George R.R. Martin Confirms That Yes, A Targaryen Story is Coming
Yes, a new story from George R.R. Martin is coming out this year. No, it is not The Winds of Winter, at least not yet, but it is set in the same world.
About a week ago, news hit the internet that George R.R. Martin would likely publish a new short story this year, with speculation being that it’d be “The Sons of the Dragon,” a story that he has read previously at conventions. In order to “set the record straight,” GRRM has taken once again to his LiveJournal to confirm what we already knew: yes, it’s “The Sons of the Dragon”.
Additionally, the anthology in which it will appear is The Book of Swords, edited by his friend, Gardner Dozois. GRRM makes it very clear that he did not co-edit the work with Dozois, which we’d already confirmed via the Amazon listing having just one editor.
As for “The Sons of the Dragon” itself, it’s about the second and third rulers of the Targaryen dynasty. (That is, they’re the sons of Aegon the Conqueror, otherwise known as Aegon the Dragon.) He also pointed out that it’ll seem similar to “The Princess and the Queen”. Indeed, both stories started life out as parts of The World of Ice and Fire. However, after editing, much of the material went unpublished. In other words, no, he didn’t take time from The Winds of Winter to write this up.
It could, however, make an excellent piece of source material for that prequel series that HBO still appears to want.
Indeed, he even says that he has had to step back from editing anthologies until he finishes Winds, since they “were taking too much of [his] time”. Presumably, that means any Wild Cards fans will have to wait.
GRRM also published the full lineup for The Book of Swords, which hasn’t appeared yet on Amazon:
- “The Best Man Wins”, K.J. Parker
- “His Father’s Sword”, Robin Hobb
- “The Hidden Girl”, Ken Liu
- “The Sword of Destiny”, Matthew Hughes
- “‘I Am a Handsome Man,’ Said Apollo Crow”, Kate Elliott
- “The Triumph of Virtue”, Walter Jon Williams
- “The Mocking Tower”, Daniel Abraham
- “Hrunting”, C.J. Cherryh
- “A Long, Cold Trail”, Garth Nix
- “When I Was a Highwayman”, Ellen Kushner
- “The Smoke of Gold is Glory”, Scott Lynch
- “The Colgrid Conundrum”, Rich Larson
- “The King’s Evil”, Elizabeth Bear
- “Waterfalling”, Lavie Tidhar
- “The Sword Tyraste”, Cecelia Holland
- “The Sons of the Dragon”, George R.R. Martin
Although he hasn’t read the stories himself, he says that he has faith that they’re excellent reads. (Admittedly, a not-insignificant number of people will likely pick this anthology up solely for GRRM’s contribution.)
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The Book of Swords will hit shelves on Oct. 10 of this year.