With all the fire and fury fans have come to expect from internationallybestselling author George R. R. Martin, this is the first volume of thedefinitive two-part history of the Targaryens in Westeros.Centuries before the events of A Game of Thrones, House Targaryen—the onlyfamily of dragonlords to survive the Doom of Valyria—took up residence onDragonstone. Fire and Blood begins their tale with the legendary Aegon theConqueror, creator of the Iron Throne, and goes on to recount the generationsof Targaryens who fought to hold that iconic seat, all the way up to the civilwar that nearly tore their dynasty apart.What really happened during the Dance of the Dragons? Why did it become sodeadly to visit Valyria after the Doom? What is the origin of Daenerys’s threedragon eggs? These are but a few of the questions answered in this essentialchronicle, as related by a learned maester of the Citadel and featuring morethan eighty all-new black-and-white illustrations by artist Doug Wheatley.Readers have glimpsed small parts of this narrative in such volumes as TheWorld of Ice & Fire, but now, for the first time, the full tapestry ofTargaryen history is revealed.With all the scope and grandeur of Gibbon’s The History of the Decline andFall of the Roman Empire, Fire and Blood is the ultimate game of thrones,giving readers a whole new appreciation for the dynamic, often bloody, andalways fascinating history of Westeros.