A Game of Thrones
Encyclopedia
A Game of Thrones is the first book in A Song of Ice and Fire
, a series of epic fantasy novel
s by American author George R. R. Martin
. It was first published on 6 August 1996. The novel won the 1997 Locus Award
, and was nominated for both the 1998 Nebula Award
and the 1997 World Fantasy Award
. The novella
Blood of the Dragon, comprising the Daenerys Targaryen chapters from the novel, won the 1997 Hugo Award
for Best Novella. In January 2011 the novel became a New York Times bestseller and reached #1 on the list in July 2011.
In the novel, presenting various points of view
and plot-lines, Martin introduces the noble houses of Westeros, the Wall, and the Targaryen plot-line. The novel has lent its name to several spin-off
items based on the novels, including a trading card game, board game
, and roleplaying game. The novel comprises the first season of a television series
of a similar name created by HBO, which premiered on April 17, 2011.
and rulers of the North. Ned executes a deserter of the Night's Watch, with his sons among the witnesses. On the return to Winterfell, Eddard's sons discover six direwolf pups, which are entrusted to Eddard's six children. The direwolf is the sigil of House Stark and is integral to the Stark family. King Robert Baratheon visits Eddard at Winterfell, with the Queen and Court. Because he trusts him, King Robert asks Eddard to become the Hand of the King. Eddard agrees, against his instincts, and at the same time promises his wife, Lady Catelyn Stark to investigate the death of the previous Hand, Lord Jon Arryn, who may have been the victim of political intrigue involving King Robert's wife, Queen Cersei and her powerful family of House Lannister.
Before the Starks leave for King's Landing in the South, Eddard's young son Bran Stark is gravely injured when Jaime Lannister tries to kill him because he accidentally witnesses incest
between himself and his twin Cersei. Bran survives but remains in a coma and becomes a paraplegic, causing him to stay behind. During his recuperation, an assassin attempts to murder Bran, but his direwolf saves his life as well as his mother's. Catelyn realizes her husband faces danger in King's Landing, so she travels there by ship to warn him, leaving the eldest son Robb Stark to rule as the Lord of Winterfell. Not long after Catelyn's departure from Winterfell Bran awakens from his coma and names his direwolf Summer. Upon Catelyn's arrival in King's Landing, she is brought to a meeting with Petyr Baelish, or Littlefinger, a childhood admirer, who identifies Tyrion Lannister as the owner of the dagger used in the attempt on Bran's life. Littlefinger then brings Ned to see Catelyn in secret. While traveling back to Winterfell, Catelyn encounters Tyrion and takes him captive. She changes her destination and takes him to the remote Eyrie, where her sister Lady Lysa Arryn, widow of Lord Arryn, rules as Lady of the Vale. Lysa blames the Lannisters for Jon's death and is eager to execute Tyrion, but he demands trial by combat
and regains his freedom when his unlikely champion, Bronn, wins the duel.
Meanwhile, Lord Eddard travels toward King's Landing, the capital, taking with him his daughters Sansa and Arya. Eleven year-old Sansa is betrothed to King Robert's twelve year-old son Joffrey, the heir apparent
. At King's Landing, Eddard assumes the duties of the Hand and the ruling of Westeros as Robert is uninterested in bureaucracy
. Eddard learns that Robert's heirs are in fact Jaime Lannister's children by his sister. He contacts Cersei and offers her a chance to escape before he tells Robert the truth, but Robert is killed on a hunt before Eddard tells him. Robert's youngest brother Renly suggests that Eddard should use their combined household guardsmen to detain Cersei and her children and take control of the throne before the Lannisters can act. Eddard refuses on the grounds that it would be dishonorable. Instead he recruits Littlefinger to have the city guards arrest and charge Cersei, but is betrayed. Eddard is arrested, Sansa made a captive, and Arya escapes.
Cersei and Jaime's oldest son Joffrey is crowned as Robert's heir, and immediately has Eddard imprisoned and ultimately executed. Prior to Eddard's death, Lord Tywin Lannister wages war against Houses Stark and Tully and their supporters in retaliation for Tyrion's abduction by Catelyn. As the news of Eddard's execution spreads, a civil war
, later dubbed the War of the Five Kings, erupts. Robb Stark leads an army of northmen to rescue his father and sisters in King's Landing, but upon learning of Eddard's death, goes to the Riverlands to raise support from his maternal grandfather Lord Hoster Tully. Jaime Lannister leads the siege of Riverrun, while Lord Tywin holds a large army south of the river Trident to prevent Robb from advancing to King's Landing. In a bold move, Robb covertly detaches his cavalry toward Riverrun while his infantry carries on toward Tywin's army. Tywin, joined by the liberated Tyrion, repulses the Stark footmen but discovers too late that they were a decoy. Shortly afterward, Robb's forces surprise and destroy the Lannister camp besieging Riverrun, capturing Jaime in the process. Renly Baratheon proclaims Joffrey's illegitimacy and with the support of House Baratheon and House Tyrell, declares himself King of Westeros, becoming the second of the war's five kings. Robb Stark becomes the third when the Stark and Tully bannermen proclaim him King of the North.
At the Wall, Jon unites the recruits against their harsh instructor, and protects cowardly but good-natured Samwell Tarly. Jon hopes that his combat skills will earn him assignment to the Rangers, the military arm of the Brotherhood. Instead he is assigned as steward to the Lord Commander of the Watch, Jeor Mormont. He arranges for his friend Sam to be made steward to elderly Maester Aemon. Meanwhile, Benjen Stark leads a small party of Rangers on patrol beyond the Wall but fails to return. Nearly six months later, the dead bodies of two of the rangers from Benjen's party are recovered from beyond the Wall, and their corpses re-animate as wight
s in the night. Undeterred by sword wounds, they kill six men while Jon and his direwolf Ghost save Lord Commander Mormont by destroying a wight with fire. For saving his life, Mormont presents Jon with the Valyrian-steel bastard sword "Longclaw", an heirloom of the Lord Commander's house. Jon's friends then give him a pommel for the sword in the shape of a white direwolf's head, representing both House Stark and Jon's direwolf, Ghost.
When word of his father's execution reaches Jon, he attempts to desert the Night's Watch and join his half-brother Robb's war against the Lannisters. His friends among the Brotherhood convince him to return. Mormont convinces Jon that his place is with his new brothers, and that the war for the throne does not compare to the evil that winter is about to bring upon them from the north.
Unexpectedly, Daenerys finds trust and love with her barbaric husband, and they conceive a child who is prophesied to unite and rule the Dothraki. Drogo shows little interest in conquering Westeros, which provokes the temperamental Viserys to lash out at his sister. Initially, Drogo endures Viserys and punishes his outbursts with public humiliation. But when Viserys publicly threatens Daenerys, Drogo executes him by pouring a pot of molten gold on his head. As the last Targaryen, Daenerys takes up her brother's quest to reclaim the throne of Westeros.
An assassin unsuccessfully attempts to poison Daenerys and her unborn child. Enraged, Drogo agrees to invade Westeros to seek revenge. While sacking villages to fund the invasion, Drogo is wounded. The wound festers, and Daenerys commands a captive maegi to use blood magic to save him; however, the treacherous maegi sacrifices Daenerys' unborn child to power the spell, which keeps Drogo alive in a vegetative state. As the leaderless Dothraki horde disbands, Daenerys takes pity on her once-proud husband and smothers him. Eager for revenge, she orders the maegi tied to Drogo's funeral pyre and places her three dragon eggs on the pyre with Drogo. While she watches it burn, Daenerys is seduced by the beauty of the flames and walks into the inferno. Instead of perishing in the flames, she emerges unscathed and with three newly-hatched dragons draped around her. The few remaining Dothraki and Ser Jorah swear their allegiance to her.
point of view
of a single character; the book presents the perspective of eight main characters. Additionally, a minor character provides the prologue. Chapter headings indicate the perspective.
, which premiered on April 17, 2011. It has also been adapted as a comic book series
.
, John H. Riskind commented that "many fans of sword-and-sorcery will enjoy the epic scope of this book" but felt that the book "suffers from one-dimensional characters and less than memorable imagery." Phyllis Eisenstein of the Chicago Sun-Times
wrote that although the book used many generic fantasy tropes, Martin's approach was "so refreshingly human and intimate that it transcends them." She described it as "an absorbing combination of the mythic, the sweepingly historical, and the intensely personal." John Prior, writing in the San Diego Union-Tribune, called Martin's writing "strong and imaginative, with plenty of Byzantine intrigue and dynastic struggle" and compared it to Robert Jordan
's Wheel of Time
books, "though much darker, with no comedy or romance to relieve the nastiness." Steve Perry told readers of The Oregonian
that the plot was "complex and fascinating" and the book was "a rich and colorful novel" with "all the elements of a great fantasy novel". Lauren K. Nathan of the Associated Press
wrote that the book "grip[s] the reader from Page One" and was set in a "magnificent" fantasy world that is "mystical, but still believable".
A Song of Ice and Fire
A Song of Ice and Fire is a series of epic fantasy novels by American novelist and screenwriter George R. R. Martin. Martin began writing the series in 1991 and the first volume was published in 1996. Originally planned as a trilogy, the series now consists of five published volumes; a further two...
, a series of epic fantasy novel
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
s by American author George R. R. Martin
George R. R. Martin
George Raymond Richard Martin , sometimes referred to as GRRM, is an American author and screenwriter of fantasy, horror, and science fiction. He is best known for A Song of Ice and Fire, his bestselling series of epic fantasy novels that HBO adapted for their dramatic pay-cable series Game of...
. It was first published on 6 August 1996. The novel won the 1997 Locus Award
Locus Award
The Locus Award is a literary award established in 1971 and presented to winners of Locus magazine's annual readers' poll. Currently, the Locus Awards are presented at an annual banquet...
, and was nominated for both the 1998 Nebula Award
Nebula Award
The Nebula Award is given each year by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America , for the best science fiction/fantasy fiction published in the United States during the previous year...
and the 1997 World Fantasy Award
World Fantasy Award
The World Fantasy Awards are annual, international awards given to authors and artists who have demonstrated outstanding achievement in the field of fantasy...
. The novella
Novella
A novella is a written, fictional, prose narrative usually longer than a novelette but shorter than a novel. The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America Nebula Awards for science fiction define the novella as having a word count between 17,500 and 40,000...
Blood of the Dragon, comprising the Daenerys Targaryen chapters from the novel, won the 1997 Hugo Award
Hugo Award
The Hugo Awards are given annually for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year. The award is named after Hugo Gernsback, the founder of the pioneering science fiction magazine Amazing Stories, and was officially named the Science Fiction Achievement Awards...
for Best Novella. In January 2011 the novel became a New York Times bestseller and reached #1 on the list in July 2011.
In the novel, presenting various points of view
Point of view (literature)
The narrative mode is the set of methods the author of a literary, theatrical, cinematic, or musical story uses to convey the plot to the audience. Narration, the process of presenting the narrative, occurs because of the narrative mode...
and plot-lines, Martin introduces the noble houses of Westeros, the Wall, and the Targaryen plot-line. The novel has lent its name to several spin-off
Spin-off (media)
In media, a spin-off is a radio program, television program, video game, or any narrative work, derived from one or more already existing works, that focuses, in particular, in more detail on one aspect of that original work...
items based on the novels, including a trading card game, board game
A Game of Thrones (board game)
A Game of Thrones is a strategy board game created by Christian T. Petersen and released by Fantasy Flight Games in 2003. The game is based on the A Song of Ice and Fire fantasy series by George R. R. Martin...
, and roleplaying game. The novel comprises the first season of a television series
Game of Thrones (TV series)
Game of Thrones is an American medieval fantasy television series created for HBO by David Benioff and D. B. Weiss. Based on author George R. R. Martin's best-selling A Song of Ice and Fire series of fantasy novels, the first of which is called A Game of Thrones, the television series debuted in...
of a similar name created by HBO, which premiered on April 17, 2011.
In the Seven Kingdoms
The novel begins with Lord Eddard Stark (Ned) in Winterfell, ancestral home of House Stark, a noble house of the Seven Kingdoms of WesterosWesteros
The fictional world in which the A Song of Ice and Fire novels by George R. R. Martin take place is divided into several continents. Most of the story takes place on the continent Westeros, which consists of the Seven Kingdoms and an unmapped area to the north, separated by a massive wall of...
and rulers of the North. Ned executes a deserter of the Night's Watch, with his sons among the witnesses. On the return to Winterfell, Eddard's sons discover six direwolf pups, which are entrusted to Eddard's six children. The direwolf is the sigil of House Stark and is integral to the Stark family. King Robert Baratheon visits Eddard at Winterfell, with the Queen and Court. Because he trusts him, King Robert asks Eddard to become the Hand of the King. Eddard agrees, against his instincts, and at the same time promises his wife, Lady Catelyn Stark to investigate the death of the previous Hand, Lord Jon Arryn, who may have been the victim of political intrigue involving King Robert's wife, Queen Cersei and her powerful family of House Lannister.
Before the Starks leave for King's Landing in the South, Eddard's young son Bran Stark is gravely injured when Jaime Lannister tries to kill him because he accidentally witnesses incest
Incest
Incest is sexual intercourse between close relatives that is usually illegal in the jurisdiction where it takes place and/or is conventionally considered a taboo. The term may apply to sexual activities between: individuals of close "blood relationship"; members of the same household; step...
between himself and his twin Cersei. Bran survives but remains in a coma and becomes a paraplegic, causing him to stay behind. During his recuperation, an assassin attempts to murder Bran, but his direwolf saves his life as well as his mother's. Catelyn realizes her husband faces danger in King's Landing, so she travels there by ship to warn him, leaving the eldest son Robb Stark to rule as the Lord of Winterfell. Not long after Catelyn's departure from Winterfell Bran awakens from his coma and names his direwolf Summer. Upon Catelyn's arrival in King's Landing, she is brought to a meeting with Petyr Baelish, or Littlefinger, a childhood admirer, who identifies Tyrion Lannister as the owner of the dagger used in the attempt on Bran's life. Littlefinger then brings Ned to see Catelyn in secret. While traveling back to Winterfell, Catelyn encounters Tyrion and takes him captive. She changes her destination and takes him to the remote Eyrie, where her sister Lady Lysa Arryn, widow of Lord Arryn, rules as Lady of the Vale. Lysa blames the Lannisters for Jon's death and is eager to execute Tyrion, but he demands trial by combat
Trial by combat
Trial by combat was a method of Germanic law to settle accusations in the absence of witnesses or a confession, in which two parties in dispute fought in single combat; the winner of the fight was proclaimed to be right. In essence, it is a judicially sanctioned duel...
and regains his freedom when his unlikely champion, Bronn, wins the duel.
Meanwhile, Lord Eddard travels toward King's Landing, the capital, taking with him his daughters Sansa and Arya. Eleven year-old Sansa is betrothed to King Robert's twelve year-old son Joffrey, the heir apparent
Heir apparent
An heir apparent or heiress apparent is a person who is first in line of succession and cannot be displaced from inheriting, except by a change in the rules of succession....
. At King's Landing, Eddard assumes the duties of the Hand and the ruling of Westeros as Robert is uninterested in bureaucracy
Bureaucracy
A bureaucracy is an organization of non-elected officials of a governmental or organization who implement the rules, laws, and functions of their institution, and are occasionally characterized by officialism and red tape.-Weberian bureaucracy:...
. Eddard learns that Robert's heirs are in fact Jaime Lannister's children by his sister. He contacts Cersei and offers her a chance to escape before he tells Robert the truth, but Robert is killed on a hunt before Eddard tells him. Robert's youngest brother Renly suggests that Eddard should use their combined household guardsmen to detain Cersei and her children and take control of the throne before the Lannisters can act. Eddard refuses on the grounds that it would be dishonorable. Instead he recruits Littlefinger to have the city guards arrest and charge Cersei, but is betrayed. Eddard is arrested, Sansa made a captive, and Arya escapes.
Cersei and Jaime's oldest son Joffrey is crowned as Robert's heir, and immediately has Eddard imprisoned and ultimately executed. Prior to Eddard's death, Lord Tywin Lannister wages war against Houses Stark and Tully and their supporters in retaliation for Tyrion's abduction by Catelyn. As the news of Eddard's execution spreads, a civil war
Civil war
A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same nation state or republic, or, less commonly, between two countries created from a formerly-united nation state....
, later dubbed the War of the Five Kings, erupts. Robb Stark leads an army of northmen to rescue his father and sisters in King's Landing, but upon learning of Eddard's death, goes to the Riverlands to raise support from his maternal grandfather Lord Hoster Tully. Jaime Lannister leads the siege of Riverrun, while Lord Tywin holds a large army south of the river Trident to prevent Robb from advancing to King's Landing. In a bold move, Robb covertly detaches his cavalry toward Riverrun while his infantry carries on toward Tywin's army. Tywin, joined by the liberated Tyrion, repulses the Stark footmen but discovers too late that they were a decoy. Shortly afterward, Robb's forces surprise and destroy the Lannister camp besieging Riverrun, capturing Jaime in the process. Renly Baratheon proclaims Joffrey's illegitimacy and with the support of House Baratheon and House Tyrell, declares himself King of Westeros, becoming the second of the war's five kings. Robb Stark becomes the third when the Stark and Tully bannermen proclaim him King of the North.
On the Wall
The Prologue of the novel introduces the out-kingdom northern wilderness beyond the Wall, an ancient 700 foot high, 300 mile-long barrier of ice and magic fortifying the Seven Kingdoms, manned by the Brotherhood of the Night's Watch. In the lawless lands north of the Wall, a small patrol of Rangers from the Night's Watch encounter the Others; with all except a single survivor killed. Jon Snow, the bastard son of Lord Eddard and despised by Catelyn, is inspired by his uncle Benjen Stark, the First Ranger of the Night's Watch, to join the Brotherhood and go to the Wall. Jon travels north to the Wall with the Queen's brother, Tyrion Lannister and other members of the Night's watch. He becomes disillusioned when he discovers that it is little more than a penal colony meant to keep wildlings in check.At the Wall, Jon unites the recruits against their harsh instructor, and protects cowardly but good-natured Samwell Tarly. Jon hopes that his combat skills will earn him assignment to the Rangers, the military arm of the Brotherhood. Instead he is assigned as steward to the Lord Commander of the Watch, Jeor Mormont. He arranges for his friend Sam to be made steward to elderly Maester Aemon. Meanwhile, Benjen Stark leads a small party of Rangers on patrol beyond the Wall but fails to return. Nearly six months later, the dead bodies of two of the rangers from Benjen's party are recovered from beyond the Wall, and their corpses re-animate as wight
Wight
Wight is a Middle English word, from Old English wiht, and used to describe a creature or living sentient being. It is akin to Old High German wiht, meaning a creature or thing.In its original usage the word wight described a living human being...
s in the night. Undeterred by sword wounds, they kill six men while Jon and his direwolf Ghost save Lord Commander Mormont by destroying a wight with fire. For saving his life, Mormont presents Jon with the Valyrian-steel bastard sword "Longclaw", an heirloom of the Lord Commander's house. Jon's friends then give him a pommel for the sword in the shape of a white direwolf's head, representing both House Stark and Jon's direwolf, Ghost.
When word of his father's execution reaches Jon, he attempts to desert the Night's Watch and join his half-brother Robb's war against the Lannisters. His friends among the Brotherhood convince him to return. Mormont convinces Jon that his place is with his new brothers, and that the war for the throne does not compare to the evil that winter is about to bring upon them from the north.
In the East
Across the sea in the Free City of Pentos, Viserys Targaryen lives in exile with his thirteen year-old sister Daenerys. He is the son and only surviving male heir of Aerys II, "the Mad King", who was overthrown by Robert Baratheon during the War of the Usurper. Viserys arranges to sell his sister in marriage to Khal Drogo, warlord of nomadic Dothraki horse warriors, planning to use Drogo's army to reclaim the Iron Throne of Westeros for House Targaryen. The wealthy merchant, Magister Illyrio, who has been hosting Viserys and Daenerys, gives as his wedding gift three petrified dragon eggs. A knight exiled from Westeros, Ser Jorah Mormont, joins Viserys as an advisor.Unexpectedly, Daenerys finds trust and love with her barbaric husband, and they conceive a child who is prophesied to unite and rule the Dothraki. Drogo shows little interest in conquering Westeros, which provokes the temperamental Viserys to lash out at his sister. Initially, Drogo endures Viserys and punishes his outbursts with public humiliation. But when Viserys publicly threatens Daenerys, Drogo executes him by pouring a pot of molten gold on his head. As the last Targaryen, Daenerys takes up her brother's quest to reclaim the throne of Westeros.
An assassin unsuccessfully attempts to poison Daenerys and her unborn child. Enraged, Drogo agrees to invade Westeros to seek revenge. While sacking villages to fund the invasion, Drogo is wounded. The wound festers, and Daenerys commands a captive maegi to use blood magic to save him; however, the treacherous maegi sacrifices Daenerys' unborn child to power the spell, which keeps Drogo alive in a vegetative state. As the leaderless Dothraki horde disbands, Daenerys takes pity on her once-proud husband and smothers him. Eager for revenge, she orders the maegi tied to Drogo's funeral pyre and places her three dragon eggs on the pyre with Drogo. While she watches it burn, Daenerys is seduced by the beauty of the flames and walks into the inferno. Instead of perishing in the flames, she emerges unscathed and with three newly-hatched dragons draped around her. The few remaining Dothraki and Ser Jorah swear their allegiance to her.
Viewpoint characters
Each chapter concentrates on the third person limitedThird-person limited narrative
The third-person limited is a narrative mode in which the reader experiences the story through the senses and thoughts of just one character. This is almost always the main character—e.g., Gabriel in James Joyce's "The Dead", the titular character in Nathaniel Hawthorne's "Young Goodman Brown",...
point of view
Point of view (literature)
The narrative mode is the set of methods the author of a literary, theatrical, cinematic, or musical story uses to convey the plot to the audience. Narration, the process of presenting the narrative, occurs because of the narrative mode...
of a single character; the book presents the perspective of eight main characters. Additionally, a minor character provides the prologue. Chapter headings indicate the perspective.
- Prologue: Will, a man of the Night's Watch.
- Lord Eddard Stark, Warden of the North and Lord of Winterfell, Hand of the King.
- Lady Catelyn Stark, of House Tully, wife of Eddard Stark.
- Sansa Stark, elder daughter of Eddard and Catelyn Stark.
- Arya Stark, younger daughter of Eddard and Catelyn Stark.
- Bran Stark, seven year old son of Eddard and Catelyn Stark.
- Jon Snow, bastard son of Eddard Stark.
- Tyrion Lannister, a dwarf, brother of Queen Cersei and her twin Jaime, son of Lord Tywin Lannister.
- Princess Daenerys Targaryen, Stormborn, the Princess of Dragonstone and heiress to the Targaryen throne after her older brother Viserys Targaryen.
Editions
In June 2000 Meisha Merlin released a limited edition of the book, fully illustrated by Jeffrey Jones.Foreign language editions
- BulgarianBulgarian languageBulgarian is an Indo-European language, a member of the Slavic linguistic group.Bulgarian, along with the closely related Macedonian language, demonstrates several linguistic characteristics that set it apart from all other Slavic languages such as the elimination of case declension, the...
: "Игра на тронове" - CatalanCatalan languageCatalan is a Romance language, the national and only official language of Andorra and a co-official language in the Spanish autonomous communities of Catalonia, the Balearic Islands and Valencian Community, where it is known as Valencian , as well as in the city of Alghero, on the Italian island...
: "" (Devir Contenidos, 2006) (Chongqing Publishing, 2005) - CroatianCroatian languageCroatian is the collective name for the standard language and dialects spoken by Croats, principally in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Serbian province of Vojvodina and other neighbouring countries...
: "" - CzechCzech languageCzech is a West Slavic language with about 12 million native speakers; it is the majority language in the Czech Republic and spoken by Czechs worldwide. The language was known as Bohemian in English until the late 19th century...
: "" - DutchDutch languageDutch is a West Germanic language and the native language of the majority of the population of the Netherlands, Belgium, and Suriname, the three member states of the Dutch Language Union. Most speakers live in the European Union, where it is a first language for about 23 million and a second...
: Luitingh-SijthoffLuitingh-SijthoffLuitingh-Sijthoff is a publishing company based in the Netherlands that releases fiction and nonfiction books for the Dutch language market. It is a subsidiary of Dutch conglomerate NDC VBK de uitgevers.-History:...
(1997): "" - EstonianEstonian languageEstonian is the official language of Estonia, spoken by about 1.1 million people in Estonia and tens of thousands in various émigré communities...
: two volumes, Varrak (2006): "" - FinnishFinnish languageFinnish is the language spoken by the majority of the population in Finland Primarily for use by restaurant menus and by ethnic Finns outside Finland. It is one of the two official languages of Finland and an official minority language in Sweden. In Sweden, both standard Finnish and Meänkieli, a...
: "" (2003) - FrenchFrench languageFrench is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
: two volumes (hardcover: Pygmalion (1998, 1999); paperback: J'ai Lu (2001)) "", "". - GermanGerman languageGerman is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
: single volume, Fantasy Productions (2004): "". Two volumes, Goldmann (1997, 1998): "", "" - GreekGreek languageGreek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
: two volumes, Anubis (2004): "" - HebrewHebrew languageHebrew is a Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Culturally, is it considered by Jews and other religious groups as the language of the Jewish people, though other Jewish languages had originated among diaspora Jews, and the Hebrew language is also used by non-Jewish groups, such...
: - HungarianHungarian languageHungarian is a Uralic language, part of the Ugric group. With some 14 million speakers, it is one of the most widely spoken non-Indo-European languages in Europe....
: single volume, Alexandra: "" - ItalianItalian languageItalian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...
: two volumes, Mondadori (hardcover: 1999, 2000; paperback: 2001): "" (The Throne of Swords), "" (The Great Winter); as a single volume titled "" in the collection Urania Fantasy — Le grandi sagheUrania (magazine)Urania is an Italian science fiction magazine published by Arnoldo Mondadori Editore since October 10, 1952.-History:The first issue featured the novel The Sands of Mars by Arthur C. Clarke...
(July 2007) - JapaneseJapanese languageis a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...
: "" (The Seven Kingdoms's Throne) Hayakawa Publishing 2002 hardcover, 2 volumes; 2006 softcover, 5 volumes. - KoreanKorean languageKorean is the official language of the country Korea, in both South and North. It is also one of the two official languages in the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture in People's Republic of China. There are about 78 million Korean speakers worldwide. In the 15th century, a national writing...
: "왕좌의 게임" - MacedonianMacedonian languageMacedonian is a South Slavic language spoken as a first language by approximately 2–3 million people principally in the region of Macedonia but also in the Macedonian diaspora...
: "Игра на тронови" - NorwegianNorwegian languageNorwegian is a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Norway, where it is the official language. Together with Swedish and Danish, Norwegian forms a continuum of more or less mutually intelligible local and regional variants .These Scandinavian languages together with the Faroese language...
: "I vargens tid" (2011) - PolishPolish languagePolish is a language of the Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages, used throughout Poland and by Polish minorities in other countries...
: Zysk i S-ka (1998): "" - PortuguesePortuguese languagePortuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...
: two volumes: Saída de Emergência (2007): "", "". Partial and pirate edition: Entre Letras Editora (2002): "" (1st part only). In BrazilBrazilBrazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
, Editora Leya (2010): "". - RomanianRomanian languageRomanian Romanian Romanian (or Daco-Romanian; obsolete spellings Rumanian, Roumanian; self-designation: română, limba română ("the Romanian language") or românește (lit. "in Romanian") is a Romance language spoken by around 24 to 28 million people, primarily in Romania and Moldova...
: two volumes: "" (2007) - RussianRussian languageRussian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...
: single volume, AST (2001, 2004, 2007): "". Two volumes, AST (1999): "", "". - SerbianSerbian languageSerbian is a form of Serbo-Croatian, a South Slavic language, spoken by Serbs in Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Croatia and neighbouring countries....
: Laguna (2003): "" - SlovakSlovak languageSlovak , is an Indo-European language that belongs to the West Slavic languages .Slovak is the official language of Slovakia, where it is spoken by 5 million people...
: "" - Slovene: "" (2007)
- SpanishSpanish languageSpanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
: Gigamesh (2002): "" - SwedishSwedish languageSwedish is a North Germanic language, spoken by approximately 10 million people, predominantly in Sweden and parts of Finland, especially along its coast and on the Åland islands. It is largely mutually intelligible with Norwegian and Danish...
: two volumes, Forum: "", "". Single volume, Forum (2005): "" - TurkishTurkish languageTurkish is a language spoken as a native language by over 83 million people worldwide, making it the most commonly spoken of the Turkic languages. Its speakers are located predominantly in Turkey and Northern Cyprus with smaller groups in Iraq, Greece, Bulgaria, the Republic of Macedonia, Kosovo,...
: : "" (2005) - TurkishTurkish languageTurkish is a language spoken as a native language by over 83 million people worldwide, making it the most commonly spoken of the Turkic languages. Its speakers are located predominantly in Turkey and Northern Cyprus with smaller groups in Iraq, Greece, Bulgaria, the Republic of Macedonia, Kosovo,...
: : "" (Epsilon Publishing, 2011) (New edition) - HungarianHungarian languageHungarian is a Uralic language, part of the Ugric group. With some 14 million speakers, it is one of the most widely spoken non-Indo-European languages in Europe....
: Trónok harca (Clash of Thrones)
Adaptations
A Game of Thrones has been made into a ten-part HBO series, called Game of ThronesGame of Thrones (TV series)
Game of Thrones is an American medieval fantasy television series created for HBO by David Benioff and D. B. Weiss. Based on author George R. R. Martin's best-selling A Song of Ice and Fire series of fantasy novels, the first of which is called A Game of Thrones, the television series debuted in...
, which premiered on April 17, 2011. It has also been adapted as a comic book series
A Game of Thrones (comic book)
A Game of Thrones is the comic book adaptation of George R.R. Martin's fantasy novel A Game of Thrones, the first in the A Song of Ice and Fire series. The comic book series is scripted by fantasy author Daniel Abraham and drawn by Tommy Patterson...
.
Reception
A Game of Thrones received a very positive reception from reviewers. Writing in The Washington PostThe Washington Post
The Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...
, John H. Riskind commented that "many fans of sword-and-sorcery will enjoy the epic scope of this book" but felt that the book "suffers from one-dimensional characters and less than memorable imagery." Phyllis Eisenstein of the Chicago Sun-Times
Chicago Sun-Times
The Chicago Sun-Times is an American daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois. It is the flagship paper of the Sun-Times Media Group.-History:The Chicago Sun-Times is the oldest continuously published daily newspaper in the city...
wrote that although the book used many generic fantasy tropes, Martin's approach was "so refreshingly human and intimate that it transcends them." She described it as "an absorbing combination of the mythic, the sweepingly historical, and the intensely personal." John Prior, writing in the San Diego Union-Tribune, called Martin's writing "strong and imaginative, with plenty of Byzantine intrigue and dynastic struggle" and compared it to Robert Jordan
Robert Jordan
Robert Jordan was the pen name of James Oliver Rigney, Jr. , under which he was best known as the author of the bestselling The Wheel of Time fantasy series. He also wrote under the pseudonyms Reagan O'Neal and Jackson O'Reilly.-Biography:Jordan was born in Charleston, South Carolina...
's Wheel of Time
Wheel of time
The Wheel of time or wheel of history is a concept found in several religious traditions and philosophies, notably religions of Indian origin such as Hinduism and Buddhism, which regard time as cyclical and consisting of repeating ages...
books, "though much darker, with no comedy or romance to relieve the nastiness." Steve Perry told readers of The Oregonian
The Oregonian
The Oregonian is the major daily newspaper in Portland, Oregon, owned by Advance Publications. It is the oldest continuously published newspaper on the U.S. west coast, founded as a weekly by Thomas J. Dryer on December 4, 1850...
that the plot was "complex and fascinating" and the book was "a rich and colorful novel" with "all the elements of a great fantasy novel". Lauren K. Nathan of the Associated Press
Associated Press
The Associated Press is an American news agency. The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, radio and television stations in the United States, which both contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staff journalists...
wrote that the book "grip[s] the reader from Page One" and was set in a "magnificent" fantasy world that is "mystical, but still believable".
Awards and nominations
- Locus AwardLocus AwardThe Locus Award is a literary award established in 1971 and presented to winners of Locus magazine's annual readers' poll. Currently, the Locus Awards are presented at an annual banquet...
– Best Novel (Fantasy) (Won) – (1997) - World Fantasy AwardWorld Fantasy AwardThe World Fantasy Awards are annual, international awards given to authors and artists who have demonstrated outstanding achievement in the field of fantasy...
– Best Novel (Nominated) – (1997) - Hugo AwardHugo AwardThe Hugo Awards are given annually for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year. The award is named after Hugo Gernsback, the founder of the pioneering science fiction magazine Amazing Stories, and was officially named the Science Fiction Achievement Awards...
– Best Novella for Blood of the Dragon (Won) – (1997) - Nebula AwardNebula AwardThe Nebula Award is given each year by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America , for the best science fiction/fantasy fiction published in the United States during the previous year...
– Best Novel (Nominated) – (1997) - Ignotus Award – Best Novel (Foreign) (Won) – (2003)