"Fire and Blood" (GOT background) by George RR Martin - Excerpt

[Solly Mack]

"Fire and Blood" is a history of Westeros and the Targaryen lords. It is not the next book in the series of "A Song of Ice and Fire" AKA "Game of Thrones". That book title is "The Winds of Winter".

Several years had passed since the king had last made a progress, so plans were laid in 58 AC for Jaehaerys and Alysanne to make their first visit to Winterfell and the North. Their dragons would be with them, of course, but beyond the Neck the distances were great and the roads poor, and the king had grown tired of flying ahead and waiting for his escort to catch up. This time, he decreed, his Kingsguard, servants, and retainers would go ahead of him, to make things ready for his arrival. And thus it was that three ships set sail from King’s Landing for White Harbor, where he and the queen were to make their first stop.

The gods and the Free Cities had other plans, however. Even as the king’s ships were beating their way north, envoys from Pentos and Tyrosh called upon His Grace in the Red Keep. The two cities had been at war for three years and were now desirous of making peace, but could not agree on where they might meet to discuss terms. The conflict had caused serious disruption to trade upon the narrow sea, to the extent that King Jaehaerys had offered both cities his help in ending their hostilities. After long discussion, the Archon of Tyrosh and the Prince of Pentos had agreed to meet in King’s Landing to settle their differences, provided that Jaehaerys would act as an intermediary between them, and guarantee the terms of any resulting treaty.

It was a proposal that neither the king nor his council felt he could refuse, but it would mean postponing His Grace’s planned progress to the North, and there was concern that the notoriously prickly Lord of Winterfell might take that for a slight. Queen Alysanne provided the solution. She would go ahead as planned, alone, whilst the king played host to the Prince and Archon. Jaehaerys could join her at Winterfell as soon as the peace had been concluded. And so it was agreed.

Queen Alysanne’s travels began in the city of White Harbor, where tens of thousands of northerners turned out to cheer her and gape at Silverwing with awe, and a bit of terror. It was the first time any of them had seen a dragon. The size of the crowds surprised even their lord. “I had not known there were so many smallfolk in the city,” Theomore Manderly is reported to have said. “Where did they all come from?”

The Manderlys were unique amongst the great houses of the North. Having originated in the Reach centuries before, they had found refuge near the mouth of the White Knife when rivals drove them from their rich lands along the Mander. Though fiercely loyal to the Starks of Winterfell, they had brought their own gods with them from the south, and still worshipped the Seven and kept the traditions of knighthood. Alysanne Targaryen, ever desirous of binding the Seven Kingdoms closer together, saw an opportunity in Lord Theomore’s famously large family, and promptly set about arranging marriages. By the time she took her leave, two of her ladies-in-waiting had been betrothed to his lordship’s younger sons and a third to a nephew; his eldest daughter and three nieces, meanwhile, had been added to the queen’s own party, with the understanding that they would travel south with her and there be pledged to suitable lords and knights of the king’s court.

More at link.

[Yavin4]

1. No. Fuck you George. Give me the next book or nothing at all until you finish the next book.

Sorry, but ASOIAF is what made you rich and famous. You owe your book readers a conclusion to a story that you started back in the 90s. We're almost at 2020, and you have not finished.

It's unethical to get people hooked on a work of fiction and not finish it.

[Solly Mack]

2. I actually feel the same way.

If he isn't aware that he will die he can at least recognize that his fans have grown old while waiting - and we will die.


Finish the damn series already!

[Glorfindel]

4. That actually happened to Robert Jordan, author of the Wheel of Time books

He died after completing 10 books and a prequel, leaving the last three in the series to be completed by Brandon Sanderson. I, too, want Martin to complete his series, but I will read the prequel that you quoted from. Alas, I'm totally hooked on the books and the characters contained therein.

[Solly Mack]

5. Yeah. I'm addicted too. :)

I'll read it.

But I will NOT read the "finished" product of the chosen author by Martin's estate to complete the series in the event of his death.

Well, as of right now I feel that way.

[GemDigger]

3. Ditto!