George RR Martin has released an excerpt about a pivotal character from his upcoming compendium, The World of Ice and Fire.
No folks, it isn’t The Winds of Winter – but it’s still pretty tantalizing. As promised yesterday on his blog, “Not A Blog,” George RR Martin has released a brand-new excerpt from The World of Ice and Fire.
The recently completed “worldbook” – which will serve as a compendium of history and information from Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series – has been several years in the making, and is tentatively set for release in October.
Told from the perspective of a maester of the Oldtown Citadel, this new excerpt appeared on Martin’s website today. The text focuses on the first proper king of Westeros, Aegon I Targaryen – known to history as the Conquerer. As The World of Ice and Fire serves a historical chronicle, information is also provided in the excerpt about the history of House Tarygaryen (and their native homeland of Valyria) before Aegon’s conquest of Westeros. Various myths are dispelled, and important characters like the Conquerer’s formidable sister-wives Rhaenys and Visenya are introduced in the text.
Additionally, the excerpt offers a glimpse at the political structure of the continent of Westeros, 300 years before the story of A Song of Ice and Fire begins. A fracturous land of petty lords and minor kings, Aegon the Conqueror definitely landed on a vastly different landscape than the one readers will be familiar with.
In addition to the text, Martin provided one of the beautiful illustrations that will be included in The World of Ice and Fire. The image, a striking look at King Aegon on the back of his dragon, known as Balerion the Black Dread, will definitely whet the appetite of fans eager to see what The World of Ice and Fire will hold.