Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel 1997. World Fantasy Award nominee 1997, Nebula Award nominee 1997.
From a master of contemporary fantasy comes a novel of imaginative power unlike any you've ever read before. In A Game of Thrones, George R. R. Martin has created a genuine masterpiece, bringing together the best the genre has to offer. Mystery, intrigue, romance, and adventure fill the pages of this magnificent saga, the first volume in an epic series sure to delight fantasy fans everywhere.
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 forces are massing beyond the kingdom's protective Wall. To the south, the king's powers are failing – his most trusted advisor dead under mysterious circumstances and his enemies emerging from the shadows of the throne. At the center of the conflict lie the Starks of Winterfell, a family as harsh and unyielding as the frozen land they were born to. Now Lord Eddard Stark is reluctantly summoned to serve as the king's new Hand, an appointment that threatens to sunder not only his family but the kingdom itself.
Sweeping from a harsh land of cold to a summertime kingdom of epicurean plenty, A Game of Thrones tells 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 wildings carry men off into madness, a cruel young dragon prince barters his sister to win back his throne, a child is lost in the twilight between life and death, and a determined woman undertakes a treacherous journey to protect all she holds dear. Amid plots and counterplots, tragedy and betrayal, victory and terror, allies and enemies, the fate of the Starks hangs perilously in the balance, as each side endeavors to win that deadliest of conflicts: the game of thrones.
Unparalleled in scope and execution, A Game of Thrones is one of those rare reading experiences that catch you up from the opening pages, won't let you go until the end, and leave you yearning for more.
”George Martin is assuredly a new master craftsman in the guild of heroic fantasy.” – KATHERINE KERR
”The keen and complex human characters and the convincing force of their surroundings operate as magic... setting George R. R. Martin's first fantasy epic well above the norms of the genre.” – LOCUS
”Offers the rich tapestry that the very best fantasy demands... few created worlds are as imaginative and diverse.” – JANNY WURTS
”A vast, rich saga, with splendid characters and an intricate plot flawlessly articulated against a backdrop of real depth and texture.” – KIRKUS REVIEWS
”A dazzling fantasy adventure... with a great cast of characters that weave a tapestry of court intrigue, skullduggery, vicious betrayal and greathearted sacrifice.” – JULIAN MAY
