📚 Seeing as the Game of Thrones universe was painfully absent from our screens in 2025, we’re getting our fill by revisiting the fictional history book that started it all: Fire and Blood. With the third season of House of the Dragon postponed to 2026 and A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms still nowhere in sight, audiences far and wide are eagerly awaiting to know the fate of the Targaryens’ civil war — but you don’t have to wait.

Chronicling the first 150 years of Targaryen rule, Fire and Blood is a fictional history book that reads as a real one — if real history had dragons and blood magic. Published in 2018, the book is set to receive a sequel covering a further 150 years, but seeing how The Winds of Winter is going, we’re doubtful we’ll be getting it — at least not during George R.R. Martin’s lifetime. The book (which, is worth mentioning, is also reportedly receiving its own adaptation) begins with Aegon’s conquest, who — alongside his sister-wives Rhaenys and Visenya — overcame six kingdoms to unite Westeros under their rule.

Upon the conqueror’s death, the first crack in the great house begins to make itself known. We meet Aegon’s successors: the timid Aenys and Maegor the Cruel, and watch as the Targaryen court begins to turn on itself. Kings and queens prove ruthless, worshipping power over all else. The majority of the novel zeroes in on the events from the HBO spin-off The Dance of the Dragons — not to be confused with the fifth installment of Martin’s books, A Dance with Dragons. Yet as pages turn, the reader comes to discover that the show has taken quite a few liberties with the plot and the characters.

We will not be spoiling, but we will say this: we hope HBO’s budget is generous, seeing as the adaptation has only scratched the surface of the war thus far.

There’s much room for interpretation, and that’s what makes it exciting. Fire and Blood, in universe, is written by the maesters of the citadel, and thus some logical discrepancies are easy to spot — but that’s the point. History is written by the victors, and House Targaryen certainly was not. It’s an incredibly entertaining read, and despite its length, a quick one as you will find it quite difficult to put it down.

History buff? Fantasy nerd? Fire and Blood falls right in the middle of that Venn diagram. Not a traditional novel by any means, its events are written in the same manner you’d expect to encounter in our world’s history books. The writing is straight to the point, the characters are enigmatic and mysterious, and there’s a lot to be read between the lines (and consequently, lots to theorize). If you’re tired of waiting for the next iteration of the franchise to drop, we’d say you’ll be quite content reading Fire and Blood.

WHERE TO GET IT- You can find Fire and Blood as a paperback at Diwan, get the ebook from Amazon, and listen to the audiobook on Storytel.

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