GRRM procrastinates again

I should have realized what I was getting into.

I started reading Game Of Thrones just before the HBO series began. I’ve read each of the books in the series at least twice. My husband bought me Fire and Blood for Christmas and it had been a long time since I had read anything by GRRM, so I dove right in.

Firstly, let me say that I am always impressed by the world-building that is done by fantasy authors. I can’t fathom the amount of time and attention that is involved in creating maps and new words and regional dialects and family trees (etc, etc) in these books. This book is certainly no exception. It traces the first 150 or so years of the Targaryen dynasty in Westeros, beginning with Aegon the Conqueror and his sisters/wives. It is written in the form of an historical text and sourced by contemporaneous writings of scholars or clergy (or in several instances pornographic memoirs). It gives background for the books that have preceded it and is written in extreme detail.

But.

It is hard to see this book as much more than a stall. It feels like GRRM has either written himself in to a corner with the GOT books or really doesn’t know where to take them from here, and so he instead puts out content that is in the same (well-developed) world he has been writing in but that won’t effect events going forward. Bits of the writing were brilliant, and then there were bizarre touches that take you out of the story altogether. Come for the dragons, stay for the prominent family all named after Sesame Street characters! Or the Every-Eligible-Maiden plot from Cinderella! Did you think the incest favored by the Targaryens was just part of a desire to keep their blood pure? Nope! Let several sets of pre-teen siblings bawdily explain to their parents and courtiers how incest is best!

One thing I did appreciate about this book was that it eliminated long descriptions of meals. Food was definitely mentioned, but it wasn’t several pages at a time of eel and lamprey pies and the smell of onions on a character’s beard. I did miss the first-person perspective of the GOT books, though.

There is plenty to like here, and a fair amount to pick apart. The worst bit, though? It wasn’t until I finished ALL 706 PAGES that I realized that this is THE FIRST IN A SERIES. I should have known.