The Rise of the Dragon: An Illustrated History of the Targaryen Dynasty, Volume One

I purchased this as a gift for my son, who is a huge fan of The Game of Thrones.

Here in the Citadel, it is always a pleasure to come across some dusty old tome tucked away in a forgotten corner of the great library. “The Rise of the Dragon” is one such. Of course in the forging of my chain I have long been a scholar of Maester Gyldayn’s thoroughly charming “Fire and Blood.” Seeing that this new volume purported to be a history of the Targaryen Dynasty, I suspected it was but a forgery of Gyldayn’s essential work. In fact, to my surprise, the text appears to be mostly if not wholly unique. A more rigorous comparison of the two works is in order, but for the time I can say that while this history details the same stories we have all come to know and love, those stories are told with a new voice and accompanied by lavish illustrations from many a Westerosi artist.(As for its authorship, I suspect none other than Maester Yandel, famed for once uncovering the earliest manuscripts of Gyldayn among the papers of Archmaester Gerold during the reign of King Robert Baratheon, First of His Name.)It is a joy to see that Yandel’s lesser-known epic is now being copied and sold across Westeros.If you are a poor acolyte and have the good fortune to have access to any of Maester Gyldayn’s original writings on the Targaryen dynasty, you can save your gold dragons knowing that nothing new will be unveiled in these pages. However, if you intend to add the copper link of history to your own chain, and must needs collect as many rare historical tomes as possible, then do not skip this. Derivative it may be—but I for one am grateful to revisit the trials and tribulations of the Targaryen reign, and this is no unworthy history of our realm.

The book came in great condition and is a very interesting read.

This book is worth it for the illustrations alone. Gorgeous. The quality of the book is good and it is a great read. Perfect for fans!

This book has beautiful illustrations and goes into great detail on the Targaryen dynasty. Great coffee table book.

I absolutely love delving into the lore and history of fictional worlds, so I've read Fire & Blood at least twice (I often re-read my favorite parts), and I often read a passage of World of Ice and Fire before going to bed. I was initially psyched for this book, but I was quickly disappointed. It is essentially just Fire & Blood, but with about two-thirds removed, which makes it too long to be a quick reference book (like World of Ice and Fire), but too short to be a real history (like Fire & Blood). I've read parts of it, but I can't imagine reading this from start-to-end, since it is way better just to re-read Fire & Blood.One of my favorite tales from Fire & Blood was the scandal of Saera Targaryen, one of the later children of King Jaehaerys and Queen Alysanne. Rise of the Dragon turns it from an engaging eleven-and-a-half pages (not including the great buildup and backstory of Saera before the scandal) to the equivalent of about 2-3 pages, which is too long to be a quick reference, but too short to get the real juicy details of the original (and yes, I literally flipped through the two books to count the number of pages, that's how crazy I am). The return of Aerea Targaryen, one of the biggest magical-lore reveals of Fire & Blood, is shortened to a single paragraph.The main thing that bumps this up from 2-or-3 stars to 4 stars is the artwork. Since this is mainly just about the first half of the rule of the Targaryens, it is not as varied as World of Ice and Fire (which had some amazing pictures of not just the Iron Throne, but Casterly Rock, Braavos, Valyria, maps of the regions in Westeros, and more), so the images are mainly of Targaryen battles and their lives, but what they do have is gorgeous, and they really bring the story to life (there is one picture near the end of the Dance of the Dragons that is particularly horrific, at least to me, since it drives home how young these soldiers could be).There are also some good quick notes between some of the paragraphs. When I was reading Fire & Blood, I thought it might be good to have a quick reference list of all of Jaehaerys's Seven Speakers who preached about Exceptionalism (so Targaryens could continue to marry their sibling, which ew, but it's good that there's an explanation on why they could keep doing it), and there is a great list on page 127. The small council that put Aegon II into power (recently shown in episode 9 of House of the Dragon) has a great list on page 202, naming each member and their titles). The book would probably be better if it was more of this stuff.I've half-considered returning my copy, since there doesn't seem to be any new lore, and I can always read World of Ice and Fire for a quick reference, and Fire & Blood for details (as detailed as you can get in a purposefully-biased history). This is really only good as an art book (the art really is gorgeous), but for the written content, there are better places you can get it.

I read the series Game of Thrones, and am always interested in prequels/back stories. Personally I prefer hard cover over paper backs because of the illistrations and maps. Also you get to see how the author envisioned places and characters, and kinda compare to how your minds eye saw them as you read the books. I own the Rise of the Dragon, an illustrated history of the Game of Thrones history.When I saw this book at the library I immediately checked it out. I normally get my books from the library since I don't read them twice and I'd have a huge collection not being enjoyed again. But this book is good. I read it with an open mind and wanting to know more about how n or why the lack of dragons and magic was so important in Game of Thrones.I had this book checked out for a long time. I hadn't finished it when I returned it cause it's a very BIG book but decided I'd check here to see how much it would cost to own. I found it to be EXTREMELY reasonable to own considering its size and it being a beautifully illustrated hardcover. It makes a great companion to Rise of the Dragon that's displayed on my coffee table.