Something of an illustrated republication of Fire & Blood, slightly reworded and somehow less dramatic. Useful refresher, anyway. ( )

The Rise of the Dragon: An Illustrated History of the Targaryen Dynasty Volume One is basically Fire & Blood Volume One but illustrated. One could say this was a money grab or that the previous book shouldn’t have been published and the material should have waited until quality illustrations like in this book were created or both could be true, it doesn’t matter. Of the two books, get The Rise of the Dragon for the simple fact that with the amazing illustrations the material is enhanced. But given the non-illustrated material is just a rehash from another book, I’m downgrading the rating of this book as a result to show my annoyance. ( )

As the recent success of the HBO series House of the Dragon has proved, the Game of Thrones world created by George R. R. Martin remains a thrilling enterprise. Martin's is one of the better-realised fantasy worlds, and it's a great place to spend some of your time.

Spend time, perhaps, but it's becoming increasingly doubtful whether it's where we should want to spend so much money. The Game of Thrones franchise – for it is now most definitely a franchise – seems increasingly committed to books like this one. The first disappointment for me with The Rise of the Dragon came pre-launch, when it was revealed the 'new' title wasn't Volume Two of the Fire and Blood history which proved surprisingly enjoyable back in 2018, charting the second half of the Targaryen dynasty, but instead a rehash of that Volume One, written in a more 'scholarly' style and with illustrations.

There are many problems with this. It means the book itself has less flavour than the gossipy Fire and Blood – which was also much more comprehensive about these events – and as the story has already been told (not only in Fire and Blood but in 2014's The World of Ice and Fire) there's far less freshness too. Important in-universe events are covered in single lines and with none of the insight or speculation beyond what an in-universe 'historian' would be able to glean. Consequently, there's none of the intrigue or storytelling which initially proved so attractive to us in Martin's books.

It's that initial attraction which is being so sorely tested among the fanbase. Contrary to the Stark words, we know winter isn't coming, and George R. R. Martin is not likely to ever release another novel in his main Song of Ice and Fire series. It's been more than a decade since the last book in the series, which itself had a troubled creation, and every fan has at some point come to accept this, however reluctantly or bitterly. Please point out any who still believe to your nearest government official, so it can be arranged for them to get the institutional treatment they need.

That bitterness can explode whenever Martin promises, bafflingly, that The Winds of Winter is indeed coming (something he's been saying for more than a decade). But as every fan has by this point built their armour up against this false hope, the real disappointment comes from issue like The Rise of the Dragon. An illustrated version of a story already released twice, a lauded and heavily-marketed side-project when the main story hasn't been – and never will be – completed, can only heighten the fanbase's cynicism, and might to some even feel exploitative. Of course, there's no obligation for us to buy The Rise of the Dragon, but its very existence – and prominence, in the absence of any major novel announcement – signals the increasingly corporate money-spinning of what was once a fandom but is now a franchise. My primary enjoyment from the book came from speculating on how the TV series House of the Dragon might, in years to come, adapt the Dance of the Dragons. But this only further shows how George R. R. Martin has allowed the story to slip out of his own hands. ( )