Fire & Blood

This was an interesting companion piece to Martin's abandoned Song of Ice and Fire series*. It's written from an in-universe perspective, chronicling the history of the earliest Targaryen rulers of Westeros. Written as a history book, it initially feels dry and lifeless, but as you get more engaged with it (and as Martin gets to the more interesting parts of Westerosi history), it becomes sometimes fascinating. On the whole, the Targaryens are a great argument against hereditary monarchy, and it's interesting to see the Westerosi narrator struggle to attempt to justify their failings and present them as beneficial parts of the development of his society.

Due to the scope of the material that Martin's going over, he unfortunately doesn't have space to include all the parts of the history that fans are most interested in - there's no Aegon the Unlikely or Rhaegar Targaryen here, which is a bit of a shame. On the other hand, he does include a comprehensive look at the Dance of Dragons that is epic in scale and rivals anything he's written in this world.

Moartea pasiunii.
Nu am citit niciodată ceva mai plictisitor, asta in conditiile in care eu citeam de plăcere manualele de istorie in avans... Doar că acolo era vorba de niște oameni, in timp ce aici e doar o înșiruire de x fiul lui x nepotul lui x căsătorit cu regina x si Mâna lui era x si prințesa x era fiica sa promisă lui x., timp de 700 de pagini .. unde niciun x nu e mai mult decât un nume. Nici măcar atât, e doar o combinație de litere ce nu reprezintă vreun personaj conturat câtuși de puțin. Cartea nu are deloc poveste, doar cate 1000 de personaje pe fiecare pagină lipsită de orice urmă de ceva interesant. Apropo, am citit mai multe istorii ale Angliei, pe care evident o emuleaza, si toate erau incomparabil mai interesante. Fiind scrise de istorici, nu scriitori.
Și am avut o problemă si cu traducerea, deși e de la 2 din cei mai buni si experimentați traducatori de la noi, pt ca nu se poate hotărî intre limbaj modern (ar fi fost ok) sau arhaizant (si el ar fi fost ok, dar combinația constantă între cuvinte ca “teroare” si “gîlceavă” e foarte deranjanta).

You can't rate this book compared to Martin's other novels because it's not written anything like it. It's written as a history book basically where a Maester is just telling the story of the Targaryen kings that came before ASOIF. I thought that it was pretty fun and interesting although it did start to slog for me towards the end. This book might be better if you just read about one king at a time and then switched to a different book in between.

300 Years Before A Game of Thrones, this tells the Targaryen history from Aegon the Conquerer to Aegon III. It is both the rise of the dragons in Westeros, as well as the beginning of decline.

Honestly I picked this up simply to stop having stuff spoiled for me online after each episode of season two of House of the Dragon. If I can see it online, or google the answer myself, I might as well just read the story.

The writing in this is just simply so superb that it blows my mind. It is so well done, so meticulous, so real. Each page is like a section of a textbook, each sentence like a piece of history. And with that, it has its climactic moments, as well as its tiring ones. The conquering of Westeros, while interesting, was one of the drier parts. I’m not sure if he was just getting started, or if that just wasn’t his focus. I’m not sure how that’ll become its own show, as the burning of Harrenhal, a part that seems so extreme, actually happened in a single night. I did like that he addressed the clash of religion with the Targaryen’s incestuous nature though.

At about 50% into the story, you finally get to the crowning of Viserys and to his children. Aka the start of HotD. At about 25%+ of the book itself, this is the largest story it has to offer. The dance of dragons is long, bloody, and absolutely spilling with betrayal. Truly the amount of times Rhaenyra gets betrayed is mind blowing. And while the show seems to want to drag out every single line of dialogue possible, the book has an awful lot of dragons flying into action and fighting. I won’t say more for spoilers-sake but the fact that the show writers keep changing things for no reason doesn’t make any sense to me. Same with their desire to connect so heavily into GoT itself. The two are not really related whatsoever.

While I really enjoyed this, and I get that he’s going for a ‘time-period based’ fantasy, I just wish he spent more time on the story than on caring so much about girls’ virginities.