WiC Reads: Fire & Blood

We’re reading every chapter of George R.R. Martin’s Fire & Blood, and reviewing them as we go. Join us for a trip into Westeros’ past!

Critics have not exactly been kind to Fire & Blood, George R. R. Martinʼs history of the Targaryen dynasty in Westeros. Reviews of the book, which came out on November 20, have been mixed at best. However, a lot of the criticism boils down to people upset that Fire & Blood isn’t a novel in the mold of A Song of Ice and Fire, specifically The Winds of Winter. I want to invite you on a journey to discover the treasures hidden within this volume, and we can make up our own minds about whether Martin buried them a bit too deep under the surface of stories we have partly heard.

So, what is Fire & Blood and how does it relate to A Song of Ice and Fire, the Dunk & Egg novellas and The World of Ice and Fire? Much like the latter, Fire & Blood is a fictional historiographic work, a history book “written” by in-universe character Archmaester Gyldayn of the Citadel. Gyldayn is also the author of The Princess and the Queen, The Rogue Prince and The Sons of the Dragon, and arguably the most important source for Maester Yandelʼs The World of Ice and Fire. Gyldayn as a character does not only connect Fire & Blood to the other historiographic works, but also to the Dunk & Egg novellas, eventually.

While much of The World of Ice and Fire is written by authors Linda Antonsson and Elio Garcia, Fire & Blood is all Martin, which in some ways makes it a more authoritative, more detailed version of parts of World. If you want another way to think of it, let’s say this is Martin’s take on The Silmarillion, J.R.R. Tolkien’s exploration of the mythic history behind his Lord of the Rings series. (Or at least half of it — there’s still another volume of Fire & Blood to come.) The Silmarillion is not the Lord of the Rings and Fire & Blood is not A Song of Ice and Fire, but both are still worth reading. Let’s find out if this book is worthy of the comparison!

1) Aegon’s Conquest

We start with Aegon Targaryen, the head of the powerful Targaryen family, deciding to invade Westeros and take it as his own. It’s a story even casual Game of Thrones fans have probably heard in sketches. In this opening chapter, we get descriptions of many the major events we’ve read about in A Song of Ice and Fire, including the burning of Harrenhal, the Last Storm and the Field of Fire, as well as the peaceful submission of the North and the Vale. It’s the details and all the little things that happen around and in between those major points that really caught my interest.

For one thing, “Aegon’s Conquest” actually starts before Aegon’s Conquest. We are told that Aenar Targaryen moved from the Freehold of Valyria to Dragonstone with everything he had 14 years before the Doom decimated the Valyrian civilization. We get the tiniest of glimpses into the politics of old Valyria before it fell, and learn that the Targaryens were by no means the most important of the dragonlords. While theirs seems like the most special of bloodlines in A Song of Ice and Fire, they are suddenly underdogs and even outsiders once they move to Dragonstone.

Throughout the chapter, Martin emphasizes the importance of Oltown before the Conquest. At this point in time, before the continent was unified, Oldtown was the closest thing Westeros had to a capital city. More than even the kings Aegon would dethrone, Oldtown stands to lose everything when Aegon, his sisters-wives and his dragons finally set foot on Westerosi soil, no longer as guests, but as conquerors.

Oldtown is different in this period. The maesters of the Citadel are around, but not yet ubiquitous. Instead, Oldtown is still very much the center of the Faith. Then there’s House Hightower, which does not rule the Reach (that would be House Gardener) but which is nevertheless very powerful. This Oldtown trinity looms large in the first chapter and it will be interesting to follow its development.

A sidenote: Harren the Black seems like an idiot. Why did he not hide in those vaults under Harrenhal from Aegon’s dragonfire? It’s also never made clear why Aegon was so set on taking the Riverlands from him. Aegon seemed to have been prepared to leave the power structure of Westeros alone so long as everybody recognized him as their overlord. Harren didn’t. More fool him.

2) Reign of the Dragon – The Wars of King Aegon I

Aegon fights a couple of wars in this one, which you probably could have guess. He deposes the self-proclaimed Queen Marla of the Sisters and ends a kind of civil war on the Iron Islands.

After that, the real war begins: the First Dornish War. This is the first time Aegon doesn’t get his way. Instead, Rhaenys and her dragon Meraxes perish at the Hellholt, after Meraxes is pieced through the eye with a scorpion bolt. Aegon’s war of conquest turns into a war of revenge on behalf of his more beloved sister-wife, but he gives up the fight after Princess Deria Martell, who visits Aegon on a mission of peace, hands him a letter from her father Nymor. The contents of the letter remain a mystery and provide fodder for new theories.

A sidenote: The Silent Sisters are one of the most neglected mysteries of Westeros. How does their order operate? How do you become one? Is there a hierarchy? Are there more of them who had their tongues removed, like Marla Sunderland?

3) Three Heads Had the Dragon – Governance Under King Aegon I

The proverbial three-headedness of the dragon still haunts A Song of Ice and Fire readers by the time we get to A Game of Thrones. At this point in history, the three heads are, obviously, Aegon and his sister-wives, Visenya and Rhaenys, although Rhaenys is far less important than the other two in this chapter. It is not the only connection we get here to ASOIAF. There is also a reference to Dragonstone as a place whose “salt air always smelled of smoke and brimstone.” I can’t help but read that and think of the phrase “born amidst salt and smoke,” and I am sure many will have made the same connection.

In this chapter, we see Aegon properly change Westeros, going beyond turning some kings into lords and deposing others. The most important of those changes is probably the King’s Peace that puts an end to lords and knights raising arms against each other. Quarrels are now to be brought before the king or the respective liege lord.

Again, both the Faith and the Citadel play important roles. Aegon makes extensive use of the maesters and their knowledge, most likely because there are a lack of alternatives, and creates the office of Grand Maester, which looks weak in ASOIAF, but is somewhat different here, mask and all. He also exempts all “holy men and women of the Faith, and all their lands and possessions” from taxation. Both of these Oldtown-based institutions are clearly gaining a lot from Aegon’s Conquest.

We are also warned of a darker side to Visenya that we will undoubtedly see more of very soon. For now, she creates the Kingsguard and models their vows after those of the Night’s Watch, which shows a deep knowledge of the newly created realm and its more remote areas, and probably an interest in and knowledge of the importance of the Night’s Watch and their mission.

4) The Sons of the Dragon

This chapter is — mostly word for word — the same story many of us read when it was included in the anthology The Book of Swords. If you haven’t read that one yet, don’t bother after reading this chapter.

Two important aspects from earlier chapters become arguably even more important here: Visenya’s influence and the maneuvering of the different Oldtown-based factions. While Visenya and the Oldtown-based factions used to be stabilizing factors for Targaryen rule, at least superficially, that stops now, although to what degree might be up for debate. In the end, Visenya and her son Maegor are dead and the Faith dealt a massive blow, losing its influence and its military power. I can’t seem to shake the feeling that the Faith and Visenya both overplayed their hands. First the Faith turns more and more against Aenys I Targaryen, and then, partly as a result, Visenya undermines her stepson’s rule. Trying to end Targaryen rule by force, as the Faith tries to do, is as doomed an undertaking as putting Visenya’s son Maegor on the throne.

In between all that, we get the story of yet another Aegon Targaryen, son of Aenys I Targaryen, and his older sister and wife, Rhaena Targaryen, who are the proper (tragic) heroes of this chapter. Rhaena makes it out alive. I’m curious what the next chapter has in store for us, what with Rhaena’s brother Jaehaerys on the throne instead of her daughter Aerea.

5) Prince into King – The Ascension of Jaehaerys I

Having claimed the throne and finding himself without any brothers, sisters, nephews, nieces, uncles or aunts trying to dispute his claim, the yet uncrowned King Jaehaerys I, known to history as Jaehaerys the Conciliator, has to deal with what his uncle (Maegor the Cruel), the Faith, and to as lesser degree his father (Prince Aenys Targaryen) turned the realm into.

Jaehaerys’s decisions are somewhat puzzling. While Gyldayn, our fictional author, is kind to him, it’s questionable that he would pardon all of the lords and knights who fought for the Faith without any kind of trial. He wants “no trials, nor torture, and no executions”. He doesn’t want to be like his uncle, which is fair enough. Later, though, he does execute people for their part in Maegor’s reign of terror. At one point, he has the headsman, gaolers and confessors summarily executed for helping Tyanna of the Tower torture Prince Viserys, and sentences Maladon Moore of the Kingsguard to death, mostly for delivering Tyanna to Maegor and watching Maegor kill her. A lot of these decisions just don’t seem to add up. It is a dubious brand of justice that this young king who would become the Old King is serving.

Jaehaerys also wants to fight a Kingsguard in a trial by combat, but his mother is having none of it, obviously. Another man takes his place in the duel, and wins. Jaehaerys then names that man the new Lord Commander of his Kingsguard. That’s another questionable decision in my book.

At the end of this chapter, we get another mystery. Septon Moon, half High Septon, half half-literate sex cult leader, is the last proper threat standing in Jaehaerys’ way. He gets a nightly lady visitor and ends up not only poisened but with a slit throat. Gyldayn wonders if it could have been a Faceless Man who did the deed, but discards the idea rather quickly, and I agree. Something is off there. It sounds like whoever slit the septon’s throat did not know he was already poisoned, but nobody else seems to have been in the tent with the two of them. I kind of get Renly déjà vu here, but that’s probably too far-fetched.

6) The Year of the Three Brides – 49AC

This is a strange chapter title. The three brides at issue are Rhaena, Alyssa, and Alysanne Targaryen. But when I hear the title, what comes to mind are Maegor’s Black Brides.

Of the three marriages in this chapter, Rhaena’s and Alyssa’s are the more interesting, although the wedding between Jaehaerys and Alysanne is unique. They decide (on Alysanne’s initiative, which could very well become a theme from here on out) to sneak away and marry on Dragonstone. This foils the plans of our second couple: Dowager Queen Alyssa — Jaehaerys’ mother — and Rogar Baratheon, the Hand of the King. The both of them had been planning to marry Jaehaerys and Alysanne into other Houses for political gain.

Rogar comes off as a precursor to King Robert here, spending money like it’s going out of fashion and deflowering a bunch of Lyseni maidens turned prostitutes. He also looks like the big loser of the chapter. He already had to swallow a bitter pill before when Rhaena Targaryen decided to marry Androw Farman in relative secrecy, determined to never again be a pawn in the game of thrones. In the end, when Rogar’s men face Jaehaerys’s Kingsguard in a standoff, the Lord of Storm’s End looks weaker than he ever has. While Jaehaerys is not yet a grown man in the eyes of the realm, his marriage being unconsummated and unknown to the public, it seems like Rogar Baratheon’s influence is past its prime.

A sidenote: Septon Barth is mentioned several times in this chapter and it seems like we will hear more of him pretty soon.

7) A Surfeit of Rulers

This is a strange chapter. Unlike previous chapters, a good chunk of “A Surfeit of Rulers” is concerned with hearsay and things that might have happened, or not, or maybe they did happen but with a different set of people involved.

Part of this chapter concerns Rhaena Targaryen, who finally leaves her refuge, Fair Isle, after the death of the lord who had been harboring her. The brother of her young husband takes up the lordship and immediately wants her gone. She leaves and takes her entourage, including her friend, sister-in-law and possible lover Elissa Farman, along with friends Alayne Royce and Samantha Stokeworth. This is despite the wishes of the new Lord Franklyn Farman, who tries to stop them by force. Nevertheless, Rhaena and her group takes their leave and arrive at Casterly Rock, only to find that Lord Lannister has his own plans for her and her dragon eggs.

We also get information about Jaehaerys and Alysanne on Dragonstone, although this section is even more dominated by hearsay. Queen Alyssa and Rogar Baratheon try to manipulate the newlyweds from afar in an attempt to undo their marriage. Their approach is – supposedly – twofold: Alyssa dispatches pious folk while Rogar sends Coryanne Wylde, a girl of dubious repute, to seduce Jaehaerys.

The last part of this chapter is focused on Rogar Baratheon and Queen Alyssa. Rogar becomes a full-fledged traitor and Alyssa finally opposes him instead of helping him depose her own son, which basically ends their relationship. Rogar tries to get a hold of and crown Aerea Targaryen, but fails.

More than in any chapter so far, GRRM paints the members of the Great Houses of Westeros in a way that’s familiar to us. Baratheons are very much Baratheons, Lannisters are very much Lannisters, and so on. I wonder if our author is taking this a bit far, but these dynasties do last for hundreds of years, so we should expect some continuity.

8) A Time of Testing – The Realm Remade

While our author calls this chapter A Time of Testing, that’s something of an overstatement. This chapter is not so much about Jaehaerys and his young queen facing challenges and dangers that immediately threaten their rule as it is about taking a lot of reasonable decisions to avoid potential future crises.

Jaehaerys gives Dragonstone to Rhaena and her daughter, avoiding what Gyldayn calls “the thorniest problem yet,” although how what exactly is thorny about it is hard to tell. He then comes up with a cleverer new tax system, although it’s not without its flaws, particular as regards taxing building or expanding castles. For a ruler, the new tax system is useful in times of peace, but problematic when outside threats come knocking at the door to the realm. Jaehaerys also has his new foreign master of coin play the different banks of the world against each other. And before all that, he reorganizes his court and makes Rogar Baratheon an ally again.

Then there’s Septon Barth, who plays a crucial role in selling the smallfolk on the idea of Targaryens marrying each other. According to the “Doctrine of Exceptionalism,” which was probably crafted more by Barth than Jaehaerys, Targaryens are fundamentally different from normal people, as evidenced by their ability to bond with dragons. You have to wonder if some of the people behind this doctrine, particularly Barth and maybe Alysanne, know more about how dragon bonding works than they let on.

In the end, there is another wedding, and a child for the young royal couple. But the prospect of tougher challenges to come looms.

9) Birth, Death, and Betrayal under King Jaehaerys I

This time around, the title does not exaggerate. After giving Rogar Baratheon the heir he had always wanted, Queen Alyssa is pregnant again. But the birth does not go well, and the only way to save her daughter is to sacrifice the life of the mother.

Her daughter Rhaena reaches Storm’s End too late to reconcile with her mother. Later, all the women around her are murdered by Rhaena’s husband Androw Farman, who uses poison. While Rhaena is the clear victim here, she does not come across as particularly sympathetic. She is still bitter about her daughter Aerea not being recognized as queen or at least as a legitimate heir, though it seems clear the girl is not cut out to be either. She reminds me of Arya Stark: willful, spirited and interesting. Later, she proves her ability when she escapes from her mother’s supervision on Balerion the Black Dread.

Between all that we get a legless High Septon and another dead Aegon, this one a child of Jaehaerys and Alysanne. Alysanne is convinced that an attempt at her life during her pregnancy is the reason for the baby’s death. We are reminded how strong the anti-Targaryen faction within the Faith still is.

We also get the birth Corlys Velaryon and another mention of three dragon eggs; here, they’re stolen by Elissa Farman and taken to Braavos. Have Game of Thrones fans seen these eggs before?

There is also a character called Jonquil Darke. I assume we will see more of her. She is Alysanne’s sworn shield and has a superhero-style name that probably won’t be wasted.

10) Jaehaerys and Alysanne – Their Triumphs and Tragedies

The curious chapter titles continue. From where I was sitting, Jaehaerys or Alysanne were the least involving part of what is easily the most exciting chapter so far.

Much more interesting than the realm quietly prospering is the tragic return of Aerea Targaryen, once heir to the Iron Throne. Aerea returns on the back of Balerion the Black Dread, and Martin makes it pretty clear where she must have been all this while: the ruins of the Freehold of Valyria. We get incomplete information about what happened to her on her journey, possibly so the book doesn’t spoil things yet to be revealed in A Song of Ice and Fire. Aerea dies without fully coming to her senses and only a handful of people learn the full extent of her condition, including Grand Maester Benifer and Septon Barth, soon to be the new Hand of the King.

Aerea seems to be burning from the inside. There are worm-like creatures living beneath her skin. Some of these creatures may have had human parts, like faces and hands. We get pieces of this puzzle and can guess at how they might fit together, but much is left intentionally blank. It seems like both dragons and dragonlords may have been the results of magical experiments like those that created the monsters eating Aerea from the inside.

And then there is Alys Westhill, formerly known as Elissa Farman. She embarks on a trip to find a new continent west of Westeros. This also has implications for A Song of Ice and Fire, particularly for those that believe Daenaerys might try to sail past Asshai and finally reach Westeros from the west. Elissa Farman is like an inverse Christopher Columbus here. Columbus sailed west to reach the east he knew, and found a new continent instead. Elissa Farman sails west to find a new continent, and could find the east we already know.

But that’s just speculation. I doubt we’ll hear from Alys again in this book.

11) The Long Reign – Jaehaerys and Alysanne: Policy, Progeny, and Pain

Okay, so this chapter immediately proves me wrong: We do hear of Elissa Farman again, albeit briefly. She finds three islands, again not unlike Columbus, and decides to sail further west while Eustace Hightower and his Lady Meredith turn back after the Norman Hightower’s Autumn Moon has sunk.

After that, we get the bulk of Jaehaerys and Alysanne’s life together and the stories of their children, most of whom are already dead when their mother dies in 100 AC. Let my try and untangle this family story for you guys. Princess Daenerys is the first royal child to die in this chapter, carried away be the Shivers, an epidemic apparently transmitted by rats that kills many people. The only good thing about this is that it settles the question of succession for Jaehaerys and Alysanne. Prince Aemon now becomes the Prince of Dragonstone.

The next of Alysanne and Jaehaerys’ children to die is Prince Gaemon, their fifth son, “not quite three moons old.” Their sixth son, Valerion, fares only a little better, not quite reaching his first name day. Daella Targaryen, their fourth daughter dies giving birth.

The next death felt much sadder than the rest: Alyssa Targaryen, mother of the next king, Viserys I, and wife of Baelon Targaryen dies some time after giving birth to another Aegon who would not see his first name day. She is considered not as beautiful as many of her sisters because of her long face, mismatched eyes and later her broken nose that healed crooked. (Why are long faces considered nearly indiscriminately not beautiful in this world?) Besides that, she is known for her love of carnal pleasures, something she shares in common with a certain younger sister I’ll mention below. Only in the case of Alyssa, she only enjoys these pleasures with her husband and brother Baelon, the Spring Prince.

Viserra Targaryen, sixth daughter and 10th child of Jaehaerys and Alysanne, is the next to go. Refusing to marry Theomore Manderly, Viserra tries to woo her widowed brother Baelon, who refuses to be seduced by a drunk teenager. Defying her mother, Viserra sneaks away into the city to find some fun and dies in a riding accident.

The last two deaths (not counting that of Alysanne herself and Balerion, who is briefly ridden by young Viserys) are those of the Prince of Dragonstone, Aemon Targaryen — killed by a crossbow bolt meant for Lord Cameron of Tarth while battling Myrish invaders — and of (by now Septa) Maegelle, from greyscale. This leaves House Targaryen with a properly old “Old King” Jaehaerys I, his third son Baelon, the Spring Prince, a widower for 15 years, his exiled sister Saera, a prostitute in Volantis, Baelon’s and Alyssa’s sons Viserys and Daemon and Aemon Targaryen and Jocelyn Baratheon’s daughter Rhaenys, now married to the Sea Snake Corlys Velaryon.

We can already feel the Dance of the Dragons coming. The seeds and sown, and they are strong.

12) Heirs of the Dragon – A Question of Succession

This chapter can only be described as the setup for the Dance of the Dragons, the Targaryen civil war. We already had a pretty exhaustive account of the Dance in The Princess and the Queen, even if it is full of contradicting pieces of testimony. I won’t rehash the whole of the Dance of the Dragons in all its complexity here, but rather focus on the new things we learn and the new perspectives we gain.

For me, one thing that stands out is how Daemon Targaryen suddenly seems less likable than he did before, or rather than he will seem in the very near future, if we look at that chapter in isolation. Looking at The Princess and the Queen, Daemon seems like the (occasionally) selfless defender of Rhaenyra’s claim to the Iron Throne, a position most readers seem to support, not so much because of Rhaenyra’s claim but because the greens come across as awful, egoistical, manipulative human beings. But learning how Daemon ended up where he is at the beginning of the Dance, he seems like an awful, egotistical, manipulative human being himself, even if we don’t believe some of the things Mushrooms says about him.

Mushroom, a dwarf and King Viserys’ fool, is the second person I kind of changed my mind about reading this chapter. To me, Mushroom – or rather the version of his work that Gyldayn knows – seemed like the most reliable source we have on the Dance, at least in terms of the broad strokes. However, I find it utterly unconvincing when he claims Rhaenyra went to Criston Cole to seduce him. Not that I would put that past her, it just fails to explain the guy’s hate towards Rhaenyra afterwards.

Then there’s the role House Hightower plays in all this. House Hightower has been a focal point throughout the whole book, I feel. Never before did we get the whole picture like we do here. Over the first 129 years since Aegon’s Conquest, House Hightower has tried to defend and even improve its special position within Westeros’ feudal system. They started out as all but equals to the kings of the different kingdoms only to be forced to submit to House Targaryen. Instead of covertly fighting the Targaryen, they decided to marry them and raise themselves above anyone but the Targaryens. We all know how this is going to end, and it’s surprising that House Hightower did not suffer more in the aftermath.

13) The Dying of the Dragons – The Blacks and the Greens

The Dance of the Dragons finally begins, and I am indeed seeing it with different eyes. For one thing, we have new context that explains why Viserys choosing Rhaenyra as his successor could be considered unwise, and certainly against (recent) tradition. It’s also now clear how the greens, the faction that formed around Queen Alicent Hightower and her father Otto, the Hand of the King, are traitors, plain and simple. You have to wonder why Rhaenyra left the king in the capital surrounded by such people and why Viserys would send his heir away knowing his health was deteriorating. The greens are unable to make Viserys proclaim Aegon his heir even when the court was dominated by the greens. That speaks volumes about the king’s determination.

What makes all this even worse — and it’s already pretty bad –- is that, if records are to be believed, Aegon the Elder only decided to lay claim to the Iron Throne after the other greens convinced him that Rhaenyra would kill him and his family, an assertion that doesn’t seem founded in reality.

An interesting parallel bubbles to the surface here. The father-son relationship between Viserys and Aegon reminds me of the one between Robert and Joffrey Baratheon. Viserys comes across as a hedonistic, lazy kind of king prone to occasional bursts of anger and oblivious to the danger he and his realm are in, much like Robert. Aegon is spoilt and arrogant, having been raised by an overambitious, hateful mother. It’s a dangerous mixture here just as it was in the Song of Ice and Fire novels.

14) The Dying of the Dragons – A Son for a Son

This is the story of how two cruel men made sure peace was no longer an option. Without the rash actions of Aemon Targaryen, brother of Aegon II (the Elder) of the greens and Daemon Targaryen of the blacks, there might have been a quicker and less devastating end to the Dance. When Aemond is provoked by the daughter of the Lord of Storm’s End to kill Jacaerys Velaryon, second son of Rhaenyra Targaryen, it is already too late for a peaceful solution. But Daemon’s revenge easily surpasses that act in cruelty; he sends assassins, fording Queen Helaena to choose which of her two to sons to kill and even going so far as to kill Jaehaerys in place of the younger Maelor. Not only will there be no quick peace now, but there can be none while those responsible are still alive.

We also get some completely new information in this chapter, which I did not suspect since these chapters have mostly related things we already learned in The Princess and the Queen, for the most part word for word. What we get is basically a new twist to the Pact of Ice and Fire, which had previously been cut from The World of Ice and Fire .

According to Mushroom, Prince Jacaerys Velaryon, Rhaenyra’s heir, did not only sign the ominously named Pact of Ice and Fire with the young Lord Cregan Stark of Winterfell, but also married his bastard sister Sara Snow in the godswood of Winterfell. Gyldayn rightfully states that it is “unlikely that he would break [his betrothal to his cousin Baela] to protect the uncertain virtue if some half-wild, unwashed northern bastard.” Gyldayn goes as far as to doubt Septon Barth concerning the gender of dragons to prove his point about Vermax laying eggs at Winterfell and make Mushroom’s account of Jacaerys’ trip to Winterfell seem more dubious.

I have said it before and I will say it again: There is no way something called the Pact of Ice and Fire is just a footnote of history. There is certainly more to this, but this is probably not the place to elaborate.

15) The Dying of the Dragons – The Red Dragon and the Gold

This is a curious title. There are three or four dragons it could refer to. I actually thought the red dragon in the title would be Caraxes, but it turns out it’s probably Meleys, who dies along with her rider, the Queen Who Never Was, Rhaenys Targaryen, when the pair is surprised by Aegon the Elder and his brother Aemond on their dragons at Storm’s End, making this a battle between a red and a black dragon and Vhagar, whose color remains unknown.

It feels a lot like the war could have ended there, had Rhaenys brought a couple other dragonriders with her. Had Aegon and Aemond died here along with their dragons, further resistance would have been unlikely. Instead there are more battles and more dead players, most importantly Jacaerys Velaryon, Rhaenyra’s heir.

There are other developments here, subtler but still important. Aegon the Younger is arguably the most important character in all of this. He will be known later as the Dragonbane. Here, we see how that started when he has to flee his would-be captors and fly from somewhere in the middle of the Narrow Seas back to Dragonstone, a traumatic experience.

We get the most new information about bout Addam and Alyn Velaryon. It’s interesting to think that from this point on, House Velaryon is the line of a legitimized bastard, and we don’t even know for sure whose bastard it is. I can’t wait to see more of both young Velaryons, although I know we’re going to get far more of one than the other.

16) The Dying of the Dragons – Rhaenyra Triumphant

While all of this was basically old news, I found myself thinking most about the prominence and motives of three women, all of them lovers of Targaryen princes: Mysaria, Alys Rivers and Nettles.

Mysaria always reminded my of Tyanna of the Tower: they’re both prostitutes (or near enough) from the Free Cities turned mistresses of whisperers. Much like her predecessor, Mysaria never produces a living child with her Targaryen lover. Also like Tyanna, we have to wonder how much of the worst things we hear about her are true. Did she really sent Blood and Cheese, the assassins who snuck into the Red Keep and killed Prince Jaehaerys? Or is she just a scapegoat? Masters (and Mistresses) of Whisperers have always been a target for accusations, as have been foreigners and powerful, unmarried women.

Alys Rivers is even more mysterious and – for now at least – pregnant with a potential pretender to the throne. It is curious how this woman is neither clearly introduced as a woods witch nor as a red priestess or anything else. What are we to make of her?

And Nettles is probably the most mysterious of them all. This most unlikely of dragonseeds has neither the looks nor any story to explain how one of her parents might be a dragonlord, yet she is able to tame and ride the dragon Sheepstealer. More importantly, not only does she make it out of Dance alive, but she does it with a dragon under her that might very well be alive somewhere by the time of A Song if Ice and Fire. If any more dragons appear in the novels apart from Dany’s three, Sheepstealer is the number 1 candidate. Wouldn’t that be a surprise?

17) The Dying of the Dragons – Rhaenyra Overthrown

For me, Addam Velaryon steals the show in this one. With Rhaenyra already losing her grip on King’s Landing, it is he — together with the dragon Seasmoke – who is responsible for taking out the three dragons threatening the capital, despite being considered a traitor alongside his father (or grandfather) Corlys Velaryon. He deals a huge blow to Rhaenyra’s operation, but also to everyone who would rather dragons not be eradicated from Westeros.

I was kind of surprised that we didn’t get any more information on Addam meeting the Green Men, a sacred order entrusted with guarding the Isle of the Faces, where humankind and the Children of the Forest vowed to stop warring millennia ago. Maybe it’s nothing? Or maybe it’s so important that any more info would spoil parts of A Song of Ice and Fire? Or maybe it’s something in between. Anyway, I personally always get very attentive very quickly were the Green Men mentioned. We know they exist and we know they are somewhat important, but we hear very little about them. There must be something there.

What was new to me were the hints at a connection between Addam Velaryon and Benjicot Blackwood. It could very well have been Benjicot who convinced Addam to meet the Green Men. If any house would know a lot about the Green Men, it’s House Blackwood, the only major house in the Riverlands to keep the old gods. That support has been emphasized throughout this book.

Turning back to Rhaenyra and the future of the realm as a whole for a moment: There are so many ways Rhaenyra (and Baela’s dragon Moondancer, and Joffrey, and more) could have been saved. Leaving Dragonstone in questionable hands is just the final nail in the coffin. We also get the nail in the coffin of Aegon the Younger’s fear of and even hated for dragons.

There’s a line that gets repeated in this chapter: “Who can presume to know the heart of a dragon?” It is an important question that will surely be further explored in the remaining Song of Ice and Fire books.

18) The Dying of the Dragons – The Short, Sad Reign of Aegon II

I feel like, for most readers, the saddest thing about the reign of Aegon II is probably that it wasn’t short enough. It almost seems odd that Aegon II is considered a king rather than a usurper. Maybe the Citadel had a hand in that?

All in all, this felt like one of the “weaker” chapters. That’ not much of a criticism, really. This is a fictional work of historiography. You can’t expect it to be full of rising action all the time because that’s not what history is like. And in any case, there were still interesting observations to be made.

I do not know what to make of Larys Clubfoot Strong, who is suddenly making common cause with Corlys Velaryon, sort of. Everything about House Strong — and a lot about Harrenhal, their seat — remains mysterious to me. I talked about the Green Men before. Maybe Black Harren, the Ironborn king who build Harrenhal, had deeper reasons for putting it right at the shore of the God’s Eye?

You see, my mind is all wrapped up with bigger questions; it’s hard to care overmuch about the details of the death of a traitor and usurper. But let’s not dwell. Instead, I want to mention Alyn Velaryon again. He is quickly becoming a confident, important player, and I expect a lot more of him in the upcoming chapters. House Velaryon still seems much more powerful than it does in the novels. I wonder if we will get an idea as to how they lost much of their influence.

19) Aftermath – The Hour of the Wolf

I am not going to lie to you: I was very disappointed with the most important character of this chapter. I expected Cregan Stark to be this badass who shaped decades or even centuries of history with his solitary decisions. He’s is a badass, I think we can say that. He does the job nobody else wants to do and commands respect and even subordination from his followers, but he also has a lot of people executed (or, in most cases, sent to the Wall) even though they played only a small-at-best role in the death of Aegon II, and many seem rather innocent.

None of that is to say that the chapter itself was a disappointment, though. And there were still things about Cregan Stark that were very interesting. His interactions with Corlys Velaryon resemble the ones between Ned Stark and Varys in A Game of Thrones. Corys did what he did “for the good of the realm,” he claims. Corlys Velaryon has been living with the realities of court life for a very long time. Cregan has not, and despises most things about this environment. Much like Ned, Cregan does not want to see that you can’t survive at court for long if you try to be honest and act according to strict moral values all of the time.

“For the realm,” is also the first reason Alysanne Blackwood gives Lord Stark for not executing Corlys Velaryon. She more or less takes on the role I was thinking would fall to Cregan Stark. She is probably a huge influence on Benjicot Blackwood and she will be a huge influence on Cregan, whom she will marry.

20) Under the Regents – The Hooded Hand

I’ll be honest with you guys: Since the end of the Dance, this book has been running out of steam. This chapter is the most lacking so far in major developments and interesting details. That said, this is a fictional work of historiography, not a novel, so that’s to be expected.

Another reason for the slowdown might be that our author (both the actual one, Martin, and the fictional Archmaester Gyldayn) could intentionally be keeping things vague about Aegon III, the Dragonbane. The details of the disappearance of dragons in Westeros is likely closely tied to their reappearance in A Song of Ice and Fire, and Martin way not want to give everything away here.

But there were some interesting details here. For example, I was intrigued by the idea of Cregan Stark’s northmen being resettled in the Riverlands to marry the widows of men who died in the Dance. To be specific, they were settled for the most part on the lands of Houses Tully and Blackwood. That boosts the power of those Houses, and of the Old Gods in the Riverlands and south of the Neck in general. House Tully and Blackwood are, of course, House Stark’s staunchest allies in the Riverlands in A Song of Ice and Fire, set more than 150 years later.

Alyn Verlaryon also does not disappoint. He manages to marry Baela Targaryen, a potential heir to the Iron Throne. Baela sneaks out of King’s Landing when the “Hooded Hand” Tyland Lannister tries to marry her off to a man not of her choosing. Everything happens very fast. How well had Baela and Alyn known each other beforehand? Is this love? Politics? Just the next best way for Baela to escape an unwanted marriage? We may find out soon.

Finally, the story of Alys Rivers, Aemond Targaryen’s former lover and possibly even his widow, had me wondering if there is indeed “power in them stones”, “them stones” being Harrenhal.

I hope that this is just an interlude before a worthy finale to this book. But again, this being a historiography, I’m not expecting holding my breathe.

21) Under the Regents – War and Peace and Cattle Shows

I don’t know if it’s just me, but I’ve been constantly on the lookout for hints as to how and why the remaining dragons are going to disappear. From that perspective, there’s quite a lot happening here, but while we know that the dragons are not long for this world, so far everything points towards a win for the faction best suited to keeping them around. The faction I am talking about consists of Alyn Velaryon, now also called Oakenfist, his wife Baela Targaryen and, for now at least, her sister Rhaena Targaryen.

In stark contrast to the king, these three seem completely in favor of dragons, despite Baela’s dragon being dead and Alyn having failed at becoming a dragon rider earlier. Alyn being the son of either the Sea Snake or his son Laenor and Marilda of Hull, who remains a minor mystery, and Baela being the daughter of Daemon Targaryen and Laena Velaryon, daughter of the Sea Snake and Rhaenys Targaryen, their collective family tree is stacked with dragon riders, plus lots of old Valyrian blood from the Velaryons.

In the end it is this trio who save the day, presenting Aegon III with a young queen of obvious Valyrian lineage. If we are convinced that the existence of dragons — or Targaryen dragons, at least — requires Targaryens of a sufficiently pure bloodline, we have two very promising couples at this point, although Daenaera, being only six, won’t be able to have children for a long while. There are also still a handful of living dragons we know of and there should still be an abundance of eggs, although we have no real idea how long those can just be left lying around before it becomes harder or even impossible to hatch them. The continued presence of dragons has been largely ignored in the most recent chapters, though. I expect that to change soon.

22) The Lysene Spring and the End of Regency

In a way, this last chapter has been the most disappointing of all. That might be my own fault, though. I went into this without much prior knowledge of what to expect and had no idea at what exact point in Westerosi history this text would end.

Why has this chapter been disappointing for me? Well, the thing I was hoping for the most from this book was more information about how dragons actually disappeared from Westeros and the wider world. But here, Sheepstealer is still alive in the Mountains of the Moon, our author has ignored Silverwing since the Second Battle of Tumbleton chapters ago and Morning, the dragon with the most fateful name of all, has only recently been ridden for the first time by Rhaena Targaryen. And there are lots and lots of other dragons around.

The only hint we have of a dark future for dragons in Westeros is Laena Velaryon’s hatchling being malformed and attacking her. Does that mean anything, though? Malformed Targaryen children and malformed hatchlings are nothing new exactly.

This chapter ends with Aegon III finally taking power into his own hands. We know that among Aegon’s children are well-known figures like King Baelor the Blessed and King Daeron the Young Dragon, while his brother Viserys’ children will become Aegon IV the Unworthy and Aemon the Dragonknight. Things are about to get interesting again, and it’s a shame we have to end it here. I feel like this is not just a coincidence. Martin does not want us to know how exactly the dragons vanished just yet. It all comes down to patience. To really know the truth, we will have to wait for The Winds of Winter and A Dream of Spring.

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