A review by whatharryread
Fire & Blood by George R.R. Martin

4.0

โ€œ๐‘ป๐’‰๐’†๐’ ๐’•๐’‰๐’† ๐’”๐’•๐’๐’“๐’Ž ๐’ƒ๐’“๐’๐’Œ๐’†, ๐’‚๐’๐’… ๐’•๐’‰๐’† ๐’…๐’“๐’‚๐’ˆ๐’๐’๐’” ๐’…๐’‚๐’๐’„๐’†๐’…โ€

Set centuries before Game of Thrones, โ€˜Fire and Bloodโ€™ is a pseudo-scholarly account detailing the history and ascendancy of the Targaryenโ€™s in Westeros, from Aegon the Conquerer up until the infamous civil war known as the Dance of the Dragons, which nearly tore their dynasty apart.

As a disclaimer, I LOVE โ€˜Game of Thronesโ€™. However, on learning that this book was written in the context of a โ€˜history bookโ€™ rather than an actual story, I wasnโ€™t that enthused to buy it. But after watching House of the Dragon and refusing to wait 2 years to find out what happens, I gave it a go and Iโ€™m so glad I did.

Despite being written as a history book, which I could easily see becoming quite dry, it was the exact opposite. It was completely engaging, and a masterpiece of how to build a fantasy world. Some of the characters in these histories have become my favourites in the GoT universe too, and unequivocally supports some of the references about the Targaryenโ€™s in GoT- thereโ€™s a famous quote saying โ€œ๐˜’๐˜ช๐˜ฏ๐˜จ ๐˜‘๐˜ข๐˜ฆ๐˜ฉ๐˜ข๐˜ฆ๐˜ณ๐˜บ๐˜ด ๐˜ฐ๐˜ฏ๐˜ค๐˜ฆ ๐˜ต๐˜ฐ๐˜ญ๐˜ฅ ๐˜ฎ๐˜ฆ ๐˜ต๐˜ฉ๐˜ข๐˜ต ๐˜ฎ๐˜ข๐˜ฅ๐˜ฏ๐˜ฆ๐˜ด๐˜ด ๐˜ข๐˜ฏ๐˜ฅ ๐˜จ๐˜ณ๐˜ฆ๐˜ข๐˜ต๐˜ฏ๐˜ฆ๐˜ด๐˜ด ๐˜ข๐˜ณ๐˜ฆ ๐˜ต๐˜ธ๐˜ฐ ๐˜ด๐˜ช๐˜ฅ๐˜ฆ๐˜ด ๐˜ฐ๐˜ง ๐˜ต๐˜ฉ๐˜ฆ ๐˜ด๐˜ข๐˜ฎ๐˜ฆ ๐˜ค๐˜ฐ๐˜ช๐˜ฏ. ๐˜Œ๐˜ท๐˜ฆ๐˜ณ๐˜บ ๐˜ต๐˜ช๐˜ฎ๐˜ฆ ๐˜ข ๐˜ฏ๐˜ฆ๐˜ธ ๐˜›๐˜ข๐˜ณ๐˜จ๐˜ข๐˜ณ๐˜บ๐˜ฆ๐˜ฏ ๐˜ช๐˜ด ๐˜ฃ๐˜ฐ๐˜ณ๐˜ฏ, ๐˜ฉ๐˜ฆ ๐˜ด๐˜ข๐˜ช๐˜ฅ, ๐˜ต๐˜ฉ๐˜ฆ ๐˜จ๐˜ฐ๐˜ฅ๐˜ด ๐˜ต๐˜ฐ๐˜ด๐˜ด ๐˜ต๐˜ฉ๐˜ฆ ๐˜ค๐˜ฐ๐˜ช๐˜ฏ ๐˜ช๐˜ฏ ๐˜ต๐˜ฉ๐˜ฆ ๐˜ข๐˜ช๐˜ณ ๐˜ข๐˜ฏ๐˜ฅ ๐˜ต๐˜ฉ๐˜ฆ ๐˜ธ๐˜ฐ๐˜ณ๐˜ญ๐˜ฅ ๐˜ฉ๐˜ฐ๐˜ญ๐˜ฅ๐˜ด ๐˜ช๐˜ต๐˜ด ๐˜ฃ๐˜ณ๐˜ฆ๐˜ข๐˜ต๐˜ฉ ๐˜ต๐˜ฐ ๐˜ด๐˜ฆ๐˜ฆ ๐˜ฉ๐˜ฐ๐˜ธ ๐˜ช๐˜ต ๐˜ธ๐˜ช๐˜ญ๐˜ญ ๐˜ญ๐˜ข๐˜ฏ๐˜ฅ.โ€ George RR Martin has provided incredible, fully fleshed drama which lives up to that statement, with a breadth of characters that keeps the coin flipping and provides some fantastic tales. The writing is captivating and at times poetic, and generally didnโ€™t feel like a 700 page book. 

The only thing holding it back from a 5โญ๏ธ rating was the fact it was probably a few chapters too long- I was completely invested in the story up until the end of the Dance of the Dragons, but the last few chapters just didnโ€™t interest me as much in terms of the story, and seemed a little tacked on at the end.