Fire and Blood, By George RR Martin

Written as a historical record of the rise and fall of the Targaryen dynasty in Westeros, this mammoth tome served as the blueprint for the recent HBO Game of Thrones prequel series. Starting 300 years before the events of the original books, it covers the takeover of the disparate kingdoms by Aegon the Conqueror and how following generations first built on his legacy, then destroyed it. This sweeping epic covers more than 700 pages and the scale is such that less than 100 of them in the middle of the book encompass the events of series one of House of the Dragon. So there is ample material for further seasons. The beauty of writing it as a historical record is that Martin doesn’t need to worry about character development and has a built-in excuse for inconsistency and repetition, which he makes the most of. The book drags in places, the names are confusing and many chapters are ludicrously long, leaving the reader desperate for a break. The text is broken up by illustrations from Doug Wheatley, but the extreme violence and bloodthirsty politics just get tiresome. Where The Song of Ice and Fire saga contained heroes to barrack for, as well as villains to hate and those in between to keep the Game of Thrones interesting, in this pseudo-history good people are few and far between and don’t last long. Most of the main characters are evil, stupid, brutal, or all of the above and the narrative format creates a distance that makes it harder to invest in them.