George R.R. Martin says his new short story is for fans of Westerosi politics

By Esther Zuckerman | February 1, 2017 | 2:37pm

Aux Features Books

Last week we noted that George R.R. Martin has a new short story on the way, and now the author has revealed some more details about it. The tale, which is set to appear in the anthology The Book Of Swords, will apparently be something akin to reading a (likely well-crafted) textbook entry about a period in Westeros. In his LiveJournal, Martin explained that The Sons Of The Dragon wasn’t written specifically for this upcoming collection, but rather was one of the “sidebars” composed for and cut from the A Song Of Ice And Fire companion piece The World of Ice & Fire. Martin described it as “a history rather than a traditional narrative“ with “a lot of telling, only a little showing.”

He went on: “But if you’re fascinated by the politics of Westeros, as many of my readers seem to be, you should enjoy it. As the title suggests, ‘The Sons of the Dragon‘ chronicles the reigns of the second and third Targaryen kings, Aenys I and Maegor the Cruel, along with their mothers, wives, sisters, children, friends, enemies, and rivals.“ So, yes, Martin knows you’ll gobble up just about anything he puts out. Recently, he speculated that The Winds Of Winter could be out by the end of the year; The Book Of Swords has a release date of October 10.