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A Game of Thrones
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After 8300 years of quiet, the North once again rings with the cries of the damned, the creatures known as Others have descended into the south once more. But the power of the First Men has all but disappeared, and the Children of the Forest are no more, leaving only the Night Watch to guard the slowly disappearing Wall.
Deep in the south of Westeros, the Usurper king has grown afraid, he plans to visit his oldest ally-Lord Eddard Stark, Warden of the North, and current Hand of the King-and bring him back to his court to aid him. But it may be too late for that already, for King Robert is no longer safe even among his own family.
On the Free Islands, the last two survivors of the ancient lineage of Targaryen yet live, and neither has plans to leave Westeros in the hands of The Usurper. The mad-prince Viserys will marry his sister Daenerys to Khal Drogo, and use his vast nation of horsemen to sweep across Westeros in a wave of destrucion, or so he thinks.
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A Clash of Kings
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A decade-long summer is drawing to an end, ten years full of peace and comfort for the Seven Kingdoms. Now a hard winter is coming, bringing with it far worse than cold, ice and snow.
Robert Baratheon, who took the Iron Throne from the last mad Targaryen Dragon King in a bloody coup, and his tempering Hand, Eddard Stark of Winterfell, lie dead, losers in the treacherous game of thrones. Robert's heir-apparent, Joffrey, sits tenuously on the Iron Throne in King's Landing, his childish arrogance and cruelty kept barely in check by his uncle the Imp, Tyrion Lannister.
Eddard Stark's eldest son Robb has named himself King in the North, leaving Winterfell behind to march with his liegemen against House Lannister and Joffrey. The dead king's younger brothers have both declared themselves heirs to Robert's throne as rumors of Joffrey's birth come to light and take on the air of truth. Eddard's ward Theon Greyjoy plots to bring his father's house back to ascendancy.
Eddard Stark's crippled son Bran discovers that the old gods and his nursemaid's old stories hold truths that can free him from his own broken body, while the Queen Regent's dwarf brother finds a place of power and favor in his father's eyes, if only for a time. Eddard's ladylike daughter Sansa, a hostage to Joffrey in King's Landing, is misused and abused well past the point where any of her childish illusions of gallantry should still hold, yet she clings to the hope that a noble knight might save her from the nightmare her life has become.
Jon Snow, born on the wrong side of Eddard Stark's sheets, forays beyond the great Wall keeping the Old Ones from coming down from the mountains in the North, while the apprentice blacksmith Gendry, unaware that his father was Robert Baratheon, links his fate to that of the tomboy princess Arya.
And across a great sea, the last of the Targaryens, the Mother of Dragons, journeys across a deadly desert, determined to reclaim the crown that Robert Baratheon and Eddard Stark wrested from her line.
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A Storm of Swords
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The monstrous adolescent Joffrey has been named king of the Seven Kingdoms largely by the strength of his mother's House of Lannister, but his seat is anything but secure. His paternal uncle, aided by a fanatical fire-worshipping sorceress and bolstered by his conviction of Joffrey's incestuous parentage, continues to press his Baratheon claim to the throne. House Stark, led by the teenaged Robb and his mother Catelyn, fight to reestablish the ancient title of King in the North.
The Seven Kingdoms are in turmoil, and its denizens aren't even yet aware of the threat from across the sea, where the last surviving member of the deposed Targaryen line is gathering up a fearsome and loyal army and raising the world's last three dragons to reclaim the throne stolen years ago from her family in a murderous coup.
Sansa Stark, still held hostage by the Lannisters, finds her dreams of chivalrous love dashed against the harsh rocks of her marriage to Tyrion, the sardonic dwarf who becomes more and more appealing when measured against the rest of his hard-scheming clan.
The tomboy princess Arya Stark forms a reluctant alliance with the ruthless knight Sandor Clegane, known as "The Hound," when her brother Robb and mother Catelyn are murdered by vengeful House Frey.
Bran Stark, crippled by a fall from a tower back home at Winterfell, pushes past the protective Wall in search of the man who can teach him to harness the strength of his dreams.
And Jon Snow, the Stark children's bastard older brother, becomes the last hope of the Night's Watch on the Wall when it is attacked by wildlings from the wintry forests beyond. The bastard son of a stiff-necked but honorable man, Jon may also be the last hope of House Stark and Winterfell.
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A Feast for Crows
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Lord Tywin Lannister has been ignominiously slain on his privy, Cersei Lannister, on the verge of losing it completely after Joffrey's murder, has pulled herself together and is determined to rule King's Landing as Queen Regent until her youngest son Tommen comes of age. And she intends to rule with an iron fist that would do Lord Tywin proud. But even from the presumed safety of the Red Keep, she must deal with the unsubtle machinations of the ambitious Tyrells. And she's obsessed with finding her fugitive brother, Tyrion (who did kill Tywin and is accused of killing Joffrey).
While the rest of Westeros is concerned with how to deal with King's Landing. Stannis Baratheon has installed himself at the Wall in the far north, and considers himself king of all Westeros. Jon Snow, now Lord Commander of the Night's Watch, is petitioning lords in the north to see who will ally with him and Stannis against the Lannisters, and he isn't meeting with much success.
Off on the bleak and craggy Iron Islands, the fanatical Greyjoys are deciding upon their new king, and desire nothing less than to renew their rebellion and conquer Westeros. Far to the south in Dorne, the ailing Prince Doran Martell finds himself alone in his allegiance to Tywin, while the rest of his family and subjects demand war in revenge for the death of their beloved Prince Oberyn.
Brienne, the rough-hewn warrior woman from Tarth who joined the late Catelyn Stark's service after being falsely accused of murdering Renly Baratheon, searches far and wide for Catelyn's missing daughter Sansa. Sansa herself is still holed up at the Eyrie, in disguise. And Sansa's lone wolf sister, Arya (who believes all her family is dead but for Jon Snow), has sailed across the sea to the exotic city of Braavos, where a new life and uncertain destiny awaits.
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