NOW THE ACCLAIMED HBO SERIES GAME OF THRONES —THE MASTERPIECE THAT BECAME A CULTURAL PHENOMENON   Here is the first book in the landmark series that has redefined imaginative fiction and become a modern masterpiece. A GAME OF THRONES   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. 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.   A GAME OF THRONES • A CLASH OF KINGS • A STORM OF SWORDS • A FEAST FOR CROWS • A DANCE WITH DRAGONS “I always expect the best from George R. R. Martin, and he always delivers.” —Robert Jordan   “Reminiscent of T. H. White’s The Once and Future King , this novel is an absorbing combination of the mythic, the sweepingly historical, and the intensely personal.” — Chicago Sun-Times “A vast, rich saga, with splendid characters and an intricate plot flawlessly articulated against a backdrop of real depth and texture.” — Kirkus Reviews   “Martin makes a triumphant return to high fantasy . . . [with] superbly developed characters, accomplished prose, and sheer bloodymindedness.” — Publishers Weekly , starred review “A splendid saga . . . . Inventive and intricately plotted.” — BookPage “Such a splendid tale and such a fantasticorical! I read my eyes out and couldn't stop ‘til I finished and it was dawn.” —Anne McCaffrey "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. George R. R. Martin  is the #1  New York Times  bestselling author of many novels, including the acclaimed series A Song of Ice and Fire— A Game of Thrones, A Clash of Kings, A Storm of Swords, A Feast for Crows,  and  A Dance with Dragons —as well as  Tuf Voyaging, Fevre Dream, The Armageddon Rag, Dying of the Light, Windhaven  (with Lisa Tuttle),   and  Dreamsongs Volumes I  and  II . He is also the creator of  The Lands of Ice and Fire,  a collection of maps from A Song of Ice and Fire featuring original artwork from illustrator and cartographer Jonathan Roberts, and  The World of Ice & Fire  (with Elio M. García, Jr., and Linda Antonsson). As a writer-producer, Martin has worked on  The Twilight Zone, Beauty and the Beast,  and various feature films and pilots that were never made. He lives with the lovely Parris in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The morning had dawned clear and cold, with a crispness that hinted at the end of summer. They set forth at daybreak to see a man beheaded, twenty in all, and Bran rode among them, nervous with excitement. This was the first time he had been deemed old enough to go with his lord father and his brothers to see the king's justice done. It was the ninth year of summer, and the seventh of Bran's life. The man had been taken outside a small holdfast in the hills. Robb thought he was a wildling, his sword sworn to Mance Rayder, the King-beyond-the-Wall. It made Bran's skin prickle to think of it. He remembered the hearth tales Old Nan told them. The wildlings were cruel men, she said, slavers and slayers and thieves. They consorted with giants and ghouls, stole girl children in the dead of night, and drank blood from polished horns. And their women lay with the Others in the Long Night to sire terrible half-human children. But the man they found bound hand and foot to the holdfast wall awaiting the king's justice was old and scrawny, not much taller than Robb. He had lost both ears and a finger to frostbite, and he dressed all in black, the same as a brother of the Night's Watch, except that his furs were ragged and greasy. The breath of man and horse mingled, steaming, in the cold morning air as his lord father had the man cut down from the wall and dragged before them. Robb and Jon sat tall and still on their horses, with Bran between them on his pony, trying to seem older than seven, trying to pretend that he'd seen all this before. A f