Fire And Blood⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (A Giant Worth Conquering)

Author: George R.R. Martin
Pages: 706
Genre: Fantasy
Series: A Targaryen History #1
Format: Hardcover
ISBN: 9780008307738

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Full Title
”Fire and Blood: A History of the Targaryen Kings from Aegon the Conqueror to Aegon III”

I write this review mainly for the fans of Song of Ice and Fire who are thinking about reading this. If you have not read the main series you might find spoilers here. You’ve been warned.

Story:
This book gives you the events of what happened from some time before Aegon the Conqueror came to Westeros, to the time of Aegon III. Some things are presented as clear facts and other speculations, but it still paints a clear picture of how and why things went down as they did. A lot of questions I had before have now been answered. Like why the Dragon population was so drastically diminished and how/why the Targaryen wedding customs between siblings was even accepted at all.

There’s some golden nuggets to find for fans of Song of Ice and Fire if you pay attention. Like a incident with 3 stolen dragon eggs, that were in the end ignored because they remained unhatched. (Hmm.. Until a little Queen maybe?). I loved to discover all these nuggets, because speculating and puzzling this HUGE world together is my greatest pleasure until Wind of Winter comes out.

Writing:
This book reads as a history book ”written” by a Maester Yande, so it’s his perspective and knowledge we read this book from. I often read the words ”might” or ”according to”, so it’s not all presented as hard facts. And sometimes there are different accounts given from different sources. That leaves room for a little mystery and loads speculations, which I love to occupy my mind with.

But it also becomes a bit tedious and hard to keep track of names and relations when there’s not really any strong personalities to hold on to. But I just took a coffee break and dived right back in when that happened because I had to know what was going on.
Would I have loved novel type books of the Targaryen’s history? Duh!! Of course I would! Do I recent this book for being written as a history book instead? A big fat NO! I’m happy with what’s given to me, as long as it’s a good version of itself. And this book kicks any other history books ass!
(Yes, this is not actually history book. But if most true history books were written with a little bit more flair and would leave room for speculation more people would pay attention.)

Art:
Yes, I shall bring it up. The illustrations in the edition I have are haunting, disturbing, lovely, cool and all are GORGEOUS!! Doug Wheatley have a huge fan in me from now on. I could look at these drawings for ages and not grow bored! Doug Wheatley have a huge fan in me from now on. Here’s one of my favourites.

Conclusion:
There are so many reasons I love this book! The haunting beauty of the story, the agelessness of the subject, the rich language and pretty much everything else too. And it breaks my heart that this book was used as evidence against Oscar Wilde in 1895 and help condemn him.
How do one rate a classical treasure like this? My answer is that one uses the heart and screw the rest! The things I usually focus on and find dealmakers or breakers does not seem to apply here. It stole my heart and fascinated me beyond words. And there’s no way I’m not giving this 5 stars.

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