After centuries of bitter strife and fatal treachery, the seven powers dividing the land have decimated one another into an uneasy truce. 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. In their wake is a horde of mythical Others, a supernatural army of the living dead whose animated corpses are unstoppable.

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.Īs opposing forces maneuver for the final titanic showdown, an army of barbaric wildlings arrives from the outermost line of civilization. Robb plots against his despised Lannister enemies, even as they hold his sister hostage at King’s Landing, seat of the Iron Throne. But young Robb, of House Stark, still rules the North from the fortress of Riverrun. His bitterest rival, Lord Stannis, stands defeated and disgraced, victim of the jealous sorceress who holds him in her evil thrall. Joffrey, of House Lannister, sits the Iron Throne, uneasy ruler of the land of the Seven Kingdoms. Of the five contenders for power, one is dead, another in disfavor, and still the wars rage as violently as ever, as alliances are made and broken. 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. Robert's two brothers each seek their own dominion, while the disfavored House Greyjoy turns once more to conquest. In the south, Joffrey, Robert's heir, rules in name only, victim of the scheming courtiers who teem over King's Landing. Eddard's son Robb has declared himself King in the North. Now, from the ancient citadel of Dragonstone to the forbidding wilds of Winterfell, chaos reigns, as pretenders to the Iron Throne of the Seven Kingdoms prepare to stake their claims through tempest, turmoil, and war.Īs 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. Two great leaders-Lord Eddard Stark and Robert Baratheon, who held sway over an age of enforced peace-are dead, victims of royal treachery. The summer of peace and plenty, ten years long, is drawing to a close, and the harsh, chill winter approaches like an angry beast. Amid plots and counterplots, tragedy and betrayal, victory and terror, the fate of the Starks, their allies, and their enemies hangs perilously in the balance, as each endeavors to win that deadliest of conflicts: the game of thrones. Here an enigmatic band of warriors bear swords of no human metal a tribe of fierce wildlings carry men off into madness a cruel young dragon prince barters his sister to win back his throne and a determined woman undertakes the most treacherous of journeys. Sweeping from a land of brutal cold to a distant summertime kingdom of epicurean plenty, here is a tale of lords and ladies, soldiers and sorcerers, assassins and bastards, who come together in a time of grim omens. At the center of the conflict lie the Starks of Winterfell, a family as harsh and unyielding as the land they were born to. The cold is returning, and in the frozen wastes to the north of Winterfell, sinister and supernatural forces are massing beyond the kingdom’s protective Wall. In a land where summers can last decades and winters a lifetime, trouble is brewing. Long ago, in a time forgotten, a preternatural event threw the seasons out of balance.

A dance of fire and ice cost