The Sons of the Dragon

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The Sons of the Dragon
The Book of Swords.jpg
The Book of Swords cover
Author George R. R. Martin
Country United States
Language English
Series A Song of Ice and Fire
Genre(s) Fantasy
Publisher Bantam
Released October 10, 2017
Media Type novella in The Book of Swords anthology edited by Gardner Dozois
Pages 544 (anthology)
42 (novella)
ISBN ISBN-10: 0399593764
ISBN-13: 978-0399593765

The Sons of the Dragon is a novella which was published on October 10, 2017 as part of the The Book of Swords anthology, edited by Gardner Dozois. It chronicles the early lives and reigns of the second and third Targaryen kings, Aenys I and Maegor I,[1] written by Archmaester Gyldayn of the Citadel of Oldtown.[2]

George R. R. Martin has read versions of The Sons of the Dragon twice before, both at Bubicon in 2013[3] and at LonCon 2014.[4]

The first release of The Sons of the Dragon contains several errors: Elio Garcia believes that Martin gave Dozois his original, raw version of the manuscript. When Elio and Linda Antonsson were given the same initial manuscript, to be edited down for sections in The World of Ice and Fire, they recognized these errors and fixed them. Thus any contradictions in the first version published in October 2017 are superseded by these corrections. Such mistakes include:

  • Several minor Houses are identified as being from The Reach when they were already stated to be from the Riverlands. For example, House Wayn was mentioned to be in service to House Tully of Riverrun in the main novels. House Wayn didn't move to the riverlands in subsequent centuries: they were always from the riverlands, the original manuscript was in error.[5]
  • The original manuscript used the names "Robar" and "Rogar" inconsistently for "Robar Baratheon". As Elio explained, he had to pick one so The World of Ice and Fire uses "Robar". He assumes that Dozois was given the original, inconsistent manuscript, and when faced with the same choice Dozois went with "Rogar". Elio said that "Robar" will be considered canon until proven otherwise, while he seeks confirmation from Martin.
  • A few minor dating errors: dates confirmed by other sources are at points slightly off by a single year, etc.

References