1. Game Of Thrones
2. George R. R. Martin

Dubbed “the American Tolkien” by Time magazine, George R. Martin has earned international acclaim for his monumental cycle of epic fantasy. Now the #1 New York Times bestselling author delivers the fifth book in his spellbinding landmark series–as both familiar faces and surprising new forces vie for a foothold in a. (Problems with magnets links are fixed by upgrading your torrent client!) A Song of Ice and Fire (Books 1 - 5) [PDF] A Song of Ice and Fire is a series of epic fantasy novels written by American novelist and screenwriter George R. Martin made popular by the T.V. Series 'The Game Of Thrones.' My first upload, so please. Download The Song of Ice and Fire Series by George R. Martin Free complete series (4 Books: The Song of Ice and Fire Series: A Game of Thrones, A Clash of Kings, A Storm of Swords, and A Feast for Crows) full-text complete eBook in PDF and ePub formats.

. (US, Canada). (UK, Australia) Published August 1996–present Media type Print (hardback & paperback) audiobook A Song of Ice and Fire is a series of novels by the American novelist and screenwriter. He began the first volume of the series, in 1991 and had it published in 1996. Martin, who initially envisioned the series as a trilogy, has published five out of a planned seven volumes. The fifth and most recent volume of the series published in 2011, took Martin six years to write.

He is still writing the sixth novel,. A Song of Ice and Fire takes place on the fictional continents and.

The of each chapter in the story is a 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 in the northernmost reaches of Westeros, and the ambition of, the deposed king's exiled daughter, to assume the. Martin's inspirations included the and the French. 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 confronts 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 frequently arise. As of April 2015, the books have sold more than 60 million copies worldwide and, as of January 2017, have been translated into 47 languages.

The fourth and fifth volumes reached the top of upon their releases. Among the are, a, and several, and. Further information: and A Song of Ice and Fire takes place in a fictional world in which seasons last for years and end unpredictably. Nearly three centuries before the events of the first novel (see ), the Seven Kingdoms of were united under the dynasty by Aegon I and his sisters Visenya and Rhaenys, with Aegon Targaryen becoming the first king of the whole of the continent of Westeros, save for the southerly Dorne. At the beginning of, 15 peaceful years have passed since the rebellion led by Lord deposed and killed the last Targaryen king, Aerys II 'the Mad King', and proclaimed Robert king of the Seven Kingdoms, with a nine year long summer coming to an end. The principal story chronicles the power struggle for the Iron Throne among the great Houses of Westeros following the death of King Robert in A Game of Thrones. Robert's heir apparent, the 13-year old, is immediately proclaimed king through the machinations of his mother, Queen.

When Lord, Robert's closest friend and chief advisor, discovers that Joffrey and his siblings are the product of incest between Cersei and her twin brother, Eddard attempts to unseat Joffrey but is betrayed and executed for treason. In response, Robert's brothers and both lay separate claims to the throne. During this period of instability, two of the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros attempt to become independent from the Iron Throne: Eddard's eldest son is proclaimed King in the North, while Lord desires to recover the sovereignty of his region, the Iron Islands. The so-called 'War of the Five Kings' is in full progress by the middle of the second book,.

The second story takes place in the far north of Westeros, where an 8,000-year-old wall of ice, simply called ', defends the Seven Kingdoms from. The Wall's sentinels, the Sworn Brotherhood of the, also protect the realm from the incursions of the ' or 'Free Folk', who are humans living north of the Wall. The Night's Watch story is told primarily through the point of view of, Eddard's. Jon follows the footsteps of his uncle and joins the Watch at a young age, rising quickly through the ranks, eventually becoming Lord Commander of the Night's Watch. In the third volume, the Night's Watch storyline becomes increasingly entangled with the War of the Five Kings. The third story follows, daughter of Aerys, the last Targaryen king. On the continent of Essos, east of Westeros, Daenerys is married off by her elder brother to a powerful warlord, but slowly becomes an independent and intelligent ruler in her own right.

Her rise to power is aided by the historic birth of three, hatched from eggs given to her as wedding gifts. The three dragons soon become not only a symbol of her bloodline and her legitimate claim to the throne, but also devastating weapons of war.

Publishing history Overview Books in the Ice and Fire series are first published in hardcover and are later re-released as paperback editions. In the UK, publishes special slipcased editions. The series has also been translated into more than 30 languages. All page totals given below are for the US first editions. # Title Pages Chapters Words Audio US release 1 694 73 292,727 33h 53m August 1996 2 768 70 318,903 37h 17m February 1999 3 973 82 414,604 47h 37m November 2000 4 753 46 295,032 31h 10m November 2005 5 1040 73 414,788 48h 56m July 2011 6 Forthcoming 7 A Dream of Spring Forthcoming Total 4,228 344 1,736,054 198h 53m First three novels (1991–2000). At Archipelacon in, 2015. Martin was already a successful fantasy and sci-fi author and TV writer before writing his A Song of Ice and Fire book series.

Martin had published his first short story in 1971 and his first novel in 1977. By the mid-1990s, he had won three, two, and other awards for his short fiction.

Although his early books were well-received within the fantasy fiction community, his readership remained relatively small and Martin took on jobs as a writer in Hollywood in the mid-1980s. He worked principally on the throughout 1986 and on until 1990, but he also developed his own TV pilots and wrote feature film scripts. He grew frustrated that his pilots and screenplays were not getting made and that TV-related production limitations like budgets and episode lengths were forcing him to cut characters and trim battle scenes. This pushed Martin back towards writing books, where he did not have to worry about compromising the size of his imagination. Admiring the works of in his childhood, he wanted to write an epic fantasy, though he did not have any specific ideas. When Martin was between Hollywood projects in the summer of 1991, he started writing a new science fiction novel called Avalon.

After three chapters, he had a vivid idea of a boy seeing a man's beheading and finding direwolves in the snow, which would eventually become the first non-prologue chapter of A Game of Thrones. Putting Avalon aside, Martin finished this chapter in a few days and grew certain that it was part of a longer story.

After a few more chapters, Martin perceived his new book as a fantasy story and started making maps and genealogies. However, the writing of this book was interrupted for a few years when Martin returned to Hollywood to produce his TV series that had ordered but ultimately never aired. 'The first scene.chapter one of the first book, the chapter where they find the direwolf pups.just came to me out of nowhere. I was.at work on a different novel, and suddenly I saw that scene. It didn't belong in the novel I was writing, but it came to me so vividly that I had to sit down and write it, and by the time I did, it led to a second chapter, and the second chapter was the Catelyn chapter where Ned has just come back.' Martin in 2014 In 1994, Martin gave to his agent, the first 200 pages and a two-page story projection as part of a planned trilogy with the novels A Dance with Dragons and The Winds of Winter intended to follow. When Martin had still not reached the novel's end at 1400 manuscript pages, he felt that the series needed to be four and eventually six books long, which he imagined as two linked trilogies of one long story.

Martin chose A Song of Ice and Fire as the overall series title: Martin saw the struggle of the cold Others and the fiery dragons as one possible meaning for 'Ice and Fire', whereas the word 'song' had previously appeared in Martin's book titles and Songs the Dead Men Sing, stemming from his obsessions with songs. Martin also named 's 1920 poem ' and cultural associations such as passion versus betrayal as possible influences for the series' title. The revised finished manuscript for A Game of Thrones was 1088 pages long (without the appendices), with the publication following in August 1996. Wheel of Time author had written a short endorsement for the cover that was influential in ensuring the book's and hence series' early success with fantasy readers. Blood of the Dragon, a pre-release sample novella drawn from Daenerys's chapters, went on to win the 1997 Hugo Award for Best Novella. The 300 pages removed from the A Game of Thrones manuscript served as the opening of the second book, entitled.

It was released in February 1999 in the United States, with a manuscript length (without appendices) of 1184 pages. A Clash of Kings was the first book of the Ice and Fire series to make the best-seller lists, reaching 13 on in 1999. After the success of films, Martin received his first inquiries to the rights of the Ice and Fire series from various producers and filmmakers. Martin was several months late turning in the third book,. The last chapter he had written was about the 'Red Wedding', a pivotal scene notable for its violence (see ). A Storm of Swords was 1521 pages in manuscript (without appendices), causing problems for many of Martin's publishers around the world. Published A Storm of Swords in a single volume in the United States in November 2000, whereas some other-language editions were divided into two, three, or even four volumes.

A Storm of Swords debuted at number 12 in the New York Times bestseller list. Bridging the timeline gap (2000–2011) After A Game of Thrones, A Clash of Kings, and A Storm of Swords, Martin originally intended to write three more books. The fourth book, tentatively titled A Dance with Dragons, was to focus on Daenerys Targaryen's return to Westeros and the associated conflicts.

Martin wanted to set this story five years after A Storm of Swords so that the younger characters could grow older and the dragons grow larger. Agreeing with his publishers early on that the new book should be shorter than A Storm of Swords, Martin set out to write the novel closer in length to A Clash of Kings.

A long prologue was to establish what had happened in the meantime, initially just as one chapter of on the Iron Islands at the Kingsmoot. Since the events on the Iron Islands were to have an impact in the book and could not be told with existing POV characters, Martin eventually introduced three new viewpoints. In 2001, Martin was still optimistic that the fourth installment might be released in the last quarter of 2002. However, the five-year gap did not work for all characters during writing.

On one hand, Martin was unsatisfied with covering the events during the gap solely through flashbacks and internal retrospection. On the other hand, it was implausible to have nothing happen for five years. After working on the book for about a year, Martin realized he needed an additional interim book, which he called. The book would pick up the story immediately after the third book, and Martin scrapped the idea of a five-year gap.

The material of the written 250-page prologue was mixed in as new viewpoint characters from Dorne and the Iron Islands. These expanded storylines and the resulting story interactions complicated the plot for Martin. The manuscript length of A Feast for Crows eventually surpassed A Storm of Swords. Martin was reluctant to make the necessary deep cuts to get the book down to publishable length, as that would have compromised the story he had in mind. Printing the book in 'microtype on onion skin paper and giving each reader a magnifying glass' was also not an option for him.

On the other hand, Martin rejected the publishers' idea of splitting the narrative chronologically into A Feast for Crows, Parts One and Two. Being already late with the book, Martin had not even started writing all characters' stories and also objected to ending the first book without any resolution for its many viewpoint characters as in previous books. With the characters spread out across the world, a friend suggested that Martin divide the story geographically into two volumes, of which A Feast for Crows would be the first. This approach would give Martin the room to complete his commenced story arcs as he had originally intended, which he still felt was the best approach years later. Martin moved the unfinished characters' stories set in the east (Essos) and north (Winterfell and the Wall) into the next book, A Dance with Dragons, and left A Feast for Crows to cover the events on Westeros, King's Landing, the Riverlands, Dorne, and the Iron Islands. Both books begin immediately after the end of A Storm of Swords, running in parallel instead of sequentially, and involve different casts of characters with only little overlap. Martin split Arya's chapters into both books after having already moved the three other most popular characters (Jon Snow, Tyrion, and Daenerys) into A Dance with Dragons.

Upon its release in October 2005 in the UK and November 2005 in the US, A Feast for Crows went straight to the top of bestseller list. Among the positive reviewers was Lev Grossman of, who dubbed Martin 'the American Tolkien'. However, fans and critics alike were disappointed with the story split that left the fates of several popular characters unresolved after A Storm of Swords ' cliffhanger ending. With A Dance with Dragons said to be half-finished, Martin mentioned in the epilogue of A Feast for Crows that the next volume would be released by the next year. However, planned release dates were repeatedly pushed back.

Meanwhile, acquired the rights to turn Ice and Fire into a dramatic series in 2007 and aired the first of ten episodes covering A Game of Thrones in April 2011. With around 1600 pages in manuscript length, A Dance with Dragons was eventually published in July 2011 after six years of writing, longer in page count and writing time than any of the preceding four novels. The story of A Dance with Dragons catches up and goes beyond A Feast for Crows around two-thirds into the book, but nevertheless covers less story than Martin had intended, omitting at least one planned large battle sequence and leaving several character threads ending in cliff-hangers.

Martin attributed the delay mainly to his untangling 'the knot', which the interviewer understood as 'making the chronology and characters mesh up as various threads converged on Daenerys'. Martin also acknowledged spending too much time on rewriting and perfecting the story, but soundly rejected the theories of some of his critics that he had lost interest in the series or would bide his time to make more money. Planned novels and future Martin believes the last two volumes of the series will be big books of 1500 manuscript pages each. The sixth book will be called, taking the title of the last book of the originally planned trilogy. Displeased with the provisional title A Time for Wolves for the final volume, Martin ultimately announced A Dream of Spring as the title for the seventh book in 2006. Martin said in March 2012 that the final two novels will take readers farther north than any of the previous books, and that the Others will appear in the book. The Winds of Winter.

Further information: will resolve the cliffhangers from A Dance with Dragons early on and 'will open with the two big battles that the fifth book was building up to, the battle in the ice and the battle. of Slaver's Bay.

And then take it from there.' By the middle of 2010, Martin had already finished five chapters of The Winds of Winter from the viewpoints of, and, accumulating to around 100 completed pages. After the publication of A Dance with Dragons in 2011, Martin announced he would return to writing in January 2012. He spent the meantime on book tours, conventions, and continued working on his companion guide and a new novella. In December 2011, Martin posted a chapter from The Winds of Winter from the viewpoint of; several other chapters have been made public since. Four hundred pages of the sixth novel have been written as of October 2012, although Martin considers only 200 as 'really finished'; the rest needs revising. In 2011, Martin gave three years as a realistic estimate for finishing the sixth book at a good pace, but said ultimately the book 'will be done when it's done', acknowledging that his publication estimates had been too optimistic in the past.

Martin did not intend to separate the characters geographically again. In 2015 there were indications that the book would be published before the of the HBO show but in early January 2016 Martin confirmed that he had not met an end-of-year deadline that he had established with his publisher for release of the book before the sixth season. He added that there was 'a lot still left to write' and that completion of the book was 'months away still.if the writing goes well.'

Martin also revealed there had been a previous deadline of October 2015 that he had considered achievable in May 2015, and that in September 2015 he had still considered the end-of-year deadline achievable. He further confirmed that some of the plot of the book might be revealed in the upcoming season of Game of Thrones. In February 2016, Martin stated that he dropped all his editing projects except for, and that he would not be writing any teleplays, screenplays, short stories, introductions or forewords before delivering The Winds of Winter.

During the Guadalajara International Book Fair in Mexico in early December 2016, Martin offered the following hint as to the tone of this book: There are a lot of dark chapters right now. I've been telling you for 20 years that winter was coming. Winter is the time when things die, and cold and ice and darkness fill the world, so this is not going to be the happy feel-good that people may be hoping for.

Some of the characters are in very dark places. A Dream of Spring Martin is firm about ending the series with the seventh novel 'until I decide not to be firm'.

With his stated goal of telling the story from beginning to end, he will not truncate the story to fit into an arbitrary number of volumes. He knows the ending in broad strokes as well as the future of the main characters, and will finish the series with bittersweet elements where not everyone will live happily ever after. Martin hopes to write an ending similar to that he felt gave the story a satisfying depth and resonance. On the other hand, Martin noted the challenge to avoid a situation like, which left some fans disappointed by deviating too far from their own theories and desires. In 2015, Martin said that he was not writing A Dream of Spring together with The Winds of Winter, and in early 2016, he said he did not believe A Dream of Spring would be published before the last season of the HBO show. Martin offered the following hint as to how the series would conclude during a Q&A at the Guadalajara International Book Fair. 'I'm not going to tell you how I'm going to end my book, but I suspect the overall flavor is going to be as much bittersweet as it is happy.'

TV series and other writings Early during the development of the TV series, Martin told major plot points to producers and. ( The New York Times reported in 2011 that, at age 62, Martin was by all accounts in robust health.) Martin was confident he would have published at least The Winds of Winter before the TV series overtook him. Nevertheless, there was general concern about whether Martin would be able to stay ahead of the show. As a result, head writers Benioff and Weiss learned more future plot points from Martin in 2013 to help them set up the show's new possible seasons.

This included the end stories for all the core characters. Deviations from the books' storylines are also being considered, but a two-year show hiatus to wait for new books is not an option for them as the child actors continue to grow and the show's popularity would wane.

Martin indicated he would not permit another writer to finish the book series. On January 2, 2016, Martin confirmed that the sixth volume would not be published before the start of the sixth season of the HBO series. Regarding A Song of Ice and Fire as his, Martin is certain never to write anything on this scale again and would only return to this fictional universe in the context of stand-alone novels. He prefers to write stories about characters from other Ice and Fire periods of history such as his project, instead of continuing the series directly. A possible future side project is a prequel set during Aegon's conquest of Westeros.

Martin said he would love to return to writing short stories, novellas, novelettes, and stand-alone novels from diverse genres such as science fiction, horror, fantasy, or even a murder mystery. However, he will see if his audience follows him after publishing his next project.

Inspiration and writing Genre. Further information: George R.

Martin believes the most profound influences to be the ones experienced in childhood. Having read, and in his youth, Martin never categorized these authors' literature into science fiction, fantasy, or horror and will write from any genre as a result. Martin classified A Song of Ice and Fire as ', and specifically named as very influential for the writing of the series. One of his favorite authors is, although Martin considered the series not particularly Vancean.

Martin experienced some harsh winters when living in a few years in the 70s, and suspects these winters had an influence on his writing; 'I think a lot of the stuff in A Game of Thrones, the snow and ice and freezing, comes from my memories of Dubuque'. 'Martin's Ice and Fire series was groundbreaking (at least for me) in all kinds of ways.

Above all, the books were extremely unpredictable, especially in a genre where readers have come to expect the intensely predictable. A Game of Thrones was profoundly shocking when I first read it, and fundamentally changed my notions about what could be done with epic fantasy.' —Fantasy writer in 2008 The medieval setting has been the traditional background for epic fantasy.

However, where historical fiction leaves versed readers knowing the historical outcome, original characters may increase suspense and empathy for the readers. Yet Martin felt historical fiction, particularly when set during the Middle Ages, had an excitement, grittiness, and a realness to it that was absent in fantasy with a similar backdrop. Thus, he wanted to combine the realism of historical fiction with the magic appeal of the best fantasies, subduing magic in favor of battles and political intrigue. He also decided to avoid the conventional good versus evil setting typical for the genre, using the fight between Achilles and Hector in 's, where no one stands out as either a hero or a villain, as an example of what he wants to achieve with his books. Martin is widely credited with broadening the fantasy fiction genre for adult content, including incest, paedophilia, and adultery. For 's Writing for, Amber Taylor assessed the novels as with vulnerable characters to which readers become emotionally attached.

Found in 2000 that Martin's mature descriptions were 'far more frank than those found in the works of other fantasy authors', although Martin assessed the fantasy genre to have become rougher-edged a decade later and that some writers' work was going beyond the mature themes of his novels. Called Martin's series the most successful and popular example of the emerging subgenre of fantasy, influencing other writers associated with that style, such as. Writing process Setting out to write something on an epic scale, Martin projected to write three books of 800 manuscript pages in the very early stages of the series. His original 1990s contract specified one-year deadlines for his previous literary works, but Martin only realized later that his new books were longer and hence required more writing time. In 2000, Martin planned to take 18 months to two years for each volume and projected the last of the planned six books to be released five or six years later. However, with the Ice and Fire series evolving into the biggest and most ambitious story he has ever attempted writing, he still has two more books to write as of 2016.

Martin said he needed to be in his own office in to immerse himself in the fictional world and write. As of 2011, Martin was still typing his fiction on a computer with. He begins each day at 10 am with rewriting and polishing the previous day's work, and may write all day or struggle to write anything. Excised material and previous old versions are saved to be possibly re-inserted at a later time. The Ice and Fire series was partly inspired by the, a series of dynastic civil wars for the throne of England. This painting by portrays demanding that his defeated enemies be taken from. Martin set the Ice and Fire story in a inspired by Tolkien's writing.

Unlike Tolkien, who created entire languages, mythologies, and histories for Middle-earth long before writing, Martin usually starts with a rough sketch of an imaginary world that he improvises into a workable fictional setting along the way. He described his writing as coming from a subconscious level in 'almost a daydreaming process', and his stories, which have a mythic rather than a scientific core, draw from emotion instead of rationality. Martin employs maps and a cast list topping 60 pages in the fourth volume, but keeps most information in his mind. His imagined backstory remains subject to change until published, and only the novels count as. Martin does not intend to publish his private notes after the series is finished.

Martin drew much inspiration from actual history for the series, having several bookcases filled with medieval history for research and visiting historic European landmarks. For an American who speaks only English, the history of England proved the easiest source of medieval history for him, giving the series a British rather than a German or Spanish historic flavor. For example, Ned and Robb Stark resemble and his son, and Queen Cersei resembles both and. Martin immersed himself in many diverse medieval topics such as clothing, food, feasting, and tournaments, to have the facts at hand if needed during writing. The series was in particular influenced by the, the, the, and the, although Martin refrained from making any direct adaptations. Martin was also inspired by the French historical novels by, which are about the in the 13th and 14th centuries. The story is written to follow principal landmarks with an ultimate destination, but leaves Martin room for improvisation.

On occasion, improvised details significantly affected the planned story. By the fourth book, Martin kept more private notes than ever before to keep track of the many subplots, which became so detailed and sprawling by the fifth book as to be unwieldy. Martin's editors, copy editors, and readers monitor for accidental mistakes, although some errors have slipped into publication.

For instance, Martin has inconsistently referred to certain characters' eye colors, and has described a horse as being of one sex and then another. Main article: Regarding the characters as the heart of the story, Martin planned the epic Ice and Fire fantasy to have a large cast of characters and many different settings from the beginning. A Feast for Crows has a 63-page list of characters, with many of the thousands of characters mentioned only in passing or disappearing from view for long stretches. When Martin adds a new family to the ever-growing number of in the appendices, he devises a secret about the personality or fate of the family members.

However, their backstory remains subject to change until written down in the story. Martin drew most character inspiration from history (without directly translating historical figures) and his own experiences, but also from the manners of his friends, acquaintances, and people of public interest. Martin aims to 'make my characters real and to make them human, characters who have good and bad, noble and selfish well-mixed in their natures'.

Jeff VanderMeer of the remarked that 'Martin's devotion to fully inhabiting his characters, for better or worse, creates the unstoppable momentum in his novels and contains an implied criticism of Tolkien's moral simplicity' (see ). Martin deliberately ignored the writing rule of never giving two characters names starting with the same letter. Instead, character names reflect the naming systems in various European family histories, where particular names were associated with specific and where even the secondary families assigned the same names repeatedly.

Game Of Thrones

The Ice and Fire story therefore has children called 'Robert' in honor of King Robert of House Baratheon, a 'Brandon' in every other generation of the Starks in commemoration of Brandon the Builder (of the Wall), and the syllable 'Ty' commonly occurring in given names of House Lannister. Confident that readers would pay attention, Martin distinguished people sharing a by adding numbers or locations to their given names (e.g. The family names were designed in association with ethnic groups (see ): the First Men in the North of Westeros had very simply descriptive names like Stark and Strong, whereas the descendants of the Andal invaders in the South have more elaborate, undescriptive house names like Lannister or Arryn, and the Targaryens and Valyrians from the Eastern continent have the most exotic names with the letter Y. All characters are designed to speak with their own internal voices to capture their views of the world. The Atlantic pondered whether Martin ultimately intended the readers to sympathize with characters on both sides of the Lannister–Stark feud long before plot developments force them to make their emotional choices. Contrary to most conventional epic fantasies, the Ice and Fire characters are vulnerable so that, according to The Atlantic, the reader 'cannot be sure that good shall triumph, which makes those instances where it does all the more exulting.'

Martin gets emotionally involved in the characters' lives during writing, which makes the chapters with dreadful events sometimes very difficult to write. Seeing the world through the characters' eyes requires a certain amount of empathy with them, including the villains, all of whom he has said he loves as if they were his own children. Martin found that some characters had minds of their own and took his writing in different directions. He returns to the intended story if it does not work out, but these detours sometimes prove more rewarding for him. Arya Stark, Tyrion Lannister, Jon Snow, and Daenerys Targaryen generate the most feedback from readers. Martin has stated that Tyrion is his personal favorite, as the grayest of the gray characters, with his cunning and wit making him the most fun to write.

Martin has also said that Bran Stark is the hardest character to write. As the character most deeply involved in magic, Bran's story needs to be handled carefully within the supernatural aspects of the books. Bran is also the youngest viewpoint character, and has to deal with the series' adult themes like grief, loneliness, and anger. Martin set out to have the young characters grow up faster between chapters, but, as it was implausible for a character to take two months to respond, a finished book represents very little time passed. Martin hoped the planned five-year break would ease the situation and age the children to almost adults in terms of the Seven Kingdoms, but he later dropped the five-year gap (see section ). Sales performance of the Ice and Fire series in the New York Times combined print and e-book fiction bestseller list in 2011 between the airing of the Game of Thrones pilot episode and the publication of A Dance with Dragons. The reported overall sales figures of the A Song of Ice and Fire series vary.

The New Yorker said in April 2011 (before the publication of A Dance with Dragons) that more than 15 million Ice and Fire books had been sold worldwide, a figure repeated by The Globe and Mail in July 2011. Reuters reported in September 2013 that the books including print, digital and audio versions have sold more than 24 million copies in North America. Reported more than six million sold copies in North America by May 2011.

USA Today reported 8.5 million copies in print and digital overall in July 2011, and over 12 million sold copies in print in December 2011. The series has been translated into more than 20 languages; USA Today reported the fifth book to be translated into over 40 languages. Forbes estimated that Martin was the 12th highest-earning author worldwide in 2011 at $15 million. Martin's publishers initially expected A Game of Thrones to be a best-seller, but the first installment did not even reach any lower positions in bestseller list. This left Martin unsurprised, as it is 'a fool's game to think anything is going to be successful or to count on it'. However, the book slowly won the passionate advocacy of independent booksellers and the book's popularity grew by word of mouth. The series' popularity skyrocketed in subsequent volumes, with the second and third volume making in 1999 and 2000, respectively.

The series gained Martin's old writings new attention, and Martin's American publisher was to reprint his out-of-print solo novels. The fourth installment, A Feast for Crows, was an immediate best-seller at its 2005 release, hitting number one on 'The New York Times' hardcover fiction bestseller list November 27, 2005, which for a fantasy novel suggested that Martin's books were attracting mainstream readers. The paperback edition of A Game of Thrones reached its 34th printing in 2010, surpassing the one million mark. Before it even premiered, the TV series had boosted sales of the book series, with Ice and Fire approaching triple-digit growth in year-on-year sales. Bantam was looking forward to seeing the tie-ins boost sales further, and Martin's British publisher expected readers to rediscover their other epic fantasy literature.

With a reported 4.5 million copies of the first four volumes in print in early 2011, the four volumes re-appeared on the paperback fiction bestseller lists in the second quarter of 2011. At its point of publication in July 2011, A Dance with Dragons was in its sixth print with more than 650,000 hardbacks in print.

It also had the highest single and first-day sales of any new fiction title published in 2011 at that point, with 170,000 hardcovers, 110,000 e-books, and 18,000 audio books reportedly sold on the first day. A Dance with Dragons reached the top of The New York Times bestseller list on July 31, 2011. Unlike most other big titles, the fifth volume sold more physical than digital copies early on, but nevertheless, Martin became the tenth author to sell 1 million e-books. All five volumes and the four-volume boxed set were among the top 100 best-selling books in the United States in 2011 and 2012. The TV series has contributed significantly boosting sales of both the books and collectibles like box-sets, merchandise, and other items. The TV series also contributed in increasing the geographic coverage of the books, introducing new customers in emerging countries like India and Brazil to the book series.

All this has significantly increased the overall book sales. 'After all, as some of you like to point out in your emails, I am sixty years old and fat, and you don't want me to 'pull a ' on you and deny you your book. Okay, I've got the message. You don't want me doing anything except A Song of Ice and Fire. (Well, maybe it's okay if I take a leak once in a while?)' —George R.

George R. R. Martin

Martin on his blog in 2009 While Martin calls the majority of his fans 'great', and enjoys interacting with them, some of them turned against him because of the six years it took to release A Dance with Dragons. A movement of disaffected fans called GRRuMblers formed in 2009, creating sites such as Finish the Book, George and Is Winter Coming? When fans' vocal impatience for A Dance with Dragons peaked shortly after, Martin issued a statement called 'To My Detractors' on his blog that received media attention.

The New York Times noted that it was not uncommon for Martin to be mobbed at book signings either. The New Yorker called this 'an astonishing amount of effort to devote to denouncing the author of books one professes to love. Few contemporary authors can claim to have inspired such passion.' Awards and nominations. (1996) – winner, and nominee, 1997. (1998) – Locus Award winner, Nebula Award nominee, 1999.

(2000) – Locus Award winner, and Nebula Awards nominee, 2001. (2005) – Hugo, Locus, and nominee, 2006.

(2011) – Locus Award winner, Hugo Award and World Fantasy Award nominee, 2012 Derived works Novellas Martin has written several novellas. The series, three novellas set ninety years before the events of the novel series, feature the adventures of Ser Duncan the Tall and his squire 'Egg', the later King Aegon V Targaryen. The stories have no direct connection to the plot of A Song of Ice and Fire, although both characters are mentioned in A Storm of Swords and A Feast For Crows, respectively.

The first installment, The Hedge Knight, was published in the 1998 anthology. The Sworn Sword followed in 2003, published in. Both were later adapted into. The third novella, titled The Mystery Knight, was first published in the 2010 anthology, and is planned to be adapted as a graphic novel as well. Martin planned to release the first three novellas as one collection in 2014.

Up to eight further Dunk and Egg installments are planned. The novella appeared in 's 2013 anthology, and explains some of the Targaryen backstory two centuries before the events of the novels., published in the 2014 anthology, is itself a prequel to the events of The Princess and the Queen. The novella appeared in the 2017 anthology, is the story of Aegon the Conqueror's two sons Aenys I and Maegor I 'the cruel'. Chapter sets from the novels were also compiled into three novellas that were released between 1996 and 2003 by and:. Blood of the Dragon (July 1996), taken from the Daenerys chapters in A Game of Thrones. Path of the Dragon (December 2000), taken from the Daenerys chapters in A Storm of Swords.

Arms of the Kraken (March 2003), based on the Iron Islands chapters from A Feast for Crows. TV series. Main article: With the popularity of the series growing, optioned A Song of Ice and Fire for a television adaptation in 2007. A pilot episode was produced in late 2009, and a was made in March 2010. The series, titled, premiered in April 2011 to great acclaim and ratings (see ). The network picked up the show for a covering A Clash of Kings two days later.

Shortly after the conclusion of the first season, the show received 13 nominations, including, winning and for Peter Dinklage's portrayal of Tyrion Lannister. HBO announced a renewal for a in April 2012, ten days after the season 2 premiere.

Due to the length of the corresponding book, the third season only covered roughly the first half of A Storm of Swords. Shortly after the season 3 premiere in March 2013, the network announced that Game of Thrones would be returning for a fourth season, which would cover the second half of A Storm of Swords along with the beginnings of A Feast for Crows and A Dance With Dragons. Game of Thrones was nominated for 15 Emmy Awards for season 3. Two days after the fourth season premiered in April 2014, HBO renewed Game of Thrones for a fifth and sixth season.

Season 5 premiered on April 12, 2015 and set a for winning the highest number of for a series in a single season and year, winning 12 out of 24 nominations, including. These episodes were watched by 8 million viewers, setting a record number for the series. The sixth season premiered on April 24, 2016. These episodes received the most nominations for the with 23, winning 12, including the award for. Other works.