A Song of Ice and Fire

A Song of Ice and Fire is a series of epic fantasy novels by the American novelist and screenwriter George R. R. Martin. The first volume of the series, A Game of Thrones, was begun in 1991 and first published in 1996. Martin, who initially envisioned the series to be a trilogy, has published five out of a planned seven volumes. The fifth and most recent volume of the series published in 2011,A Dance with Dragons, took Martin five years to write. The sixth novel, The Winds of Winter, is still being written.

A Song of Ice and Fire takes place on the fictional continents Westeros and Essos. The point of view of each chapter in the story is a limited perspective of a range of characters growing from nine, in the first novel, to thirty-one by the fifth. Three main stories interweave a dynastic war among several families for control of Westeros, the rising threat of the supernatural Others in the northernmost reaches of Westeros, and the ambition of Daenerys Targaryen, the deposed king's exiled daughter, to assume the Iron Throne.

Martin's inspirations included the Wars of the Roses and the French historical novels The Accursed Kings by Maurice Druon. A Song of Ice and Fire received praise for its diverse portrayal of women and religion, as well as its realism. An assortment of disparate and subjective points of view confront the reader, and the success or survival of point of view characters is never assured. Within the often morally ambiguous world of A Song of Ice and Fire, questions concerning loyalty, pride, human sexuality, piety, and the morality of violence frequently arise.

As of April 2015, the books have sold more than 60 million copies worldwide and have been translated into at least 45 languages. The fourth and fifth volumes reached the top of The New York Times Best Seller lists upon their releases.

With the popularity of the series growing, the HBO network optioned A Song of Ice and Fire for a television adaptation in 2007.A pilot episode was produced in late 2009, and a series commitment for nine further episodes was made in March 2010.The series, titled Game of Thrones, premiered in April 2011 to great acclaim and ratings . The network picked up the show for a second season covering A Clash of Kings two days later.Shortly after the conclusion of the first season, the show received 13 Emmy Award nominations, including Outstanding Drama Series and Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series for Peter Dinklage's portrayal of Tyrion Lannister.