As for the stuff I did like... there was a LOT. I absolutely loved reading about stuff like Aegon's Conquest, and the whole reign of Jaeherys and Alysanne (why did this book having me shipping siblings!?), but as I expected, my favourite part was the Dance of Dragons, particularly everything beyond the scope of the show thus far, as I already had an emotional investment in the characters (which alleviated my main issue). There were loads of moments that I found absolutely thrilling to read about, my favourites beingthe Battle of the Gullet, both Tumbleton battles (particularly the betrayal of Hugh and Ulf, which I did NOT see coming - those snakes!), "Loyal", the Hour of the Wolf (Cregan is a badass!), and above all, the battle above the God's Eye. Daemon is my favourite show character, and I despise Aemomd - I'm Team Black as it stands currently, although I definitely like Rhaenyra less in the book - so I hoped for a cool death for both, and damn, this delivered. Can't wait to see that in the show.
One other thing I loved was Mushroom. All the testimonies are cool, but his were obviously the best. He cracked me up on numerous occasions with the sheer absurdity of his stories!!
'Fire and Blood' is definitely not for everyone. The distant, impersonal writing-style will not be engaging for some people, and it's incredibly complex with hundreds of characters to follow, all the dragons and shifting allegiances... it's overwhelming. Nonetheless, I thought it was pretty brilliant despite some flaws. Hoping that the sequel gets released at some point; it gets ever unlikelier by the day, but I shall live in hope.
What I will say straight away is my biggest issue is that it often feels quite cold and distant. By nature of what the book is, it couldn't have been different, but it did mean I struggled to care or connect with the story at points. All the malarky with the Free Cities honestly just bored me, as did some of the Regency stuff.
As for the stuff I did like... there was a LOT. I absolutely loved reading about stuff like Aegon's Conquest, and the whole reign of Jaeherys and Alysanne (why did this book having me shipping siblings!?), but as I expected, my favourite part was the Dance of Dragons, particularly everything beyond the scope of the show thus far, as I already had an emotional investment in the characters (which alleviated my main issue). There were loads of moments that I found absolutely thrilling to read about, my favourites being
One other thing I loved was Mushroom. All the testimonies are cool, but his were obviously the best. He cracked me up on numerous occasions with the sheer absurdity of his stories!!
'Fire and Blood' is definitely not for everyone. The distant, impersonal writing-style will not be engaging for some people, and it's incredibly complex with hundreds of characters to follow, all the dragons and shifting allegiances... it's overwhelming. Nonetheless, I thought it was pretty brilliant despite some flaws. Hoping that the sequel gets released at some point; it gets ever unlikelier by the day, but I shall live in hope.