The Game of Thrones TV series is hurtling towards a conclusion, and George R. R. Martin has still hasn’t given us a release date for the Winds of Winter. Sadly, this leaves those of us who started with the original book series, A Song of Ice and Fire (ASOIAF), pining pathetically in wait.
So I could understand that for many readers, Fire and Blood may not have been the exact thing they were clamouring for. It’s not as if we haven’t been exposed to any of the Targaryen backstories previously; a good third of A World of Ice and Fire was dedicated to their history. And for the more bloody-minded of us, we may have already tracked down the excerpts of this book that have previously been published in two anthologies that Martin had worked with Gardner Dozois on: Dangerous Women and Rogues.
It was these two short stories that had given me some trepidation regarding Fire and Blood. Both novellas provided narratives that were barely touched on in A World of Ice and Fire; and both contained plenty of intrigues to sate the greedy ASOIAF fan – at least for a little while. However, I can’t say that either of them flowed particularly well. In fact, I’d go as far as stating that ‘The Princess and the Queen, or, the Blacks and the Greens’ read terribly. Based on this, I was worried we had another Silmarillion on our hands – which even the most hardcore Lord of the Rings fan would admit, is a bit of a chore to get through.
So I was delighted then to discover that Fire and Blood was almost nothing like I had lead to believe. While I still can’t say I found the first part the most engaging – sorry Aegon the Conquerer-and-Multiple-Sister-Shagger, but your backstory is a little bland – the remainder of the book is thoroughly engaging, especially for something that’s meant to be a chronicle. Sometimes the joy comes from reading about how the seven kingdoms developed and grew, along with their rulers/conquerors; something that gives body to the ASOIAF works as a whole. But other times the enjoyment comes from watching the slow-moving trainwreck unfurling in front of you. The thing with the Targaryans? They are usually the engineers of their own family dramas. And they are messy and soap-opera satisfying.
Even the story of the Blacks and the Greens – the same one presented in Dangerous Women – is much improved in Fire and Blood. It makes me suspect that Martin had to take to that chapter with a chainsaw to par it down to novella size in order to fit it into his friend’s anthology. Not only are we given more information in this version, but the flow of the narrative has been vastly improved as well. It just feels so much more complete.
Also welcome is Martin’s trademark droll humour, which is just as amply applied here as it is in the series proper, despite the fact this is meant to be written as a historical tome. This is aided by the fact that Westrosi historians, in the interest of providing ‘both sides’, are just as prone to citing gossips as they are more severe figures when trying to reconstruct events. The most salacious of these is a court jester who goes by the name of Mushroom, who, while probably prone to confabulation, was none the less in a unique position when it came to observing court affairs.
As for my favourite little tidbits from this book (warning – spoilers ahoy), I’m particularly intrigued by Elissa Farman and the Sun Chaser, who, despite only getting a few lines here, and never being mentioned in A World of Ice and Fire, has set my mad speculation sirens off. The question of female succession that drives nearly a third of the book is also interesting, as it’s probably going to have a great deal of relevance to the main story – Daenerys is looking at an uphill battle.
But the part that had me most engrossed, but also the most horrified, concerns the death of a particular character who seems to have succumbed to a mixture of parasite infection, radiation poisoning and Lovecraftian Horror.
I was rather glad the illustrations on the Kindle version weren’t terribly high quality after that.
So if you’re not A Song of Ice and Fire fan, or a fan who is in desperate need of a new novel, this book is probably not for you. But if you’re one of those people who’s so desperate for anything new from Martin’s series that you’ve been wandering around Reddit reading theories about how Euron is actually Darrio and Tyrion is a time travelling fetus (yes, that kind of madness), jump straight in if you haven’t already.
And if you’re someone in between, don’t be afraid to slowly pick and choose through the chapters at your leisure – most of them hold up fine by themselves.
