See the beautiful artwork in The World of Fire & Blood calendar

Every year, we get a new Song of Ice and Fire calendar, where various artists render scenes from George R.R. Martin’s landmark fantasy serious in glorious detail.

The 2023 calendar will be a bit different. This time we’re getting a World of Fire & Blood calendar, with artists depicting various scenes from Martin’s Fire & Blood, a history of the Targaryen dynasty. Check out the cover by Marc Simonetti here. It depicts Balerion the Black Dread roasting Harrenhal during Aegon’s conquest of Westeros.

And Martin himself posted this image by Magali Villeneuve of Rhaenyra Targaryen and Alicent Hightower, rivals during the Dance of the Dragons.

The calendar is out on July 19. You can pre-order it here. You can also more images on Martin’s Not a Blog.

Fire & Blood & House of the Dragon

Why would the calendar switch to focus on Fire & Blood rather than A Song of Ice and Fire? Perhaps they just wanted a change…or maybe it goes deeper than that. You see, HBO’s upcoming Game of Thrones show House of the Dragon is coming out this year. House of the Dragon is based on Fire & Blood. Specifically, it’s about the Dance of the Dragons, a brutal Targaryen civil war that tore Westeros apart some 200 years before the original story.

I don’t think it’s coincidence that the calendar is shifting focus to Fire & Blood the year a high-profile TV show based on the book is coming to HBO. I think it’s marketing. We note that a new edition of Fire & Blood itself is also hitting bookstores in July.

Is this a clue to when House of the Dragon might premiere? We can’t know anything for sure, but also…I mean, probably.

Summer 2022 here we come.

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