While you’re anxiously awaiting the sixth Westeros book from
George R.R. Martin, there’s something to tide you over. This week, Martin
released a new novella set in the past of Westeros, and it shows just what
happens when there’s a war with tons of dragons.
Top image: Tomasz Jedruszek/CG Society
Spoilers ahead…
Martin’s story “The Princess and the Queen, or The
Blacks and the Greens” appears in a new anthology he co-edited with
Gardner Dozois called Dangerous
Women, which is 800 pages of short fiction about tough or mischievous
female characters. “The Princess and the Queen” takes place long
before the time of Ned Stark and Tyrion Lannister, during the turbulent period
of Westerosi history known as the Dance of Dragons.
In a nutshell, King Viserys I dies and leaves his daughter,
Rhaenyra, as his chosen heir. But his widow, Queen Alicent, wants her son Aegon
to take the throne instead, on the grounds that only men can sit on the Iron
Throne. These two women launch a massive, bloody civil war that trashes large
swathes of Westeros, and includes betrayal, murder, horrible atrocities and
wholesale destruction.
And dragons. The main thing that’s a revelation about this
story, after reading so much about a Westeros where dragons are thought
extinct, is that there are so many dragons, and they pretty much drive the
narrative. You see first hand just why dragons were the WMDs of Westeros back in
the day. One dragon can decimate an army, and five or six dragons are an
unstoppable force.
Even as the two claimants to the throne try to win the
support of various lords and seize strategic strongholds, the main action in
the civil war is all about who’s got the most, and biggest, dragons. You learn
a lot more about dragon husbandry in
this story, including the mechanics of just who can and cannot ride a dragon,
and there’s also a ton of detail about dragon battle strategy.
And lots and lots of dragons killing each other. There are
dragon sparring matches, dragon jousting, dragon dogfights, and basically
dragons ripping the shit out of each other. Here’s a brief sample of Martin
describing two dragons going at it:
The attack came sudden as a thunderbolt. Caraxes dove down
upon Vhagar with a piercing shriek that was heard a dozen miles away, cloaked
by the glare of the setting sun on Prince Aemond’s blind side. The Blood Wyrm
slammed into the older dragon with terrible force.
Pretty thrilling stuff. Also, there are a lot of insights
into Westerosi politics here that longtime fans of the series will find
interesting — including a glimpse of just what happens when the smallfolk in
Flea Bottom rise up in force, way beyond the riots we saw in the Song of Ice and Fire books. Also, it’s both
jarring and cool to see the members of House Frey and House Stark and House
Baratheon playing very different roles in this conflict. All the political
maneuvering you’ve come to expect from Martin is here, in spades.
You can easily imagine Tyrion Lannister reading this account
of Westerosi history and learning a lot about both dragons and politics from
it.
That said, “Princess” is basically just an
extended excerpt from a history book, and not really a great piece of narrative
fiction in its own right. Martin gives us glimpses of the personalities and
their clashes, but after a while you might find yourself losing track of some
of the players here — and in general, Martin’s famous gift for internal
monologue and tight POVs is sorely missed here. Most of the action here is
narrated by a slightly pompous historian, who covers the facts of the war in as
interesting a manner as possible — but it’s no substitute for the more
personal touch that Martin usually uses.
All in all, “The Princess and the Queen” is a
must-read for die-hard fans of Game of
Thrones or Martin’s books — but not
really essential reading for anyone else.
As for the rest of Dangerous
Women, I’ve enjoyed what I’ve read of it. Given that it’s 800 pages long
and I’m trying to finish the new Gene Wolfe, I haven’t been able to read every
story, alas. There are definitely some gems here — most notably Pat Cadigan’s
very personal, intensely powerful story about two sisters coping with their
mother’s Alzheimer’s Disease. Lev Grossman tells an entertaining story of
pranks and a mysterious ghost at Brakebills, his magical school. Diana Gabaldon
tells a new story in the world of Outlander — given that these stories span
everything from paranormal romance to epic fantasy, it seems like the sort of
book that will have something for everybody.
