A Beautiful New Book By George R.R. Martin

The Rise Of The Dragon hits shelves in just a few days and if you’re a fan of fantasy author George R.R. Martin and his Song Of Ice And Fire books—or the shows Game Of Thrones and House Of The Dragon—you know what a big deal this is.

Sure, this is not the book we’ve all been waiting (impatiently) for all these years. The Winds Of Winter remains unfinished and unpublished. I remain in mourning for what was once my favorite fantasy series (that honor now goes to Joe Abercrombie’s trilogy of trilogies).

Still, despite everything, Martin remains one of the finest writers of medieval fantasy in the history of the genre. There is no one quite like him. He’s a true master wordsmith and storyteller and has crafted a rich and wonderful and bloody history as backdrop to his main series. The ‘historical’ tome Fire And Blood tells the story of the Targaryen dynasty (or one half of it; a sequel remains unfinished and unpublished) and serves as the basis for the HBO adaptation House of the Dragon.

Rise Of The Dragon is the same book in a new format, basically. It’s not the exact same, but it gives us the same time period and the same fictional history beginning with Aegon the Conqueror and his two sister-wives Rhaneys and Visenya and their dragons. The conquest and uniting of the Seven Kingdoms is followed by various and sundry tales of heroism and cowardice, tragedy and betrayal, war and romance.

We learn of Maegor the Cruel and Jahaerys the Conciliator. We dive headlong into the Dance of Dragons, the bloodiest and most tragic civil war to ever engulf Westeros (even bloodier and more devastating than Robert Baratheon’s rebellion, a hundred years later).

None of this is new ground, but in Rise Of The Dragon it’s presented in a new way. This is a coffee table book in many respects. It’s a giant tome with a nice, thick cover and expensive, heavy paper inside. Often, important details from any given story are broken out from the main text into boxes that serve as a quick way to glean that information.

Westeros Brought To Life

But the real selling point here is the artwork, which is truly glorious. Over 150 full-color illustrations fill this book with beautiful renditions of the knights and ladies, kings and queens—and dragons—of Westeros and the Targaryen kings and queens who ruled over the Seven Kingdoms for so long.

Here are some examples of the artwork in question—just a few out of so many more. Every page of this book is filled with something beautiful to look at. I include a description and the artist’s name in the captions of each image, but be warned that some of these could be spoilers for House Of The Dragon.

As you can see, these illustrations are works of art, and Rise of the Dragon is filled with this kind of beautiful imagery. It makes this a book that any collector of fantasy and fantasy artwork should have on their shelves. And even as someone who has read Fire And Blood, this makes a fine addition to my book case. I’m a sucker for all things knights and pageantry, however, so this is my kind of book. Even if it were just the artwork alone, it would be worth the asking price (the Hardcover is currently on sale for $42.99 at Amazon from an MSRP of $60).

Rise Of The Dragon releases on October 25th. It’s very much worth your time and money. You can watch my video review of the book below. As I note in the video, I love artwork and animation and I really hope we get lots of Martin’s stories brought to life not just in live-action adaptations, but as animated films and series. This is also my greatest wish for The Lord Of The Rings.

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