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  • Fire & Blood (HBO Tie-in Edition)

  • 300 Years Before A Game of Thrones
  • Written by: George R. R. Martin
  • Narrated by: Simon Vance
  • Length: 26 hrs and 24 mins
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars (864 ratings)

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Fire & Blood (HBO Tie-in Edition) cover art

Fire & Blood (HBO Tie-in Edition)

Written by: George R. R. Martin
Narrated by: Simon Vance
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Publisher's Summary

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The thrilling history of the Targaryens comes to life in this masterly work, the inspiration for HBO’s upcoming 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 and featuring more than eighty all-new black-and-white illustrations by artist Doug Wheatley—including five all-new illustrations exclusive to this edition. 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 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.

Includes a bonus PDF of illustrations from the book

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2018 George R. R. Martin (P)2018 Random House Audio

What the critics say

“A masterpiece of popular historical fiction.” (The Sunday Times)

“[Fire & Blood] explores the dragon-fueled secrets upon which the current saga is built." (Hollywood Reporter)

“[There are] treasures hidden in this new Targaryen history.” (Vanity Fair)

"Martin has done it again.... [Fire & Blood is] a beautiful weaving of the wars, marriages, deaths, dragons, and politics that shape the world Martin has created, leaving the reader feeling like this is a true history rather than a piece of fantasy. This is a masterpiece of world-building.... Beyond Martin’s legions of fans, anyone with a taste for richly, even obsessively detailed historical fiction or fantasy about royalty will enjoy this extraordinary work.” (Booklist, starred review)

“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)

What listeners say about Fire & Blood (HBO Tie-in Edition)

Average Customer Ratings
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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

Great narrator, lethally boring

Martin's customary style of writing is tragically absent from this book. It shares nothing of the potency of the Song of Fire and Ice series, and fails to stir any real emotion or excitement. The narrator is excellent, but the content is dry, boring and snooze-inducing. Would make a good sleep aid.

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9 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Dry dry dry

I’m a huge fan of GoT but this was a dry list of names and dates. At times it reminded me of the worst parts of high school history. The narrator was superb however.

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

So Disappointing

If you enjoyed the political intrigue and scheming that were in the other books within the Westeros universe, you’ll be disappointed with this one. There is none of that. I returned it after 2 hours of listening.

Martin has “Jumped the shark” with this book.

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Fantastic

Another marvelous dive into Westeros and the contrasts between narrators compared to the World of Ice and Fire make a fascinating and sometimes amusing contrast akin to reading different histories across time.

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

meh

it had good history and background but the book was legit like listening to someone read a history book to you with sourcing from various other paths of history. it was incredibly dry and painful to get through. the narrator did the best he could with a book that was easily the most painful listening to of all time.

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2 people found this helpful

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    2 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Starts great but gets dry quick

Started off really engaging and interesting but loses steam about 2/3 through and it just dragged on

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

300 years before but with an abrupt ending

performed well but story does basically just comes to an end with no real closure. left wondering and unfilled for the last 30 chapters.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

It's worth the slow start

Simon Vance is perfect as the narrator. I wish the show HOTD would've started a bit earlier in the timeline. If you find the beginning boring or really dislike the Targaryens like me, try to stick with it a little longer there's some great stuff later on. Not as good as asoiaf but a good, if a little rushed, backstory to the rulers of Westeros.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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  • Mog
  • 2022-08-22

Are we maesters now?!

It was a fun semi-tabloid historical recount of the 7 kingdoms and how they came to be while under the rule of the house Targaeryan(?)
Some may not enjoy this one as much as the other George R. R. Martin GoT books because it's written like a history book rather than a novel, but I found it to be all the more interesting for it!

Simon Vance gave a wonderful performance as the maester who is supposed to have written all the historical events in the book and really made me feel like I was studying some incredibly magical and frankly bloody violent history, postmarked with magic and betrayal.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Very Good but I’m jaded

This was great but I just want winds of winter. This isn’t a sufficient holdover. Performance was excellent, much better than some of the ASOIAF books

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