Written by George R. R. Martin Read by Read by Roy Dotrice Format: MP3 Bitrate: Variable Unabridged A Song of Ice and Fire is a series of epic fantasy novels written by American novelist and screenwriter George R. R. Martin. Martin began the first volume of the series, A Game of Thrones, in 1991. It was first published in 1996. Martin gradually extended his originally intended trilogy to seven volumes, the fifth of which, A Dance with Dragons, took him five years to write before its publication in 2011. He has publicly hinted that the series might be stretched to an eighth volume. Martin's work on his sixth, The Winds of Winter, is still underway. The story of 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 an assortment of characters that grows from nine, in the first, to thirty-one by the fifth novel. Three predominant stories interweave: a dynastic war among several families for control of Westeros; the rising threat of the superhuman Others beyond Westeros' northern border; and the ambition of Daenerys Targaryen, the exiled daughter of a king, to assume her ancestral throne. Martin's sources included the Wars of the Roses, and the French historical novels The Accursed Kings by Maurice Druon, set in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries; Martin later wrote the introduction to the English translation of the series, saying: "The Accursed Kings has it all. Believe me, the Starks and the Lannisters have nothing on the Capets and Plantagenets. It is the original game of thrones".[2] A Song of Ice and Fire received favorable critique for its diverse portrayal of women and religion, and praise for favoring realism over magic. An assortment of disparate, subjective, and sometimes inaccurate points of view confront the reader, and the reader may not safely presume that a favorite character will prevail, or even survive. Violence, sexuality and moral ambiguity frequently arise among a thousand named characters.
