#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The thrilling history of the Targaryens comes to life in this
masterly work the inspiration for HBO’s Game of Thrones prequel series House of the Dragon The
thrill of Fire & Blood is the thrill of all Martin’s fantasy work: familiar myths debunked the
whole trope table flipped.”—Entertainment Weekly Centuries before the events of A Game of
Thrones House Targaryen—the only family of dragonlords to survive the Doom of Valyria—took up
residence on Dragonstone. Fire & Blood begins their tale with the legendary Aegon the Conqueror
creator of the Iron Throne and goes on to recount the generations of Targaryens who fought to
hold that iconic seat all the way up to the civil war that nearly tore their dynasty apart.
What really happened during the Dance of the Dragons? Why was it so deadly to visit Valyria
after the Doom? What were Maegor the Cruel’s worst crimes? What was it like in Westeros when
dragons ruled the skies? These are but a few of the questions answered in this essential
chronicle as related by a learned maester of the Citadel. Readers have glimpsed small parts of
this narrative in such volumes as The World of Ice & Fire but now for the first time the
full tapestry of Targaryen history is revealed. With all the scope and grandeur of Gibbon’s The
History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Fire & Blood is the first volume of the
definitive two-part history of the Targaryens giving readers a whole new appreciation for the
dynamic often bloody and always fascinating history of Westeros. Praise for Fire & Blood A
masterpiece of popular historical fiction.”—The Sunday Times The saga is a rich and dark one
full of both the title’s promised elements. . . . It’s hard not to thrill to the descriptions
of dragons engaging in airborne combat or the dilemma of whether defeated rulers should ‘bend
the knee ’ ‘take the black’ and join the Night’s Watch or simply meet an inventive and
horrible end.”—The Guardian
