From Our Editors
in this absorbing tale, a long-ago event has thrown the seasons into disarray, and the royal house of Starks has a motto befitting the kingdom's volatile conditions: "Winter is coming". Prophetically, it becomes a metaphor for the horrors that could consign the kingdom to the darkest moment in its history.
From the Publisher
A NEW ORIGINAL SERIES, NOW ON HBO.
Here is the first volume in George R. R. Martin's magnificent cycle
of novels that includes A Clash of Kings and A Storm
of Swords. As a whole, this series comprises a genuine
masterpiece of modern fantasy, bringing together the best the genre
has to offer. Magic, mystery, intrigue, romance, and adventure fill
these pages and transport us to a world unlike any we have ever
experienced. Already hailed as a classic, George R. R. Martin's
stunning series is destined to stand as one of the great
achievements of imaginative fiction.
A GAME OF THRONES
Long ago, in a time forgotten, a preternatural event threw
the seasons out of balance. In a land where summers can last
decades and winters a lifetime, trouble is brewing. 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. At the center of the conflict lie the Starks of
Winterfell, a family as harsh and unyielding as the land they were
born to. 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.
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. 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.
From the Jacket
"A Game of Thrones is a contemporary masterpiece of fantasy. The cold is returning to Winterfell, where summers can last decades and winters a lifetime. A time of conflict has arisen in the Stark family, as they are pulled from the safety of their home into a whirlpool of tragedy, betrayal, assassination, plots and counterplots. Each decision and action carries with it the potential for conflict as several prominent families, comprised of lords, ladies, soldiers, sorcerers, assassins and bastards, are pulled together in the most deadly game of all--the game of thrones.
About the Author
George R. R. Martin sold his first story in
1971 and has been writing professionally ever since. He has written
fantasy, horror, and science fiction, and for his sins spent ten
years in Hollywood as a writer/producer, working on The
Twilight Zone, Beauty and the Beast, and various
feature films and pilots that were never made. In the
mid-nineties he returned to prose, his first love, and began work
on his epic fantasy series A Song of Ice and Fire. He has been in
the Seven Kingdoms ever since. Whenever he's allowed to leave, he
returns to Santa Fe, New Mexico, where he lives with the lovely
Parris.
From the Hardcover edition.
