Fire & Blood is a Brillant and Gritty Tale of the Rise and Downfall of the Targaryen Bloodline

Fire & Blood is probably one of the best medieval/fantasy novels in history. This entire book goes over the Targaryen family from Game of Thrones, and it takes place 300 years before that show. It's so interesting to learn about a family that was once very powerful and were the first ones to rule the Seven Kingdoms for many years.

There were both bad and good rulers, and there were times of peace, war, and even violence within their own family. They were also heavily criticized for always allowing incest marriages, to keep the bloodline pure. The Seven Kingdoms weren't exactly alright with this, and it would sometimes lead to threats of war, (understandably, because this is just sick), and it would either go bad for the Targaryen rulers or their enemies would be too afraid to even go against the family, because of their dragons.

If it hadn't been for the dragons, I don't think the Targaryen family would have been able to be so powerful for such a long time.

While the book does go over quite a bit of the family history, the main two storylines that truly stand out are Aegon the Conqueror, and the downfall of the Targaryen family that led to the creation of the television show, House of the Dragon.

Aegon the Conqueror is the reason why the Targaryen family became so powerful. He built the Iron Throne, united the Seven Kingdoms, created a lot of peace deals, and of course, married his two sisters, to keep the bloodline pure, and was the first introduction of incest to the other kingdoms, causing a lot of controversy.

Many of the kingdoms wouldn't dare start anything against Aegon however, once they learned about his three dragons. One kingdom did start war against him, but despite heavy losses on both ends, Aegon was able to make a peace deal, truly making Aegon the best king in Westeros.

So, it was a massive shame once the House of the Dragon segment comes around, because this is when the Targaryen family ended up destroying the main thing that they stood for: Dragons.

Rhaenyra became the new heir for the Iron Throne, under the orders of her father, and this decision led to her own family breaking apart into two separate teams, wanting to do whatever it takes to stop a woman from taking the throne. Rhaenyra is stuck battling her own stepmother, her siblings, and other enemies to ensure she will always remain the heir. Even though she does succeed in taking the throne at some point, she goes mad from everything she loses or experiences and ends up turning against her own team.

The characters in this section of the book are fascinating for all the wrong reasons. They are so unlikable, but you can't help but like these characters, because they are so complicated and evil. Very few carry good hearts, and those are unfortunately the first few that get killed during the war. It's honestly so tragic how the family refused to make amends or make any sort of peace. Their hatred for Rhaenyra led to so much loss and betrayal, and it eventually led to the worst part of the war: the death of the all the dragons.

The people in King's Landing grew tired of the mistreatment from their rulers, because they were too preoccupied with each other, and this ignorance led to death and torture in King's Landing for the innocents. The people decided to take their own stand, and they charged at the keep where the dragons were being held, and they literally tore them apart, getting themselves killed in the process. Plus, two other dragons were killed during a brutal fight, that involved Rhaenyra's own uncle/husband, and her half-brother.

This civil war led to the Targaryen family losing all of their main power, and it was all due to greed and power.

I couldn't feel sorry for anyone in this situation, I only felt bad for the innocent people that were pulled into this stupid drama from the Targaryen family. They got so much suffering and got so many people killed, so even though it sucked that the Targaryen family mostly died out, they deserved to die for what they did to so many people.

Fire & Blood is one of my favorite novels of the year, and I guarantee that any medieval/fantasy fan is going to love this book!

Thank you for reading!

Emy Quinn