‘Fire & Blood’ fuels need for ‘Winter’
George R.R. Martin’s epic is aimed at completists
The first thing to know about the new George R.R. Martin book “Fire and Blood: 300 Years Before A Game of Thrones” (Bantam, 706 pp., ★★★☆) is that it’s not the George R.R. Martin book we all want.
No, that would be the ceaselessly delayed “The Winds of Winter,” the sixth novel in his world-conquering series “A Song of Ice and Fire,” basis for the HBO hit show “Game of Thrones.” (There’s a riddle: “What’s always coming and never arrives?” The answer is “tomorrow,” but a reply of “The Winds of Winter” should receive partial credit from now on.)
Instead, “Fire and Blood” is a large tranche of back story, a charming if intimidatingly dense pre-history to ASOIAF (as fans abbreviate “A Song of Ice and Fire”).
It concerns the rise and reign of the Targaryen family, toppled not long before the first of Martin’s books. You probably already know one of that family’s members: Daenerys Stormborn, queen in exile, sometimes called Khaleesi. The one with the dragons.
Here are five takeaways from this chronicle of her ancestors:
1. The parts that are good are … good!
For those of us with lingering doubts that “The Winds of Winter” will ever appear, “Fire and Blood” is reassuring. It shows that Martin is still a powerfully gifted, inventive writer, albeit one bedeviled by an instinct toward overabundant world-building.
“Fire and Blood” is something between a short story collection and an encyclopedia. In its former mode, it has hundreds of fascinating anecdotes, from the cruel fate of a jester named Tom Turnip to a dragon that, tellingly, refuses to venture beyond the Wall.
2. But it’s not for new readers.
Did that last sentence make sense to you? Then there’s a fair chance you’ll be interested in “Fire and Blood.”
But for a reader who isn’t acquainted with ASOIAF, it’s truly difficult to conceive of a worse introduction than this book. There’s being dropped in the deep end of a pool, and then there’s being dropped in the center of the Pacific Ocean.
Within just his opening pages, Martin assumes the reader’s familiarity with dozens of points of geography, the basic character of places such as Casterly Rock and Winterfell, the desert stubbornness of Dorne, and much, much more.
If you don’t know what it means to take the black, turn back; here be dragons (that you have to know a lot of previous information to care about).
3. You might see these characters on TV soon.
Part of the reason that “The Winds of Winter” is so oft-deferred? Martin and HBO may be developing as many as five prequel series based on ASOIAF. The one closest to screens is “The Long Night,” set to star Naomi Watts, which the network promises will reveal “the horrifying secrets of Westeros” as well as the “Starks of legend.” (Bran the Builder, maybe?) It’s hard not to think that further series could draw on the rich material that makes up “Fire and Blood.”
4. Fantasy novelists tend to do this kind of thing.
“Fire and Blood” is a lavish object, with charts, family trees, and stunning illustrations by comic book artist Doug Wheatley. (One suspects that some readers may end up spend more time daydreaming over these pictures than tracking the byzantine fates of Rego Draz or Ser Agramore Cobb.)
In this sense it fits into a venerable tradition, from J.R.R. Tolkien in his “Silmarillion” to Diana Gabaldon in her companion to the Outlander series, serving hardcore completists – and maybe the authors themselves – more than casual readers.
5. The Internet thinks Martin is slipping Muppets into ASOIAF.
As a Reddit thread initially pointed out, and several news stories have picked up, “Fire and Blood” features a character named Kermit Tully, Lord of Riverrun, with a brother named Oscar who’s – wait for it! – grouchy. Characters in the same family tree have been named Grover and Elmo…
Coincidence? We have time to contemplate that, along with “Fire and Blood” – since, alas, nobody seems to know when “Winter” is coming.