A Song of Ice and Fire scribe George R.R. Martin has some recommended reading for the upcoming Game of Thrones prequel series House of the Dragon.
Martin discussed the big news on his blog after HBO announced the full series order for the Thrones spinoff. House of the Dragon will focus on the Targaryen family, highlighting the ancestors of the Dragon Queen Daenerys (Emilia Clarke). According to Martin, this idea has been percolating for several years.
"House of the Dragon has been in development for several years (though the title has changed a couple of times during that process)," he wrote. "It was actually the first concept I pitched to HBO when we started talking about a successor show, way back in the summer of 2016."
The prequel will take place 300 years before the events of Game of Thrones and show the rise and fall of House Targaryen as rulers of Westeros. Martin, who will create the series with Colony showrunner Ryan Condal, was tight-lipped about what audiences should expect, but he opted to direct them back to his previous works.
"If you’d like to know a bit more of what the show will be about," he wrote, "Well, I can’t actually spill those beans. But you might want to pick up a copy of two anthologies I did with Gardner Dozois, Dangerous Women and Rogues, and then move on to Archmaester Gyldayn’s history, Fire & Blood."
Dangerous Women and Rogues were anthologies published in 2013 and 2014, respectively. Edited by Martin and late author Gardner Dozois, it compiled several short stories from renowned sci-fi authors. Martin's contributions include The Princess and the Queen, which depicts Targaryen Princess Rhaenyra declaring war on King's Landing after being denied her spot on the Iron Throne, and The Rogue Prince, which focuses on the reign of King Viserys I Targaryen.
Fire & Blood was published in 2018. It covers the Targaryens' conquest of the Seven Kingdoms and the civil war known as the "Dance of the Dragons." It includes longer versions of The Princess and the Queen and The Rogue Prince, as well as excerpts from Martin's previous companion novel The World of Ice & Fire. Martin announced in July 2017 that he planned to publish the history in two volumes, as the material had grown too large. While there is no update on volume two, House of the Dragon may provide some clues as to what's to come for the Targaryens on the page and screen.
House of the Dragon is created by George R.R. Martin and Ryan Condal, with a pilot from Miguel Sapochnik. It will air on HBO with a 10-episode season.