A Song of Ice and Fire (Literature) - TV Tropes A Song of Ice and Fire You need to login to do this. Get Known if you don't have an account Share Literature / A Song of Ice and Fire × Here there be many a trope, in the great wide world of Ice and Fire. "He is the prince that was promised, and his is the song of ice and fire." — Rhaegar Targaryen, A Clash of Kings A Song of Ice and Fire is a bestselling Doorstopper epic fantasy series written by George R.R. Martin . The first book (out of a planned seven) was published in 1996 and the series reached its fifth book in 2011. In addition to the main books there are a variety of spin-offs and related media, such as prequels and in-universe history texts. The series is primarily set on the continent of Westeros, in a world where the seasons can last for years . Fifteen years ago lords Eddard Stark and Robert Baratheon, along with their foster father Jon Arryn, rose up in rebellion and overthrew the Mad King Aerys Targaryen .

They appointed Robert to the throne and drove Aerys' children into exile, breaking a 300-year dynasty of inbred kings. Now Eddard rules his northern homeland and raises his own family in peace. When Jon Arryn unexpectedly dies King Robert ventures north to name Eddard as the new Hand of the King, the most powerful man in the Seven Kingdoms after the king himself. Eddard must leave his home to join the corrupt court in King's Landing and find the truth about Jon's death, unwittingly setting a civil war into motion. Unbeknownst to all the vengeance-mad children of King Aerys, living in exile far away from Westeros, plot their return. Meanwhile Eddard's acknowledged bastard Jon Snow ventures north to join the Night's Watch at the Wall, an ancient structure erected eons ago. The Wall is supposed to keep out the Others, a mysterious race of ice demons who once ravaged Westeros and nearly wiped out mankind. However the Others have been unseen for so long that most living people think them a myth, and the once-honourable Watch has been reduced to a fraction of the size it once was and is now mostly composed of condemned criminals commuting their death sentences .

The Others are prophesied to return in the Longest Night, a winter colder than any other, which will last forever if the Others should conquer Westeros. Naturally, at the time these novels are set, winter is coming and it could not come at a worse time for a land which is soon to be engulfed in tyranny, civil war, and invaders from across the sea. Main series Archmaester Gyldayn's Histories : The Princess and the Queen, or, The Blacks and the Greens: A novella written as an in-universe history text, narrating the events of the Dance of the Dragons, a war of succession between rival Targaryen branches 170 years before the time of the main series. The Rogue Prince, or, The King's Brother: A novella narrating the exploits of Prince Daemon Targaryen, including the events leading to "The Princess and the Queen", published in June 2014 as part of an anthology of short stories Martin helped publish called Rogues. (Martin also provided the forward) Tales of Dunk and Egg - Novellas set 90 years before the conflict of the main series.

Three tales - "The Hedge Knight", "The Sworn Sword" and "The Mystery Knight", have been published, but George R. R. Martin has announced that this will be an ongoing series that will eventually chronicle the complete adventures of Dunk and Egg. These have also been adapted as graphic novels. A World of Ice and Fire (a.k.a. A Game of Thrones Guide): A smartphone app offering details on a multitude of events, characters, and locations written by Elio M. Garcia Jr. and Linda Antonsson, the admins of popular fansite Westeros.org. The Lands of Ice and Fire: A book of poster-sized maps, including regions of the world that have yet to be explored in the novels. The World of Ice & Fire : The Untold History of Westeros and the Game of Thrones: A series encyclopedia, co-written by Martin, Garcia, and Antonsson. The book is framed as a history written by one Maester Yandel and presented to King Robert as a gift. The series has been received with great acclaim, with TIME Magazine even going so far as to brand Martin "the American Tolkien ." They share a Switching P.O.V.

and infrequent instances of magic, but Ice and Fire has so many narrators that there is no central protagonist. The series is located on the far end of the Sliding Scale of Idealism vs. Cynicism , with moral ambiguity very prevalent and few clear-cut heroes or villains. Martin plays for keeps with his characters, and Anyone Can Die , no matter who they are, how safe they seem, how beloved by fans they are or how important they are to the setting's stability. There is no "Save the World" Climax scenario yet either, but after four books the Three Lines Some Waiting finally started coming together in a much-alluded Myth Arc of greater scope. The first three books were released over the course of a decade, with the next two over another. This has led to anxiety for some fans, as when A Storm of Swords was released, it ended on a cliffhanger, and then later A Feast for Crows and A Dance with Dragons suffered major structural problems that led to a lot of Schedule Slip , exacerbated by Martin and/or over-eager vendors announcing publication dates only to miss them with little-to-no explanation.

Repeat this a few times, during which time fellow Fantasy Doorstopper writer Robert Jordan passed away , and the end result is a very worried and impatient fanbase. A TV adaptation is now airing on HBO . Scripted by Dan Weiss and David Benioff, the show is planned for eight seasons, with A Storm of Swords comprising two seasons, the fifth and sixth seasons being a combination of A Feast For Crows and A Dance with Dragons but told chronologically rather than by splitting locations and characters as in the books; all other seasons roughly corresponding to a single novel. By the time of its fourth season, it has become the highest-rated show in HBO history. Martin has been very supportive of the project, even writing some of the episodes and has given Weiss and Benioff the outlines for the remaining unreleased books in the series in case they outpace him for one reason or another . The series has also spawned several licensed works: " and Winter Is Coming , a central nexus for news on the TV show. Feel free also to check out our recap page as well; while it focuses on the TV show, it still contains the gist of the novels (it is quite faithful) and documents any significant deviations.

Martin has released a few sample chapters for The Winds of Winter here . Others can be found online. You can vote on the best book in the series here ! As the page for the novels is already considerable and ever growing, please enter the tropes found only in the live action series and video game on their own pages. This series provides examples of: A Song of Ice and Fire | A Song of Ice and Fire Wiki | Fandom powered by Wikia A Song of Ice and Fire 1,235pages on Share The US covers of the first five novels in the series A Song of Ice and Fire is a series of epic fantasy novels written by American novelist and screenwriter George R.R. Martin . He began writing the series in 1991 and the first volume was published in 1996. Originally envisaged as a trilogy, there are now five published novels in the series with two more planned. There are also three novellas which act as prequels to the novels, with several more planned, and three other novellas consisting of excepts from the main novels. A Song of Ice and Fire has sold over 58 million copies worldwide and is now published in more than twenty languages.

The third through fifth volumes in the series reached the New York Times bestseller list, with the fourth and fifth volumes topping the list in the week of their release. In 2011, the American cable television company HBO began airing a drama series based on the books, under the title Game of Thrones . The series won instant critical and popular acclaim. By the end of the show's fourth season, it had become HBO's most successful-ever dramatic series and had won multiple Emmy Awards . The series has been renewed for a sixth season, due to air in 2016, and is anticipated will consist of at least seven seasons before being completed. The series has been adapted as a board games, a tabletop wargame, a collectible card game and as two tabletop roleplaying games. There have been two computer games based on the series, with a third planned. Contents Edit The story of A Song of Ice and Fire takes place in a fictional world, primarily upon a continent called Westeros but also on a large landmass to the east, known as Essos .

Most of the characters are human but as the series progresses other races are introduced, such as the cold and menacing Others from the far North and fire-breathing dragons from the East, both races thought to be extinct. There are three principal storylines in the series: the chronicling of a dynastic civil war for control of Westeros between several competing families; the rising threat of the Others who dwell beyond an immense wall of ice that forms Westeros' northern border; and the journey of Daenerys Targaryen, the exiled daughter of a king who was murdered in another civil war fifteen years previously and now seeks to return to Westeros and claim her rightful throne. As the series progresses, all three storylines become increasingly interwoven and dependent on each other. The series is told in the limited third-person through the eyes of a number of POV characters. By the end of the fourth volume, there have been twenty-five such characters, although these include eight who only appear once apiece. While the series is set in a fictional world and Martin has acknowledged his debt to the works of J.R.R. Tolkien, Jack Vance and Tad Williams, the series differs from these earlier works in its greater interest in and use of realistic elements.

While Tolkien was inspired by mythology, A Song of Ice and Fire is more clearly influenced by medieval history, most notably the Wars of the Roses. Likewise, while Tolkien included romance in his tales, Martin writes frequently, albeit in a clever fashion, of sexual matters. This has led to the series being cited as a forerunner of a 'gritty' new wave of epic fantasy authors that followed, including Scott Lynch, Joe Abercrombie, Steven Erikson and Scott Bakker. On his website, Martin has acknowledged historical fiction authors such as Bernard Cornwell and George MacDonald Fraser to be influences on the series. Martin has cited the cover blurb by Robert Jordan for the first book to have been influential in ensuring the series' early success with fantasy readers. Background Edit The background to A Song of Ice and Fire is revealed through the lengthy appendices which follow on from each volume, with additional information revealed through the novellas, the text of the novels themselves and the role-playing game. The narrative is set primarily in the fictional Seven Kingdoms of Westeros, a large, South America-sized continent with an ancient history stretching back some twelve thousand years, and where the seasons last for years.

The original inhabitants of the land were the children of the forest (whose old gods are still worshipped in the North ), a dimunitive race who lived in harmony with nature and employed powerful magic. The First Men , a civilization of primitive warriors wielding bronze weapons and riding horses, crossed over from the eastern continent via a land bridge (destroyed in the resulting conflicts) and fought a series of wars against the children which ended with the Pact of the Isle of Faces being signed, with the First Men taking control of the open lands and the children remaining in the forests. The Pact was weakened after four thousand years by the emergence of the Others , an enigmatic race from the furthermost north, who swept south into Westeros and caused great death and destruction, bringing about a night that lasted a generation and a winter that lasted decades. In the War for the Dawn , the Others were thrown back by the First Men and the children of the forest, and the vast Wall was raised to bar their passage south should they come again. In the following centuries the children gradually disappeared, and it was presumed that they died out or left Westeros altogether. Approximately two thousand years after the War for the Dawn, the Andals crossed the narrow sea from the eastern continent.

The Andals wielded iron weapons, had tamed horses to use in battle and brought with them the Faith of the Seven . They landed in the Vale of Arryn and over the course of several millennia subjugated the southern kingdoms. However, they could not take the North due to natural defences. Over time six great and powerful kingdoms were forged across Westeros: the Kingdom of the North, the Kingdom of the Iron Islands , the Kingdom of Vale and Sky, the Kingdom of the Rock , the Kingdom of the Stormlands and the Kingdom of the Reach . A seventh kingdom — that of the Riverlands — was repeatedly conquered by its neighbours and eventually was destroyed altogether, whilst the small desert kingships in the far south of Westeros were divided by constant struggle and war. One thousand years prior to the events of the novels, a great host of refugees from the region of the River Rhoyne on the eastern continent — displaced by the growing power of a distant empire called Valyria — crossed the narrow sea under the warrior-queen Nymeria and landed in the southern-most part of Westeros. The Rhoynar allied with the native Lord Mors Martell and conquered the southern peninsula of Dorne , forging another powerful kingdom.

By five centuries later the expanding Valyrian Freehold had reached the far coast of the narrow sea and established links with Westeros, using the island of Dragonstone as a trading port. However, a mere century later the Valyrian Freehold was destroyed by a titanic disaster known as the Doom . The Valyrian family that controlled Dragonstone, the Targaryens , spent a further century in preparing their forces, and then launched a devastating invasion of Westeros under Aegon the Conqueror . Although their forces were tiny, they had with them the last three dragons in the western world and they were able to use these to subjugate the continent. Six of the Seven Kingdoms were conquered in this initial war, but Dorne resisted so fiercely that Aegon agreed to let them remain independent. The Targaryens adopted the native Faith of the Seven (although they still married brother to sister in the ancient Valyrian tradition in defiance of the Faith's teachings) and Westerosi customs, and within a few decades had crushed all resistance to their rule.

The last dragons died out a century and a half into the Targaryen rule, but by this time they had become the ruling power on the continent and their rule was not challenged at this time. Fifteen years prior to the beginning of the novels, the Targaryens were displaced from power in a civil war brought about by King Aerys II 's insanity and cruelty. An alliance of houses under the leadership of Lord Robert Baratheon , Lord Jon Arryn , and Lord Eddard Stark successfully destroyed the Targaryen armies, then went on to kill Aerys's heir and wiped out most of the line, aside from Aerys' pregnant wife and his son Viserys , who fled to Dragonstone. King Aerys himself was killed by Ser Jaime Lannister , a member of his own Kingsguard , who since then has been nicknamed the Kingslayer . Aerys' wife died giving birth to their daughter Daenerys , who was taken to safety in the Free Cities beyond the narrow sea by loyal retainers. In the meantime, Robert Baratheon took the Iron Throne and married Cersei Lannister , whose father Tywin had delivered Robert the capital of King's Landing through treachery.

Plot summary Edit A Song of Ice and Fire follows three principal storylines, divided by geography and participants. The first storyline, set in the Seven Kingdoms themselves, chronicles a many-sided struggle for the Iron Throne that develops after King Robert's death. The throne is claimed by his son Joffrey , supported by his mother's powerful family, House Lannister , but Lord Eddard Stark, the King's Hand, claims that Robert's children are illegitimate, and that the throne should fall to Robert's brother Stannis . Robert's youngest brother, Renly , also places a claim with the support of the extremely powerful House Tyrell . Whilst these three claimants battle for the Iron Throne, Robb Stark , Lord Eddard Stark's heir, is proclaimed King in the North as the northmen and their allies in the Riverlands seek to return to self-rule. Likewise, Balon Greyjoy also re-claims the ancient throne of his own region, the Iron Islands , with an eye towards independence. The War of the Five Kings is the principal storyline in the second and third novels, while the fourth novel concerns the realm's recovery in the face of the coming winter. The second storyline is set on the extreme northern border of Westeros.

Here, eight thousand years ago, a huge wall of ice and gravel was constructed by both magic and labor to defend Westeros from the threat of the Others, a race of ice creatures living in the uttermost north. This Wall, 300 miles (480 km) long and 700 feet (210 m) tall, is defended and maintained by the Sworn Brotherhood of the Night's Watch , whose primary duty is to guard against the Others, but by the time the novels begin it is badly under-strength and has almost forgotten its original purpose, instead being threatened by the human ' wildlings ' or 'Free Folk' who live beyond the Wall. This storyline follows Jon Snow , the bastard son of Eddard Stark, as he rises through the ranks of the Watch, learns the true nature of the threat from the north, and prepares to defend the realm from it, despite the fact that the people of Westeros are too busy warring to send support. By the end of the third volume, this storyline has become somewhat entangled with the civil war to the south with the arrival of one of the claimants to the Iron Throne after the defeat of his armies in battle.

The third storyline is set on the huge eastern continent of Essos and follows the journey of Daenerys Targaryen, the last scion of House Targaryen and another claimant to the Iron Throne. Daenerys's adventures showcase her growth as she rises from a near-penniless wanderer to a powerful and canny ruler who possesses the last living dragons in the western world. Though her story is separated from the others by many thousands of miles, her stated goal is to reclaim the Iron Throne, and it is presumed she will travel to Westeros before the end of the series. While she has no memories of Westeros and is barely known there, she may still be welcomed: the chaos of two civil wars in rapid succession has led to much yearning among the smallfolk for the days of stability under the Targaryens. The eponymous Song of Ice and Fire has been mentioned only rarely in the series so far, most notably in a vision Daenerys sees in the House of the Undying in A Clash of Kings. This vision depicts her dead brother Rhaegar speaking of his son , saying, "He is the prince that was promised, and his is the song of ice and fire".

It is implied that there is a connection between this song, the promised prince, and Daenerys herself, who according to her granduncle Aemon will fulfill the prophecy (the Valyrian word "prince" is gender-neutral, just as their dragons are hermaphrodites). The phrase "ice and fire" is also mentioned in the Reeds' oath of loyalty to Bran in A Clash of Kings. Origins of the series Edit George R. R. Martin had a long love of model knights and medieval history, but his early novels and short stories mostly fit into the science fiction genre; however, eventually several fantasy stories did appear, such as The Ice Dragon. [1] In the mid-1980s, Martin worked mainly in Hollywood, principally as a writer or producer on The New Twilight Zone and Beauty and the Beast, where he attracted some criticism for killing off a major character. After Beauty and the Beast ended in 1989 Martin returned to writing prose and started work on a long-planned science fiction novel called Avalon. In 1991, whilst struggling with this story, Martin conceived of an unrelated scene where several youngsters find a dead direwolf with a stag's antler in its throat.

The direwolf has several pups, which are taken by the youngsters to raise as their own. Martin's imagination was fired by this idea and he developed it into an epic fantasy story, which he envisaged as a trilogy consisting of the books A Game of Thrones, A Dance with Dragons and The Winds of Winter. Martin had previously apparently not been inspired by the genre, but reading Tad Williams' Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn series had convinced him it could be approached in a more adult and mature way than previous authors. After a hiatus spent producing a television pilot for a series called Doorways, Martin resumed work on A Game of Thrones, but the book grew much larger than he had planned. As a result of this, Martin then expanded his plan for the series to four books, and then to six. Publication of A Game of Thrones followed in early 1996. Pre-release publicity included publication of a 'sample novella' called Blood of the Dragon, which went on to win the 1997 Hugo Award for Best Novella.

In order to fit A Game of Thrones into one volume, Martin had pulled out the last quarter or so of the book and made it the opening section of the second book, which he then named A Clash of Kings. Growth of the series Edit After expanding the series to four volumes, Martin remarked, "What can I say? It's a BIG story, and a cast of thousands." [2] After A Storm of Swords was completed in 2000, Martin began writing A Dance with Dragons, the intended fourth volume which would pick up the story five years after the previous volume. Martin found it difficult to make this work without an over-reliance on flashbacks. At the World Science Fiction Convention in Philadelphia on 1 September 2001, Martin announced that he was scrapping more than a year's work and writing a different fourth book that would fill in the gap, named A Feast for Crows. He found it extremely difficult to go back and start again, especially as this novel was not planned for in his scheme for the series, and work on the book progressed slowly.

By May 2005 A Feast for Crows had become longer than A Storm of Swords and his publishers said they could not publish the book in one volume. They suggested splitting the book in two and releasing the volumes as A Feast for Crows, Volume I and A Feast for Crows, Volume II, but Martin was unhappy with this idea. After discussing the matter with his publishers and his friend and fellow writer Daniel Abraham, Martin decided to split the book by character and location instead. A Feast for Crows thus contains all of the characters in the South of the Seven Kingdoms, whilst A Dance with Dragons contains the characters in the North, the Free Cities and in Slaver's Bay. In a May 2005 statement, the author also said that this move now meant that the series would require seven volumes. Martin recognized that this decision could cause frustration among some of his fans. He wrote: "I know some of you may be disappointed, especially when you buy A Feast for Crows and discover that your favorite character does not appear, but given the realities I think this was the best solution...

and the more I look at it, the more convinced I am that these two parallel novels, when taken together, will actually tell the story better than one big book." [3] These problems aside, A Feast for Crows was released in October 2005 and immediately won largely positive reviews. Time dubbed Martin, "The American Tolkien " [4] , and the novel went straight to the top of the New York Times bestseller list. Despite initial hopes of A Dance with Dragons being published quickly after A Feast for Crows, the writing and revision process for this fifth novel proved more difficult than anticipated, with significant unforseen rewrites and structural changes to the book being required. The book was eventually published in July 2011 to strong critical praise, but a more mixed fan reception. Martin began work on The Winds of Winter soon after, initially using chapters delayed from the previous book, and hopes to complete the book in 2016.

Works Peril at King's Landing (2009) A Song of Ice and Fire Campaign Guide (2010) A Song of Ice and Fire: Game of Thrones Edition (2012) The Night's Watch (2012) Read A Song of Ice and Fire series online free by George R.R. Martin A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire #1) Summers span decades. Winter can last a lifetime. And the struggle for the Iron Throne has begun. As Warden of the north, Lord Eddard Stark counts it a curse when King Robert bestows on him the office of the Hand. His honour weighs him down at court where a true man does what he will, not what he must … and a dead enemy is a thing of beauty. The old gods have no power in the south, Stark’s family is split and there is treachery at court. Worse, the vengeance-mad heir of the deposed Dragon King has grown to maturity in exile in the Free Cities. He claims the Iron Throne. A Clash of Kings (A Song of Ice and Fire #2) Time is out of joint.

The summer of peace and plenty, ten years long, is drawing to a close, and the harsh, chill winter approaches like an angry beast. Two great leaders—Lord Eddard Stark and Robert Baratheon—who held sway over an age of enforced peace are dead...victims of royal treachery. Now, from the ancient citadel of Dragonstone to the forbidding shores of Winterfell, chaos reigns, as pretenders to the Iron Throne of the Seven Kingdoms prepare to stake their claims through tempest, turmoil, and war. As a prophecy of doom cuts across the sky—a comet the color of blood and flame—six factions struggle for control of a divided land. Eddard's son Robb has declared himself King in the North. In the south, Joffrey, the heir apparent, rules in name only, victim of the scheming courtiers who teem over King's Landing. Robert's two brothers each seek their own dominion, while a disfavored house turns once more to conquest. And a continent away, an exiled queen, the Mother of Dragons, risks everything to lead her precious brood across a hard hot desert to win back the crown that is rightfully hers.

A Storm of Swords (A Song of Ice and Fire #3) Of the five contenders for power, one is dead, another in disfavor, and still the wars rage as alliances are made and broken. Joffrey sits on the Iron Throne, the uneasy ruler of the Seven Kingdoms. His most bitter rival, Lord Stannis, stands defeated and disgraced, victim of the sorceress who holds him in her thrall. Young Robb still rules the North from the fortress of Riverrun. Meanwhile, making her way across a blood-drenched continent is the exiled queen, Daenerys, mistress of the only three dragons still left in the world. And as opposing forces manoeuver for the final showdown, an army of barbaric wildlings arrives from the outermost limits of civilization, accompanied by a horde of mythical Others—a supernatural army of the living dead whose animated corpses are unstoppable. As the future of the land hangs in the balance, no one will rest until the Seven Kingdoms have exploded in a veritable storm of swords... A Feast for Crows (A Song of Ice and Fire #4) After centuries of bitter strife, the seven powers dividing the land have beaten one another into an uneasy truce.

But it's not long before the survivors, outlaws, renegades, and carrion eaters of the Seven Kingdoms gather. Now, as the human crows assemble over a banquet of ashes, daring new plots and dangerous new alliances are formed while surprising faces—some familiar, others only just appearing—emerge from an ominous twilight of past struggles and chaos to take up the challenges of the terrible times ahead. Nobles and commoners, soldiers and sorcerers, assassins and sages, are coming together to stake their fortunes...and their lives. For at a feast for crows, many are the guests—but only a few are the survivors. A Song of Ice and Fire - A Wiki of Ice and Fire A Song of Ice and Fire From A Wiki of Ice and Fire A Song of Ice and Fire US covers for the first five books audiobook ebook A Song of Ice and Fire (commonly abbreviated as ASoIaF) is an ongoing a series of epic fantasy novels by American novelist and screenwriter George R. R. Martin . Martin began writing the series in 1991 and the first volume was published in 1996.

Originally planned as a trilogy, the series now consists of five published volumes; a further two are planned. In addition there are three prequel novellas currently available, with several more being planned, and a series of novella-length excerpts from the main Ice and Fire novels. The story of A Song of Ice and Fire takes place in a fictional world , primarily on a continent called Westeros but also on a large landmass to the east, known as Essos . [1] Most of the characters are human but as the series progresses others are introduced, such as the cold and menacing supernatural Others from the far North and fire-breathing dragons from the East, both thought to be extinct by the humans of the story. There are three principal story lines in the series: the chronicling of a dynastic civil war for control of Westeros among several competing families; the rising threat of the Others, who dwell beyond an immense wall of ice that forms Westeros' northern border; and the ambition of Daenerys Targaryen , the exiled daughter of a king who was murdered in another civil war fifteen years before, to return to Westeros and claim her rightful throne.

As the series progresses, the three story lines become increasingly interwoven and dependent upon each other. The series is told in the third-person through the eyes of a number of point of view characters. By the end of the fourth volume, there have been 17 such characters with multiple chapters and eight who only have one chapter apiece. Several new viewpoint characters are introduced by the conclusion of the fifth volume, setting the stage for the major events of the sixth novel. Contents 8 References and Notes Back story A Song of Ice and Fire is set primarily in the fictional Seven Kingdoms of Westeros , a large, South American-sized continent with an ancient history stretching back some twelve thousand years. A detailed history reveals how seven kingdoms came to dominate this continent, and then how these seven nations were united as one by Aegon the Conqueror, of House Targaryen . Some 283 years after Aegon's conquest, the Targaryens are overthrown in a civil war and King Robert Baratheon , backed primarily by his friend Lord Eddard Stark and foster father Lord Jon Arryn , takes the Iron Throne.

The novels, which begin fifteen years later, follow the fall-out from this event across three major storylines, set not only in Westeros but on the eastern continent as well. The first storyline, set in the Seven Kingdoms themselves, chronicles a many-sided struggle for the Iron Throne that develops after King Robert's death. The throne is claimed by his son Joffrey , supported by his mother's powerful family, House Lannister . However, Lord Eddard Stark, King Robert's Hand, finds out Robert's children are illegitimate, and that the throne should therefore fall to the second of the three Baratheon brothers, Stannis . The charismatic and popular youngest brother, Renly , also places a claim, openly disregarding the order of precedence, with the support of the powerful House Tyrell . While the claimants battle for the Iron Throne, Robb Stark , Lord Eddard Stark's heir, is proclaimed King in the North as the northmen and their allies in the Riverlands seek to return to self-rule. Likewise, Balon Greyjoy also (re-)claims the ancient throne of his own region, the Iron Islands, with an eye toward independence.

This so-called War of the Five Kings is the principal storyline of the first four novels; indeed, the fourth novel primarily concerns Westeros's recovery from it in the face of the coming winter and the political machinations of those seeking to gain in its aftermath. In the wake of the war, four of the five self-proclaimed kings have been killed, leaving Stannis as the sole survivor. The Iron Throne is currently held by Tommen Baratheon, allegedly Robert's son, but illegitimate too. His former regent, Cersei Lannister has been deposed and imprisoned in King's Landing by the Faith. Stannis and his army, having gained little support from the Great Houses of Westeros, are presently at the Wall, far to the north where Stannis seeks to protect the realm from the threat of invasion, and simultaneously win the favor of the northern strongholds. The second storyline is set on the extreme northern border of Westeros. Here, many thousands of years ago, a huge wall of ice and gravel was constructed by both magic and labor to defend Westeros from the threat of The Others , a race of now-mythical creatures living in the uttermost north.

This Wall, 300-mile-long, 700-foot-tall, is defended and maintained by the Sworn Brotherhood of the Night's Watch , whose duty is to guard the kingdom against the Others. By the time of the novels, the Others have not been seen in over 8,000 years, and the Night's Watch has devolved into essentially a penal colony: it is badly under-strength, manned primarily by criminals and refugees, with only a few knights or men of honor to stiffen them, and spends most of its time dealing with the human "wildlings" or "free folk" who live beyond the Wall. This storyline is told primarily through the eyes of Jon Snow , bastard son of Lord Eddard Stark , as he rises through the ranks of the Watch, learns the true nature of the threat from the north, and prepares to defend the realm, even though the people of Westeros are too busy warring to send support. By the end of the third volume, this storyline is somewhat entangled with the civil war to the south.

The third storyline is set on the huge eastern continent of Essos, across the narrow sea, and follows the adventures of Daenerys Targaryen , the last scion of House Targaryen in exile and another claimant to the Iron Throne. Daenerys's adventures showcase her growing ability as she rises from a pauper sold into a dynastic marriage to a barbarian warlord to a powerful and canny ruler in her own right. Her rise is aided by the birth of three dragons, creatures thought long extinct, from fossilized eggs given to her as wedding gifts. Because her family standard is the dragon, these creatures are of symbolic value before they have grown big enough to be of tactical use. Though her story is separated from the others by many thousands of miles, her stated goal is to reclaim the Iron Throne. The eponymous song of ice and fire is mentioned only once in the series, in a vision Daenerys sees in A Clash of Kings: "He is the prince that was promised, and his is the song of ice and fire ", spoken by a Targaryen (probably Daenerys's dead older brother Rhaegar Targaryen ) about his infant son named Aegon.

It is implied that there is a connection between the song, the promise, and Daenerys herself. This is established more clearly in A Feast for Crows, when Aemon Targaryen identifies Daenerys as the heir that was promised. The phrase "ice and fire" is also mentioned in the Reeds' oath of loyalty to Bran in A Clash of Kings. However, the song and the promise are never mentioned again, and the song itself remains a mystery. Themes of the novels The books are known for complex characters, sudden and often violent plot twists, and political intrigue. In a genre where magic usually takes center stage, this series has a reputation for its limited and subtle use of magic, employing it as an ambiguous and often sinister background force. [2] Finally, the novels do not (presently) center around a climactic clash between "Good" and "Evil"; plot lines have revolved primarily around political infighting and civil war, with only one or two storyline arcs even suggesting the possibility of an external threat. The novels are narrated from a very strict third person limited omniscient perspective, the chapters alternating between different point of view characters.

Martin's treatment of his characters makes them extremely hard to classify: very few can be labeled as "good" or "evil". The author also has a reputation of not being afraid to kill any character, no matter how major. Concept and creation See also: Themes in A Song of Ice and Fire Background & Origins Martin had a longtime love of miniature knights and medieval history , but his early novels and short stories mostly fit into the science fiction and horror genres; however, eventually several fantasy stories did appear, such as The Ice Dragon, which he later turned into an illustrated children's book by the same name. [3] In the mid-1980s, Martin worked mainly in Hollywood , principally as a writer or producer on The New Twilight Zone and Beauty and the Beast . After Beauty and the Beast ended in 1989, Martin returned to writing prose and started work on a science fiction novel called Avalon. In 1991, while struggling with this story, Martin conceived of a scene where several youngsters find a dead direwolf with a stag's antler in its throat. The direwolf has birthed several pups, which are then taken by the youngsters to raise as their own.

Martin's imagination was fired by this idea, and he eventually developed this scene into an epic fantasy story, which he first envisaged as a trilogy consisting of the novels A Game of Thrones, A Dance with Dragons and The Winds of Winter. Martin had apparently not been previously inspired by the genre, but reading Tad Williams ' Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn series convinced him it could be approached in a more adult and mature way than previous authors had attempted. After a lengthy hiatus spent writing and producing a television pilot for a science fiction series he had created called Doorways, Martin resumed work in 1994 on A Game of Thrones and completed it the following year, although he was only partway through his initial plan for the first novel. As a result, over time, Martin eventually expanded his plan for the series to include four books, then six, and finally seven, as the tale "grew in the telling," he said, quoting epic fantasy master J.R.R. Tolkien . Publication of A Game of Thrones followed in 1996. In the UK, the book was the subject of a fierce bidding war, eventually won by HarperCollins for £450,000.

[4] Pre-release publicity included publication of a "sample novella" called Blood of the Dragon, which went on to win the 1997 Hugo Award for Best Novella. To fit A Game of Thrones into one volume, Martin had pulled out the last quarter or so of the book and made it the opening section of the second book, 1998's A Clash of Kings. In May 2005 Martin noted that his manuscript for A Game of Thrones had been 1088 pages long without the appendices, and A Clash of Kings was even longer at 1184 pages. [5] Historic Influences Numerous parallels have been seen between the events and characters in A Song of Ice and Fire and events and people involved in the Wars of the Roses . Two of the principal families in A Song of Ice and Fire, the Starks and the Lannisters, are seen as representing the historical House of York and House of Lancaster , respectively. A similar reality-inspired conflict is the succession struggle called the Dance of the Dragons between two children Aegon II and Rhaenyra.

A historical struggle (labeled The Anarchy ) between Empress Matilda , daughter of Henry I of England , and her cousin Stephen of Blois , provides the inspiration. Each daughter is announced as her father's successor, but due to differing reasons, male rivals seize the crown and are anointed as rulers. During the dynastic struggle, the rival claimants are deposed and succeeded by the son ( Aegon III Targaryen and Henry II of England respectively) of the original designated heir. Neither Empress Matilda nor Rhaenyra actually ruled in their own name. Martin is an avid student of medieval Europe, and has said that the Wars of the Roses, along with many other events in Europe during that time, have influenced the series. However, he insists that "there's really no one-for-one character-for-character correspondence. I like to use history to flavor my fantasy, to add texture and verisimilitude, but simply rewriting history with the names changed has no appeal for me. I prefer to re-imagine it all, and take it in new and unexpected directions." [6] Martin has also said the Albigensian Crusades are an influence for the series.

Literary Influences When it comes to content, there are some major differences between the series and much of the high fantasy genre, but its structure has a lot in common with The Lord of the Rings : "Although I differ from Tolkien in important ways, I’m second to no one in my respect for him. If you look at Lord of the Rings, it begins with a tight focus and all the characters are together. Then by end of the first book the Fellowship splits up and they have different adventures. I did the same thing. Everybody is at Winterfell in the beginning except for Dany, then they split up into groups, and ultimately those split up too. The intent was to fan out, then curve and come back together. Finding the point where that turn begins has been one of the issues I’ve wrestled with." [7] Martin has acknowledged his debt to the works of J.R.R. Tolkien , [8] Jack Vance [9] and Tad Williams , [10] but the series differs from Tolkien's inspiration in its greater use of realistic elements. While Tolkien was inspired by mythology , A Song of Ice and Fire is more clearly influenced by medieval and early modern history, most notably Jacobitism and the Wars of the Roses .

[11] Likewise, while Tolkien tended toward romantic relationships, Martin writes frankly of sex, including incest, adultery, prostitution, and rape. As a result, illegitimate children play prominent roles throughout the series. This has led to the series being cited as the forerunners of a 'gritty' new wave of epic fantasy authors that followed, including Scott Lynch [12] and Joe Abercrombie . [13] On his website, Martin has acknowledged historical fiction authors such as Bernard Cornwell and George MacDonald Fraser to be influences on the series. Martin has cited the cover blurb by Robert Jordan for the first book to have been influential in ensuring the series' early success with fantasy readers. [14] Publishing history The Mystery Knight (2010) The Hedge Knight is also available as a graphic novel from Dabel Brothers Productions ; an adaptation of The Sworn Sword is forthcoming from the same company. The author has said that he would like to write a number of these stories (varying from six to twelve from interview to interview) covering the entire lives of these two characters. Additionally there are also three novellas based on chapter sets from the books, previously in collected form in other outlets.

Path of the Dragon ( Asimov’s , December 2000) based on the Daenerys chapters from A Storm of Swords. Arms of the Kraken ( Dragon issue 305, August 2002) based on the Iron Islands chapters from A Feast for Crows. Also a companion volume for the series is in development by George R. R. Martin and co-authors Elio M. Garcia, Jr. and Linda Antonsson, although no publication date has been confirmed as yet. First three novels (1991–2000) George R. R. Martin at the 2011 Time 100 gala. George R. R. Martin was already a successful fantasy and sci-fi author and TV writer before writing his A Song of Ice and Fire book series. [15] Martin published his first short story in 1971 and his first novel in 1977. [16] By the mid-1990s, he had won three Hugo Awards, two Nebulas and other awards for his short fiction.

[17] Although his early books were well received within the fantasy fiction community, his readership remained relatively small and Martin took on jobs as a writer in Hollywood in the mid-1980s. [17] He principally worked on the revival of The Twilight Zone throughout 1986 and on Beauty and the Beast from 1987 through 1990, but also developed his own TV pilots and wrote feature film scripts. Growing frustrated that none of his pilots and screenplays were getting made, [17] he was also getting tired of TV-related production limitations like budgets and episode lengths that often forced him to cut characters and trim battle scenes. [18] This pushed Martin back towards writing books, his first love, where he did not have to worry about compromising the magnitude of his imagination. [17] Admiring the works of J. R. R. Tolkien in his childhood, he wanted to write an epic fantasy but did not have any specific ideas. [19] When Martin was between Hollywood projects in the summer of 1991, he started writing a new science fiction novel called Avalon.

After three chapters, he had a vivid idea of a boy seeing a man's beheading and finding direwolves in the snow, which would eventually become the first non-prologue chapter of A Game of Thrones. [20] Putting Avalon aside, Martin finished this chapter in a few days and grew certain that it was part of a longer story. [21] After a few more chapters, Martin perceived his new book as a fantasy story [21] and started making maps and genealogies. [15] However, the writing of this book was interrupted for a few years when Martin returned to Hollywood to produce his TV series Doorways that ABC had ordered but eventually never aired. [18] Martin resumed work on A Game of Thrones in 1994, selling the novel as part of a trilogy to his agent, [18] with the novels A Dance with Dragons and The Winds of Winter following. [22] Shortly afterwards, while still writing the novel, he felt the series needed to be four and eventually six books, [18] imagined as two linked trilogies of one long story.

[23] Martin, who likes ambiguous fiction titles because he feels they enrich the writing, chose A Song of Ice And Fire as the overall series title: Martin saw the struggle of the cold Others and the fiery dragons as one possible meaning for "Ice and Fire", whereas the word "song" had previously appeared in Martin's book titles A Song for Lya and Songs of the Dead Men Sing, stemming from his obsessions with songs. [24] The finished manuscript for A Game of Thrones was 1088 pages long (without the appendices), [25] with the publication following in August 1996. [26] Wheel of Time author Robert Jordan had written a short endorsement for the cover that was influential in ensuring the book's and hence series' early success with fantasy readers. [27] Released for pre-release publicity, a sample novella called Blood of the Dragon went on to win the 1997 Hugo Award for Best Novella. [28] The second book called A Clash of Kings was released in February 1999 in the United States, [29] with a manuscript length (without appendices) of 1184 pages.

[25] A Clash of Kings was the first book of the Ice and Fire series to make the best-seller lists, [18] reaching 13 on the The New York Times Best Seller list in 1999. [30] After the success of The Lord of the Rings film series , Martin received his first inquiries to the rights of the Ice and Fire series from various producers and filmmakers. [18] Martin was several months late turning in the third book, A Storm of Swords . [17] The last chapter he had written was about the "Red Wedding", a scene notable for its violence two-thirds through the book (see Themes: Violence and death ). [31] A Storm of Swords was 1521 pages in manuscript (without appendices), [25] causing problems for many of Martin's publishers around the world. Bantam Books published A Storm of Swords in a single volume in the United States in November 2000, [32] whereas some other-language editions were divided into two, three, or even four volumes. [25] A Storm of Swords debuted at number 12 in the New York Times bestseller list.

[28] [33] Bridging the timeline gap (2000–2011) After A Game of Thrones, A Clash of Kings, and A Storm of Swords, Martin originally intended to write three more books. [17] The fourth book, tentatively titled A Dance with Dragons, was to focus on Daenerys Targaryen's return to Westeros and the conflicts that creates. [23] 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. [34] 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. [25] 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 in Dorne and the Iron Islands were to have an impact on the book, Martin eventually expanded the Kingsmoot events to be told from three new viewpoints since the existing POV characters were not present in Dorne and the Iron Islands.

[35] In 2001, Martin was still optimistic that the fourth installment might be released in the last quarter of 2002. [24] However, the five-year gap did not work for all characters during writing. On one hand, Martin was unsatisfied with covering the events during the gap solely through flashbacks and internal retrospection. On the other hand, it was implausible to have nothing happening for five years. [34] After working on the book for about a year, Martin realized he needed an additional interim book, which he called A Feast for Crows . [34] The book would pick up the story immediately after the third book, and Martin scrapped the idea of a five-year gap. [24] The material of the 250-page prologue for the beginning of A Feast for Crows was mixed in as new viewpoint characters from Dorne and the Iron Islands. [35] As these expanded storylines affected the others, the plot became much more complicated for Martin. [36] The manuscript length of A Feast For Crows eventually surpassed A Storm of Swords.

[34] Martin was reluctant to make the necessary deep cuts to get the book down to publishable length, as that would have compromised the story he had in mind. Printing the book in "microtype on onion skin paper and giving each reader a magnifying glass" was also not an option for him. [25] On the other hand, Martin rejected the publishers' idea of splitting the narrative chronologically into A Feast for Crows, Parts One and Two. [37] Being already late with the book, Martin had not even started writing all characters' stories [38] and also objected ending the first book without any resolution for its many viewpoint characters and their respective stories as in previous books. [34] Since the characters were spread out across the world, [22] a friend of Martin suggested to divide the story geographically into two volumes, of which A Feast for Crows would be the first. [37] Splitting the story this way would give Martin the room to complete his commenced story arcs as he had originally intended, [25] which he still felt was the best approach years later.

[22] Martin moved the unfinished characters' stories set in the east (Essos) and north (Winterfell and the Wall) into the next book, A Dance with Dragons, [39] and left A Feast for Crows to cover the events on Westeros, King's Landing, the riverlands, Dorne, and the Iron Islands. [25] Both books begin immediately after the end of A Storm of Swords, [22] running in parallel instead of sequentially and involving different casts of characters with only little overlap. [25] Martin split Arya's chapters into both books after having already moved the three other most popular characters (Jon Snow, Tyrion and Daenerys) into A Dance with Dragons. [39] Upon its release in October 2005 in the UK [40] and November 2005 in the US, [41] A Feast for Crows went straight to the top of the New York Times bestseller list. [42] Among the positive reviewers was Lev Grossman of Time , who dubbed Martin "the American Tolkien ".

[43] However, fans and critics alike were disappointed with the story split that left the fates of several popular characters unresolved after the previous book's cliffhanger ending. [44] [45] With A Dance with Dragons said to be half-finished, [44] Martin mentioned in the epilogue in A Feast for Crows that the next volume would be released by the next year. [46] However, planned release dates were repeatedly pushed back. Meanwhile, HBO acquired the rights to turn Ice and Fire into a dramatic series in 2007 [47] and aired the first of ten episodes covering A Game of Thrones in April 2011. [48] With around 1600 pages in manuscript length, [49] A Dance with Dragons was eventually published in July 2011 after six years of writing, [18] longer in page count and writing time than any of the preceding four novels.

[15] [44] The story of A Dance with Dragons catches up on A Feast of Crows around two thirds into the book, going further than Feast, [38] but covered less story than Martin intended, omitting at least one planned large battle sequence and leaving several character threads ending in cliff-hangers. [15] Martin attributed the delay mainly to his untangling "the Meereenese knot", which the interviewer understood as "making the chronology and characters mesh up as various threads converged on [Daenerys]". [45] Martin also acknowledged spending too much time on rewriting and perfecting the story, but soundly rejected the theories of his more extravagant critics that he had lost interest in the series or would bide his time to make more money. [44] Planned novels and future The sixth book is going to be called The Winds of Winter , [50] taking the title of the originally planned fifth book. [23] In June 2010, Martin had already finished four chapters of The Winds of Winter from the viewpoints of Sansa Stark , Arya Stark and Arianne Martell .

[50] In the middle of 2011, he also moved a finished Aeron Damphair POV chapter from the then unpublished A Dance with Dragons to the next book. [51] By the publication of A Dance with Dragons, around 100 pages of The Winds of Winter were completed. [52] After a book tour and several conventions, he intended to continue his work on the long-overdue The World of Ice and Fire about the history and genealogy of Westeros, which he wanted to have finished by the end of 2011. He also intended to work on a new Tales of Dunk and Egg novella that was to appear in an anthology called Dangerous Women, but in January 2013 it was announced that that story was delayed and instead it had been replaced with "The Princess and the Queen", a recounting of the events leading up to and through the Dance of the Dragons . [53] [52] Having released a Theon Greyjoy POV sample chapter on his website in December 2011, Martin promised to release a second chapter in the back of the A Dance with Dragons paper-back edition.

[54] Martin hopes to finish The Winds of Winter much faster than the fifth book. [44] Having gotten in trouble from fans for repeatedly estimating his publication dates too optimistically, Martin refrains from making absolute estimates for book six. [15] A realistic estimation for finishing The Winds of Winter might be three years for him at a good pace, [49] but ultimately the book "will be done when it's done". [22] Martin does not intend to separate the characters geographically again but acknowledged that "Three years from [2011] when I'm sitting on 1,800 pages of manuscript with no end in sight, who the hell knows". [19] Displeased with the provisional title A Time For Wolves for the final volume, Martin ultimately announced A Dream of Spring as the title for the seventh book in 2006. [55] Martin is firm about ending the series with the seventh novel "until I decide not to be firm", [15] leaving open the possibility of an eighth book to finish the series.

[22] With his goal to tell the story from beginning to end, he will not truncate the story to fit into an arbitrary number of volumes. [56] Martin is confident to have published the remaining books before the TV series overtakes him, [19] although he told major plot points to the two main Game of Thrones producers in case he should die. [19] (Aged 62 in 2011, Martin is by all accounts in robust health.) [57] However, Martin indicated he would not permit another writer to finish the series. [44] He knows the ending in broad strokes as well as the future of the main characters, [19] which will have bittersweet elements where not everyone will live happily ever after. [28] Martin hopes to write an ending similar to The Lord of the Rings that he felt gave the story a satisfying depth and resonance. On the other hand, Martin noted the challenge to avoid a situation like the finale of Lost , which left fans disappointed by deviating from their own theories and desires. [22] Martin does not rule out additional stories set in Westeros after the last book, although he is unlikely to continue in that vein immediately.

[58] He is fairly definite about only returning to the World of Westeros in context of stand-alone novels. [35] Having created a huge world in such detail, Martin sees the possibility of more stories to tell there. But instead of a direct continuation of A Song of Ice and Fire, he would write stories about characters from other periods of history. [59] He also wants to finish the Dunk and Egg project. [35] He will see if his audience follows him after publishing his next project. He would love to return to writing short stories, novellas, novelettes and stand-alone novels from diverse genres such as science fiction, horror, fantasy, or even a murder mystery. [21] [27] Regarding A Song of Ice and Fire as his magnum opus, Martin is certain to never write anything on the scale of this series again. [35] Reception The series has been placed as the number 1 rated series at the Internet Book List since a revision of the rating system in October 2005.

[60] , Additionally the individual books has won a number of awards: A Game of Thrones (1996) - Locus Award winner, Nebula and World Fantasy Awards nominee, 1997. A Dance with Dragons (2011) - Locus Award Winner, Hugo Award nominee, 2012. Derived works Main article: Derived works The series is the basis of a great number of derived works, including the HBO TV series Game of Thrones, a card game, a board game, a role-playing game and two video games under development. It has also inspired several musicians, and an upcoming parody of A Game of Thrones. Pronunciation of names Main article: Pronunciation guide Unlike J. R. R. Tolkien, who provided detailed instructions for the pronunciation of the languages of Middle-earth , Martin has provided no canonical way of pronouncing Westerosi names, stating "You can pronounce it however you like." [61] However, it is possible to establish some guidelines.

5 fantasy series for A Song Of Ice And Fire fans | Den of Geek Search 5 fantasy series for A Song Of Ice And Fire fans Here are 5 great fantasy novel series that share A Song Of Ice And Fire's portrait of murky politics and violence... j You. Yes you, you television-watching-lazy-bones. Have you read A Song of Ice and Fire? If not, rectify this immediately. It's basically, right, Game of Thrones, but a book. Quite a few books actually. If you have read A Song of Ice and Fire; wasn't it good? Would you like to know a few more books that we think you might like? If not, you should probably stop reading this article now. That's basically all it is. Now, there is a lot of good High Fantasy out there, but we're not looking at that here. No Brandon Sanderson and Robert Jordan in this list, or even Patrick Rothfuss with his post-Whedon dialogue and unfolding anti-hero yarns. Instead, we're looking at the authors who take a step back from the fantastic and enter murky, violent worlds of politics, misery and everything going a bit wrong.

Welcome to the 'Everyone is an Incredible Bastard' Fantasy subgenre. 1. Joe Abercrombie – The First Law trilogy Abercrombie's publishers have put a quote from George R. R. Martin in prominent places on his recent novels, primarily because they're not stupid. Starting with his initial The First Law trilogy, Abercrombie's six novels (with at least three more due) continue to expand the un-named fantasy world. No-one is a hero. The reader is invited to root for torturers, cowards, and the psychotically violent. Magic is a primal, aggressive force. If something starts looking up for someone, odds are something horrible is imminently about to happen to them. Brutal, violent, and cynical, you might note that the mortality rate is considerably lower than in Martin's books. This is because Abercrombie has noted that, once you're dead, your problems are basically over. There are so many more horrible things you can do to the living. 2. Steven Erikson – Malazan, Book of the Fallen Look, George R. R. Martin fans! See! A complex, epic fantasy with a vast array of characters comprising ten volumes! And it's finished!

Starting off as a table-top role playing game universe devised with Ian C. Esslemont (who has written five books set in the same universe), it's another thing we have to thank Dungeons & Dragons for (the other thing, mainly, is shit observational comedy). It was originally written as a film script, and after writing some general fiction novels, Erikson managed to get Gardens of the Moon published. If you want to read another dark, murky epic with no guarantee of your favourite character's safety this is your next investment. And you don't have to worry about the author snuffing it before he reaches the end of the series either. 3. Robin Hobb – The Farseer Trilogy Do you like that oh-so-many characters in A Song Of Ice and Fire basically have a terrible time of it? Do you like your protagonists to go through hell with only the slim possibility that they may end up in improved circumstances? Then look no further than Robin Hobb's excellent Farseer Trilogy. According to last Friday's Metro, she and Martin are the only two Fantasy novels to feature in a list of the 100 most popular titles compiled by the Bookmark Your Library website.

Published almost twenty years ago (“No,” I hear you cry, “No-one was alive then.”), the first book - Assassin's Apprentice - introduces us to FitzChivalry, the bastard son of a Prince, who is taken to his father's castle as a young boy and then... well.... he has a pretty rough time of it. There's political intrigue to rival King's Landing, a villain as boo-hissworthy as Joffrey and characters as noble as Ned Stark. Also there is a talking dog. It's a flippin' masterpiece, basically. 4. Tad Williams – Memory, Sorrow and Thorn Simon is a lowly kitchen boy who dreams of greater things. Wait! Come back! Yes, the series starts with the most popular of fantasy clichés but continue reading and you'll be rewarded with a story that is smart, thrilling, epic and sad. And it's something to pass the time with if you ever get stuck in a pot washing job. Basically the world is going to end. Our heroes have to save it. Things do not go smoothly. Given the task that is set before them you genuinely get the feeling from the off that our heroes actually have very little chance of saving themselves, let alone the world.

Death, despair, broken hearts, amnesia. These books have got it all. 5. Pat Mills & Kevin O'Neill – Marshal Law Yes, it's a comic. Deal with it. Pat Mills pouring his anger into a strip - especially one with the jagged, gleeful artwork of Kevin O'Neill, a man whose entire style was deemed objectionable by the Comic Code Authority - is a thing to savour. Its questioning of popular notions of heroism is reminiscent of Martin's approach to the life and death of his characters – no-one is safe just because they fit the traditional hero role. If anything, Mills is aiming his vitriol specifically at people who fit that ideal. Read Marshal Law and then revisit the Nolan Batman films. You may find yourself questioning how heroic the Dark Knight really is. Marshal Law is a hero hunter. Pat Mills does not like superheroes. Here is his polemic against them, as they are taken to task via thinly veiled guises. It's funny, twisted, violent and as finely honed a-spleen-venting as one could hope to see. Well, that's our list.

Now would be as good a time as any to tell us yours, then let's all head down the nearest library and tear their Fantasy section a new one. Fangs For The Fantasy: Game of Thrones TV series compared with A Song of Ice and Fire books. Game of Thrones TV series compared with A Song of Ice and Fire books. The Novels ‘A Song of Ice and Fire’ is a series of epic fantasy novels , by American novelist and screenwriter George R. R. Martin. It is the first volume of the series Game of Thrones. The series has grown to seven volumes. A Song of Ice and Fire has the viewpoint from a range of characters, in each chapter. Martin’s inspirations included War of the Roses, and French historical novels The Accursed Kings. A Song of Ice and Fire is a critique of its diverse portrayal of women, religion, magic, violence, sexuality, and moral ambiguity. It takes place in a fictional world, in which the weather seasons last for years. Centuries before the events of the first novel, the Seven Kingdoms on the continent of Westeros’ had been under Targaryen dynasty. The principle story describes the power struggle of the Iron Throne of Westeros, after King Robert’s death.

Games The novels then were adapted to a TV series, comic book adaptations, cards, board and video games. A Game of Thrones is a collectable card game, and also a strategy board game, which allows the players to take on the roles of several of the Great Houses vying, for control of the Seven Kingdoms. A game of Thrones role-playing game consists of a large, full-colour rulebook, featuring information on role-playing in the Seven Kingdoms, and also background information which is not found in the novels, including a detailed map of the Seven Kingdoms. Video games include the online Blood of Dragons; A Game of Thrones: Genesis, which is a real-time strategy game, and Game of Thrones Seven Kingdoms, which is a massively multiplayer role-playing game. There are also Game of Thrones online slot games which you can play at Europalace . The game's graphics reflect the style of the stories, giving you a sense of being part of the action. It has two modes: 15 lines or 243 ways, and a free Spins feature, allowing players to pledge their allegiance to one of the great houses of Westeros or indeed to Europalace.

TV Series There are countless differences between A Song of Ice and Fire and Game of Thrones season one, to make the story adaptable and more dramatic for the small screen. Characters have to be quickly established, and key moments, decision making, and motivations are sometimes changed. Even though Game of Thrones is known for being gruesome and unpredictable, the sexual violent scenes are toned down, or flat-out omitted, compared to what was depicted in the novels, as it was regarded as too hard core.

Question: Under what title has the series of fantasy novels A Song of Ice and Fire been adapted for TV?
Answer: GAME OF THRONES