Rating: M
Genre: Fantasy
Status: In progress
Link

Summary: The Dance of the Dragons was the most devastating conflict Westeros had ever seen, one hundred and seventy years before the War of the Five Kings. In the end, a succession of deaths and betrayals allowed the kingdom to find peace and recover. But what if it had not happened? What if the courage of a young dragoness had pushed this war to be fought to the bitter end?

An excellent on-going fic from the author of the HP fic The Odds Were Never In My Favor.

This starts in the waning days of the Dance of the Dragons (currently being shown in HBO's House of the Dragon). The point of diversion is that, instead of being horrifically wounded in her dragon battle at Dragonstone with King Aegon II, Baela manages to kill both the King and Sunfyre.

Writing is good, pacing is good, characters are fleshed out, and there is an excellent mix of politics and battle.

 

The writing is pretty solidly average. I'd say it struggles to capture a good voice for the series, and that the conversational prose it adopts constantly seems lackadaisical in a lot of the grimmer situations. 3/5.

 

The prose is painful to read, honestly.