A Song of Ice and Fire

thumb|262px|right|American cover art for the first five books in the series
A Song of Ice and Fire is an award-winning series of bestselling books of epic fantasy novels by American author and scriptwriter George R.R. Martin. The series currently comprises five published novels with two more anticipated to bring the series to a conclusion. The fifth book, A Dance with Dragons, was published on July 12, 2011. There are also three prequel novellas set in the same world. Game of Thrones is the television adaptation of the books.
==Novels==
===A Game of Thrones (1996)===
A Game of Thrones is the first novel of A Song of Ice and Fire, written by George R.R. Martin. It was published on August 6, 1996. It is the basis for the first season of Game of Thrones. Viewpoint characters include:
*Will (prologue)
*Bran Stark
*Catelyn Stark
*Daenerys Targaryen
*Eddard Stark
*Jon Snow
*Arya Stark
*Tyrion Lannister
*Sansa Stark
===A Clash of Kings (1998)===
A Clash of Kings is the second novel of A Song of Ice and Fire, written by George R.R. Martin. It was published on November 16, 1998. It is the basis for the second season of Game of Thrones. Viewpoint characters include:
*Cressen (prologue)
*Arya Stark
*Sansa Stark
*Tyrion Lannister
*Bran Stark
*Jon Snow
*Catelyn Stark
*Davos Seaworth
*Theon Greyjoy
*Daenerys Targaryen
===A Storm of Swords (2000)===
A Storm of Swords is the third novel of A Song of Ice and Fire, written by George R.R. Martin. It was published on August 8, 2000. It is the basis for the third and fourth seasons of Game of Thrones. Viewpoint characters include:
*Chett (prologue)
*Jaime Lannister
*Catelyn Stark
*Arya Stark
*Tyrion Lannister
*Davos Seaworth
*Sansa Stark
*Jon Snow
*Daenerys Targaryen
*Bran Stark
*Samwell Tarly
*Merrett Frey (epilogue)
===A Feast for Crows (2005)===
A Feast for Crows is the fourth novel of A Song of Ice and Fire, written by George R.R. Martin. It was published on October 17, 2005. It is the basis for the fifth season of Game of Thrones. Viewpoint characters include:
*Pate (prologue)
*Aeron Greyjoy
*Areo Hotah
*Cersei Lannister
*Brienne of Tarth
*Samwell Tarly
*Arya Stark
*Jaime Lannister
*Sansa Stark
*Asha Greyjoy
*Arys Oakheart
*Victarion Greyjoy
*Arianne Martell
===A Dance with Dragons (2011)===
A Dance with Dragons is the fifth novel of A Song of Ice and Fire, written by George R.R. Martin. It was published on July 12, 2011. It is the basis for the fifth season of Game of Thrones. Viewpoint characters include:
*Varamyr Sixskins (prologue)
*Tyrion Lannister
*Daenerys Targaryen
*Jon Snow
*Bran Stark
*Quentyn Martell
*Davos Seaworth
*Theon Greyjoy
*Jon Connington
*Asha Greyjoy
*Melisandre
*Areo Hotah
*Arya Stark
*Jaime Lannister
*Cersei Lannister
*Barristan Selmy
*Victarion Greyjoy
*Kevan Lannister (epilogue)
===The Winds of Winter (TBA)===
The Winds of Winter is the forthcoming sixth novel of A Song of Ice and Fire, written by George R.R. Martin. An outline of the novel served as the basis for the sixth, seventh, and eighth seasons of Game of Thrones. Viewpoint characters include:
*Theon Greyjoy
*Arianne Martell
*Victarion Greyjoy
*Barristan Selmy
*Tyrion Lannister
*Arya Stark
*Sansa Stark
*Aeron Greyjoy
*Areo Hotah
*Asha Greyjoy
*Cersei Lannister
===A Dream of Spring (TBA)===
A Dream of Spring is forthcoming seventh and final novel of A Song of Ice and Fire, written by George R.R. Martin. An outline of the novel served as the basis for the seventh and eighth seasons of Game of Thrones.
==Derived works==
===Novellas===
====Dunk & Egg novellas (1998-present)====
The Dunk & Egg novellas are a series of prequel novellas set about 90 years before the events of the main A Song of Ice and Fire series.
# The Hedge Knight (1998)
# The Sworn Sword (2002)
# The Mystery Knight (2009)
# The She-Wolves of Winterfell (TBA)
# The Village Hero (TBA)
Additional stories of unknown chronology:
*The Sellsword (TBA)
*The Champion (TBA)
*The Kingsguard (TBA)
*The Lord Commander (TBA)
The first three novellas were released in unrelated sci-fi and fantasy short story collections, and were later collected into an omnibus titled A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms (featuring new artwork), released in 2015.
Through his blog, Martin has indicated that The She-Wolves of Winterfell was just a working title, and that the final title when it is released will be something else. Another forthcoming Dunk & Egg story which he has fairly well planned out is called The Village Hero and takes place in the Riverlands. Others he intends to write include The Sellsword, The Champion, The Kingsguard, and The Lord Commander, along with several as-yet untitled story ideas.
There are at least nine more, unpublished novellas that Martin tentatively intends to write, for a total of twelve novellas once the entire series is finished.
====The Dance of the Dragons (2013-2014)====
*The Princess and the Queen, or, The Blacks and the Greens (2013)
*The Rogue Prince, or, A King's Brother (2014)
Martin began writing a detailed in-universe history text about the great Targaryen civil war known as the Dance of the Dragons (in which Targaryen fought Targaryen and dragon fought dragon) as a submission for an omnibus of collected works by several authors. In his own words he got a bit carried away, and ended up writing a detailed 80,000 word history even though the maximum length set for the novella submission was 30,000 pages. Martin had to focus only on one 30,000 work piece of the larger story, which he submitted as The Princess and the Queen. This was later followed by The Rogue Prince, which is about 10,000 words long. Therefore, as of 2015 about half of what he wrote has not been released.
The narrative conceit that Martin developed for these prequels is a drastic departure from his previous third person POV writing style. Instead, it is presented as an in-universe history text from Westeros written by "Archmaester Gyldayn." This format allowed Martin to write about events which were public knowledge to most people in Westeros, while still keeping the secret reasons why people actually did things unknown, or allowing secret betrayals to remain secret. To explain why only a 30,000 page section of the full 80,000 word text Martin wrote was not released, he gave the in-universe explanation that Gyldayn's history text was severely damaged and certain volumes lost, but that new sections are released as soon as the Citadel can locate copies of the missing sections.
As a result, The Rogue Prince takes place immediately before The Princess and the Queen, but it isn't really a true "prequel" because they were both written at the same time. Rather, it is as if the original draft was divided up into eight parts, of which The Princess and the Queen is "part two through part four" and The Rogue Prince is "part one," but the parts were then released out of order. A reader can actually start with The Rogue Prince, out of publication order, without being spoiled for later events, because this is the order the material was actually originally intended to be read in.
===Companion books===
====The World of Ice & Fire (2014)====
The World of Ice & Fire was published in 2014, presented as being an in-universe history book. It presents the expansive backstory of the known world of Westeros and beyond, much of it never revealed before in the main novels. It has not yet been mentioned within the main novel series, though it is considered to be fully part of the book-continuity canon.
It was produced as an extensive collaboration between Martin himself and his long-time collaborators/fact-checkers, Elio Garcia and Linda Antonsson, who run the fansite Westeros.org. The project lasted nearly ten years: originally it was intended that Elio & Linda would write most of it as a summation of what was already mentioned in the novels, with Martin writing a few sidebars, but ultimately he produced vast new amounts of material both about the past of Westeros, and about the lands beyond it (actually expanding to detail the histories of lands east of the Dothraki such as Yi Ti, which are barely even mentioned in the main novels).
Originally the authors found it difficult to simply present an objective compendium/encyclopedia of events, because it would give away major revelations: would an article on Jon Snow actually state that he isn't Ned Stark's son, but Rhaegar Targaryen's? Would an article about Jaime Lannister explain why he really killed the Mad King, even though that is a secret revelation only given in the third novel? The answer they came up with was to present it as an in-universe history textbook written by "Maester Yandel." Yandel is the author-avatar of Elio & Linda, but at times he quotes from an earlier and more expansive history textbook written by "Maester Gyldayn" (the author avatar of George R.R. Martin). Thus the book isn't objective, but represents what is common knowledge to the average and reasonably well-informed lord in Westeros - i.e. most people actually know the general events of the Robert's Rebellion but in the core novels they don't halt the narrative for a dozen pages to give a long speech detailing everything about it. Similarly, most people in real life know the general outline of World War II, but characters in television and movies don't stop to give long speeches outlining the entire event, because they and everyone around them already knows it.
Martin actually wrote a much longer history of House Targaryen which had to be edited down for the excerpts in The World of Ice & Fire which were eventually collected into a volume titled Fire & Blood.
====Fire & Blood (2018)====
Fire & Blood is another in-universe history book. While the World book broadly covers everything from the North and the Reach to the Free Cities, Fire & Blood is focused in more detail on the three century reign of the Targaryen dynasty up to Aegon III. It is meant to be based on all of Martin's previously unpublished notes about the backstory of House Targaryen. The prequel series House of the Dragon is based on this book, specifically the events of the Dance of the Dragons.
====Other companion books====
* The Art of Ice and Fire, Volume I (2005)
* The Art of Ice and Fire, Volume II (2011)
* A Feast of Ice and Fire (2012), a companion cooking book, with a foreword by Martin.
* The Lands of Ice and Fire (2012), a collection of map-posters, including exclusive maps previously unreleased with the novels, and the first full map of the known world.
*The Rise of the Dragon (2022), an encyclopedic version of Fire & Blood with new illustrations
*Blood & Fire (TBA), a continuation of Fire & Blood up to the reign of Aerys II Targaryen, the "Mad King." Martin revealed in July 2017 that Fire & Blood would have a second volume due to the size it had grown to, but that he won't continue with it until after the main novels are finished.
===Games===
====Board games====
* A Game of Thrones, Fantasy Flight (2003)
** A Game of Thrones: A Clash of Kings, Fantasy Flight (2004)
** A Game of Thrones: A Storm of Swords, Fantasy Flight (2006)
====Roleplaying games====
* A Game of Thrones Roleplaying, Guardians of Order (2005)
* A Song of Ice and Fire Roleplaying: Adventures in the Seven Kingdoms, Green Ronin (2009)
** Peril at King's Landing, Green Ronin (2009)
** A Song of Ice and Fire Narrator's Kit, Green Ronin (2009)
** A Song of Ice and Fire Campaign Guide, Green Ronin (2010)
====Video games====
*A Game of Thrones: Genesis, Cyanide Studios (2011)
*Game of Thrones, Cyanide Studios (2012)
==Adaptation==
HBO's World of Westeros franchise is an adaptation of A Song of Ice and Fire and its supplementary material. It currently consists of two live-action television series, Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon, with a third, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms: The Hedge Knight, in development.
===Game of Thrones (2011-2019)===
Game of Thrones is a live-action adaptation of the first five novels of A Song of Ice and Fire, as well as plot outlines from the remaining two unpublished novels. The series ran for eight seasons from 2011 to 2019 on HBO.
==References==
===Notes===
==External links==
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Category:Books written by George R.R. Martin
Category:Game of Thrones
Category:Histories & Lore
Category:Novels
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