Should you read the House of The Dragon books before watching the series?

It’s a tricky one, frankly. Unlike Game of Thrones, which is based primarily on a more discrete number of novels that follow a traditional narrative, the information that inspires House of the Dragon is outlined in less detail in the fake history guide Fire & Blood, several novellas, a few other history books, and the same novels that gave us Game of Thrones through passing mentions and fleeting thoughts from the main characters therein. So, basically, you’d be spread across multiple sources, snooping around for this and that – a confusing experience. And unlike Game of Thrones, which is an adaptation of the novels, House of The Dragon isn’t a true adaptation. Instead, it positions itself as the real events that are only somewhat accurately recounted in Fire & Blood and elsewhere years after the event, like all accounts of the past (though it’s entirely up to you to decide if that’s the case). As someone who has read them all, I advise anyone who hasn’t to get a copy of Fire and Blood and read the passages relevant to each episode AFTER watching each week. It’s a nice little addition to the experience and a fun way to get more depth about the series off-screen, especially if you pretend this is the imperfect story of the series you just watched. Read the novellas after the series ends. So basically no – don’t read the source material first. Read it anyway!