The Princess and the Queen

The Princess and the Queen, or, the Blacks and the Greens is a novella by George R. R. Martin, published in the 2013 Tor Books anthology Dangerous Women.[1][2][3] Set in the Westeros of Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series, 200 years before the events of A Game of Thrones (1996), it chronicles the "continent-burning warfare" (called the "Dance of Dragons") that explodes between Targaryen Princess Rhaenyra and her stepmother, Queen Alicent.[4][5][6]

The Princess and the Queen, or, the Blacks and the Greens
AuthorGeorge R. R. Martin
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
SeriesA Song of Ice and Fire
Genre(s)Fantasy
Published inDangerous Women
PublisherTor Books
Media typeNovella
Publication dateDecember 3, 2013
Followed by"The Rogue Prince"

The work is presented as the writing of the fictional Archmaester Gyldayn, also the "author" of Martin's 2014 novella The Rogue Prince, a direct prequel to The Princess and the Queen.[7]

Plot

When King Viserys I Targaryen dies, his widow Queen Alicent has their eldest son Prince Aegon crowned King Aegon II before Viserys' daughter Rhaenyra, the only surviving child of his first marriage, can claim the Iron Throne herself. Though Rhaenyra is the king's oldest child and had been named his successor years before, Alicent and her supporters declare Rhaenyra unfit to rule and argue that, as a woman, Rhaenyra should be placed after Alicent's own male children in the line of succession. After Rhaenyra declares herself Queen at the Targaryen ancestral seat of Dragonstone, her middle son Lucerys Velaryon and King Aegon's younger brother Aemond take their dragons to seek the support of Lord Borros Baratheon of Storm's End. However, Lucerys and his dragon are killed there. Rhaenyra's husband Prince Daemon has Aegon II's son and heir Jaehaerys murdered in revenge. Soon both branches of the Targaryen royal line are at war, with dragons on both sides. The people of King's Landing, tired of the constant conflict and fear of dragons destroying their city, storm the Dragonkeep, destroying it and a large portion of the dragon population in Westeros. Eventually, all of Rhaenyra's children, except for Aegon and Viserys, are killed and she herself is captured by Aegon II and fed to his dragon, Sunfyre, though the war continues.

Development

The story was to be included in the companion book The World of Ice & Fire but was removed because the book was becoming too long for the original concept of a fully illustrated book. It and several other stories appeared in abridged versions in other anthologies.[8]

Reception

Entertainment Weekly called the 35,000-word novella "a great demonstration of Martin's ability to dramatize the slippery complexities of power: how evil begets heroism, how heroes become villains".[6] The Princess and the Queen was nominated for a 2014 Locus Award.[9]

gollark: Wikipedia says that spider silk has a diameter of "2.5–4 μm", which I approximated to 3μm for convenience, so a strand has a 1.5μm radius. That means that its cross-sectional area (if we assume this long thing of spider silk is a cylinder) is (1.5e-6)², or ~7e-12. Wikipedia also says its density is about 1.3g/cm³, which is 1300kg/m³, and that the observable universe has a diameter of 93 billion light-years (8.8e26 meters). So multiply the length of the strand (the observable universe's diameter) by the density of spider silk by the cross-sectional area of the strand and you get 8e18 kg, while the atmosphere's mass is about 5e18 kg, so close enough really.
gollark: Okay, so by mass it actually seems roughly correct.
gollark: So, spider silk comes in *very* thin strands and is somewhat denser than water, interesting.
gollark: You do that, I'll try and find data on spider silk density.
gollark: Actually, this factoid does seem kind of dubious even if it's meant to say "mass"... hmm.

References
  1. "Dangerous Women Arrives on Tor.com". Tor.com. July 24, 2013. Retrieved November 19, 2013.
  2. Martin, George R. R. (January 23, 2013). "Not A Blog: A Dangerous Delivery". GRRM.livejournal.com. Retrieved January 23, 2013.
  3. "The Princess and The Queen, or, The Blacks and The Greens by George R.R. Martin". Goodreads. Retrieved March 11, 2019.
  4. Driscoll, Molly (July 31, 2013). "George R.R. Martin's new novella will be a part of the anthology Dangerous Women". The Christian Science Monitor. Retrieved November 21, 2013.
  5. "Fiction Book Review: Dangerous Women by George R.R. Martin and Gardner Dozois". Publishers Weekly. October 7, 2013. Retrieved November 23, 2013.
  6. Franlich, Darren (December 6, 2013). "Book Review: Dangerous Women". Entertainment Weekly. p. 81. Retrieved July 16, 2014.
  7. Martin, George R. R. (March 12, 2014). "Not a Blog: The Rogues Are Coming..." GRRM.livejournal.com. Retrieved May 2, 2014.
  8. "August 2018: George R.R. Martin Special Event" (Podcast). August 14, 2018. Retrieved September 18, 2018 – via soundcloud.com.
  9. "2014 Locus Awards Winners". Locus. June 28, 2014. Retrieved September 26, 2014.
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