Claim: Melisandre appeared in the third novel in A Song of Ice and Fire.

A Song of Ice and Fire is a series of epic fantasy novels by the American novelist and screenwriter George R. R. Martin . He began the first volume of the series , A Game of Thrones , in 1991 and had it published in 1996 . Martin , who initially envisioned the series as a trilogy , has published five out of a planned seven volumes . The fifth and most recent volume of the series published in 2011 , A Dance with Dragons , took Martin five years to write . He is still writing the sixth novel , The Winds of Winter .   A Song of Ice and Fire takes place on the fictional continents Westeros and Essos . The point of view of each chapter in the story is a limited perspective of a range of characters growing from nine , in the first novel , to thirty-one by the fifth . Three main stories interweave a dynastic war among several families for control of Westeros , the rising threat of the supernatural Others in the northernmost reaches of Westeros , and the ambition of Daenerys Targaryen , the deposed king 's exiled daughter , to assume the Iron Throne .   Martin 's inspirations included the Wars of the Roses and the French historical novels The Accursed Kings by Maurice Druon . A Song of Ice and Fire received praise for its diverse portrayal of women and religion , as well as its realism . An assortment of disparate and subjective points of view confronts the reader , and the success or survival of point of view characters is never assured . Within the often morally ambiguous world of A Song of Ice and Fire , questions concerning loyalty , pride , human sexuality , piety , and the morality of violence frequently arise .   As of April 2015 , the books have sold more than 60 million copies worldwide and , as of January 2017 , have been translated into 47 languages . The fourth and fifth volumes reached the top of The New York Times Best Seller lists upon their releases . Among the many derived works are several prequel novellas , a TV series , a comic book adaptation , and several card , board , and video games .