Paperback. Silver title and sword on the grey cover.

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The fifth volume, part two of A Song of Ice and Fire, the greatest fantasy epic of the modern age. GAME OF THRONES is now a major Sky Atlantic TV series from HBO, featuring a stellar cast. The future of the Seven Kingdoms hangs in the balance. In King’s Landing the Queen Regent, Cersei Lannister, awaits trial, abandoned by all those she trusted; while in the eastern city of Yunkai her brother Tyrion has been sold as a slave. From the Wall, having left his wife and the Red Priestess Melisandre under the protection of Jon Snow, Stannis Baratheon marches south to confront the Boltons at Winterfell. But beyond the Wall the wildling armies are massing for an assault… On all sides bitter conflicts are reigniting, played out by a grand cast of outlaws and priests, soldiers and skinchangers, nobles and slaves. The tides of destiny will inevitably lead to the greatest dance of all.

Review: The Game of Thrones series has been both fascinating and frustrating in equal measure. Martin’s epic fantasy about the lives of the rich and not so rich of Westeros and its surrounding lands has become a tale in which you have certain characters you root for and others you wish very much would either die horribly or do something different with themselves. A Dance with Dragons Part 2 follows the continued fortunes of House Lannister with its ruling members and exiled others, Bolton, Stark, Tyrell, Martell, Targaryen and all of their followers. The big stories seem to be the grief that the Lannister family are having at Kings Landing, with King Tommen continuing his young and increasingly precarious reign, his scheming mother, his uncle (who is his real father) who has largely abandoned them and his household who seem to be at war with themselves. It also follows the fortunes of exiled Lannister, Tyrion the imp who is trying to find his way to helping would be Queen Daernys Targaryen but keeps getting captured and sold as a slave or winds up going from one bad situation to another. His current fortunes include jousting in an arena on the back of a pig for Daernys’ amusement and then getting away with his life to end up with soldiers of fortune in a company at Mereen’s walls. Meanwhile, in another city, the Stark formerly known as Arya is learning the assassin’s trade at Braavos, something she has wanted to do. Her sister, Sansa who fled being imprisoned for a crime she had nothing to do with and being married to Tyrion is now in the hands of master schemer Petyr Baelish. He is continuing his domination of the Vale of Arryn and trying to connive his way into getting Sansa married to someone who is willing to go to war for her and retake her birthright, Winterfell. Then there’s the Boltons who are the current landlords of Winterfell and probably the worst. Son Ramsay is a sadistic, bullying young man who has terrorised his fake Stark bride and ruined Prince Theon Greyjoy. Yet all is not lost. Whilst Daernys seems incapable of leaving slave city Mereen and using her Unsullied army and dragons to re-claim the iron throne, the Targaryen formerly thought of as dead, now emerging as Prince Aegon has landed at Westeros and is about to head on to re-claim his birthright. The next books should be even more interesting. Will Tyrion have his meeting with Daernys, become her advisor and lead her to Kings Landing and have the opportunity for his own revenge on his awful sister? With Daernys ever leave Mereen and realise her true purpose? Will Tommen remain as ruler for long? And will Sansa Stark be able to marry, call her banners and re-claim her birthright? Only the next few novels will tell.

George R.R. Martin is the globally bestselling author of many fine novels, including A Game of Thrones, A Clash of Kings, A Storm of Swords, A Feast for Crows, and A Dance with Dragons, which together make up the series A Song of Ice and Fire, on which HBO based the world’s most-watched television series, Game of Thrones. Other works set in or about Westeros include The World of Ice and Fire, and A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. His science fiction novella Nightflyers has also been adapted as a television series; and he is the creator of the shared-world Wild Cards universe, working with the finest writers in the genre. He lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico.