by George R. R. Martin
(4.6 / 5)

BLURB

It’s coming winter. This is House Stark’s sharp slogan, the oldest of the fiefdoms that give loyalty in far-off King’s Landing to King Robert Baratheon. There Winterfell’s Eddard Stark regulations in Robert’s place. His household lives there in ease and convenience: Catelyn, his beloved mother; Robb, Brandon, and Rickon, his children; Sansa and Arya, his sisters; and Jon Snow, his bastard brother. Far to the south, behind the imposing Wall, lies wild Wildings and worse-insignificant times restricted to myth during the centuries-long winter, but appearing all too true and all too lethal at the turn of the season. Yet a more instant menace lurks to the west, where under unexpected conditions Jon Arryn, the King’s Hand, has killed. Now Robert is heading north to Winterfell, bringing his queen, the beautiful but cold Cersei, his son, the cruel, vainglorious Prince Joffrey, and the Queen’s brothers Jaime and Tyrion of the powerful and wealthy House Lannister-the former an unparalleled swordsman, the latter a dwarf whose stunted stature beats a brilliant mind. 

Everyone is preparing for Winterfell and a fateful meeting that will alter kingdom path. Meanwhile, across the Narrow Sea, Prince Viserys, heir to the dying House of Targaryen, who once governed all of Westeros, plans to regain the crown with a barbarian force of Dothraki -whose allegiance he would buy in the only coin remaining to him: his lovely yet insignificant daughter, Daenerys.