A Storm of Swords
After "A Game of Thrones", "A Clash of Kings", and "A Storm of Swords", Martin originally intended to write three more books. The fourth book, tentatively titled "A Dance with Dragons", was to focus on Daenerys Targaryen's return to Westeros and the associated conflicts. Martin wanted to set this story five years after "A Storm of Swords" so that the younger characters could grow older and the dragons grow larger. Agreeing with his publishers early on that the new book should be shorter than "A Storm of Swords", Martin set out to write the novel closer in length to "A Clash of Kings". A long prologue was to establish what had happened in the meantime, initially just as one chapter of Aeron Damphair on the Iron Islands at the Kingsmoot. Since the events on the Iron Islands were to have an impact in the book and could not be told with existing POV characters, Martin eventually introduced three new viewpoints.