When You Play the Game of Thrones…

A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire Series #1)

Author: Martin, George R. R.
Format: Trade Paperback
Type: Fantasy Novel
Page Count: 720pp.
Pub. Date: May 2002
Original Pub. Date: August 1996
Publisher: Random House

Publisher’s Synopsis:
Long ago, in a time forgotten, a preternatural event threw the seasons out of balance. In a land where summers can last decades and winters a lifetime, trouble is brewing.

The cold is returning, and in the frozen wastes to the north of Winterfell, sinister and supernatural forces are massing beyond the kingdom’s protective Wall.

At the center of the conflict lie the Starks of Winterfell, a family as harsh and unyielding as the land they were born to. Sweeping from a land of brutal cold to a distant summertime kingdom of epicurean plenty, here is a tale of lords and ladies, soldiers and sorcerers, assassins and bastards, who come together in a time of grim omens.

Here an enigmatic band of warriors bear swords of no human metal; a tribe of fierce wildlings carry men off into madness; a cruel young dragon prince barters his sister to win back his throne; and a determined woman undertakes the most treacherous of journeys.

Amid plots and counterplots, tragedy and betrayal, victory and terror, the fate of the Starks, their allies, and their enemies hangs perilously in the balance, as each endeavors to win that deadliest of conflicts: the game of thrones.

A Clash of Kings (A Song of Ice and Fire Series #2)

Author: Martin, George R. R.
Format: Trade Paperback
Type: Fantasy Novel
Page Count: 784pp.
Pub. Date: May 2002
Original Pub. Date: March 1999
Publisher: Random House

Publisher’s Synopsis:
Time is out of joint. The summer of peace and plenty, ten years long, is drawing to a close, and the harsh, chill winter approaches like an angry beast.

Two great leaders — Lord Eddard Stark and Robert Baratheon — who held sway over an age of enforced peace are dead . . . victims of royal treachery. Now, from the ancient citadel of Dragonstone to the forbidding shores of Winterfell, chaos reigns, as pretenders to the Iron Throne of the Seven Kingdoms prepare to stake their claims through tempest, turmoil, and war.

As a prophecy of doom cuts across the sky — a comet the color of blood and flame — six factions struggle for control of a divided land. Eddard’s son Robb has declared himself King in the North. In the south, Joffrey, the heir apparent, rules in name only, victim of the scheming courtiers who teem over King’s Landing. Robert’s two brothers each seek their own dominion, while a disfavored house turns once more to conquest. And a continent away, an exiled queen, the Mother of Dragons, risks everything to lead her precious brood across a hard hot desert to win back the crown that is rightfully hers.

A Clash of Kings transports us into a magnificent, forgotten land of revelry and revenge, wizardry and warfare. It is a tale in which maidens cavort with madmen, brother plots against brother, and the dead rise to walk in the night. Here a princess masquerades as an orphan boy; a knight of the mind prepares a poison for a treacherous sorceress; and wild men descend from the Mountains of the Moon to ravage the countryside.

Against a backdrop of incest and fratricide, alchemy and murder, the price of glory may be measured in blood. And the spoils of victory may just go to the men and women possessed of the coldest steel . . . and the coldest hearts. For when rulers clash, all of the land feels the tremors.

Audacious, inventive, brilliantly imagined, A Clash of Kings is a novel of dazzling beauty and boundless enchantment — a tale of pure excitement you will never forget.

A Storm of Swords (A Song of Ice and Fire Series #3)

Author: Martin, George R. R.
Format: Trade Paperback
Type: Fantasy Novel
Page Count: 1008pp.
Pub. Date: May 2002
Original Pub. Date: November 2000
Publisher: Random House

Publisher’s Synopsis:
Of the five contenders for power, one is dead, another in disfavor, and still the wars rage as violently as ever, as alliances are made and broken.

Joffrey, of House Lannister, sits on the Iron Throne, the uneasy ruler of the land of the Seven Kingdoms. His most bitter rival, Lord Stannis, stands defeated and disgraced, the victim of the jealous sorceress who holds him in her evil thrall. But young Robb, of House Stark, still rules the North from the fortress of Riverrun. Robb plots against his despised Lannister enemies, even as they hold his sister hostage at King’s Landing, the seat of the Iron Throne.

Meanwhile, making her way across a blood-drenched continent is the exiled queen, Daenerys, mistress of the only three dragons still left in the world. . . .

But as opposing forces maneuver for the final titanic showdown, an army of barbaric wildlings arrives from the outermost line of civilization. In their vanguard is a horde of mythical Others — a supernatural army of the living dead whose animated corpses are unstoppable. As the future of the land hangs in the balance, no one will rest until the Seven Kingdoms have exploded in a veritable storm of swords. . .

A Feast for Crows (A Song of Ice and Fire Series #4)

Author: Martin, George R. R.
Format: Trade Paperback
Type: Fantasy Novel
Page Count: 784pp.
Pub. Date: October 2007
Original Pub. Date: November 2005
Publisher: Random House

Publisher’s Synopsis:
It seems too good to be true. The war of the Five Kings has finally ground to an uneasy halt, with House Lannister and their allies the apparent victors. But all is still not well in the land.

With the death of the monstrous King Joffrey, Cersei is ruling as regent in King’s Landing. Robb Stark’s demise has broken the back of the Northern rebels, and his siblings are scattered throughout the kingdom like seeds on barren soil.

Few legitimate claims to the once desperately sought Iron Throne still exist — or they are held in hands too weak or too distant to wield them effectively. But as in the aftermath of any climactic struggle, it is not long before the survivors, outlaws, renegades, and carrion eaters start to gather, picking over the bones of the dead and fighting for the spoils of the soon-to-be-dead.

Now in the Seven Kingdoms, as the human crows assemble over a banquet of ashes, daring new plots and dangerous new alliances are formed, while surprising faces — some familiar, others only just appearing — are seen emerging from an ominous twilight of past struggles and chaos to take up the challenges ahead.

It is a time when the wise and the ambitious, the deceitful and the strong, will acquire the skills, the power, and the magic to survive the stark and terrible times that lie before them. It is a time for nobles and commoners, soldiers and sorcerers, assassins and sages, to come together and stake their fortunes . . . and their lives.

For at a feast for crows, many are the guests — but only a few are the survivors.

A Dance With Dragons (A Song of Ice and Fire Series #5)

Author: Martin, George R. R.
Format: Trade Paperback
Type: Fantasy Novel
Page Count: 1056pp.
Pub. Date: October 2013
Publisher: Random House

Publisher’s Synopsis:
In the aftermath of a colossal battle, Daenerys Targaryen rules with her three dragons as queen of a city built on dust and death. But Daenerys has thousands of enemies, and many have set out to find her.

Fleeing from Westeros with a price on his head, Tyrion Lannister, too, is making his way east — with new allies who may not be the ragtag band they seem.

And in the frozen north, Jon Snow confronts creatures from beyond the Wall of ice and stone, and powerful foes from within the Night’s Watch. In a time of rising restlessness, the tides of destiny and politics lead a grand cast of outlaws and priests, soldiers and skinchangers, nobles and slaves, to the greatest dance of all.

Game of Thrones: The Complete First Season

Format: DVD
Episodes: 10
Number of Discs: 5
DVD Release Date: July 21, 2012
Studio: HBO Home Video

Long ago, in a distant land where summers span decades, and winters reach into infinity, the cold winds begin to blow through the seven kingdoms of Westeros.

In the cold seasons of past, the Starks of Winterfell Castle relied on their fierce resiliency to survive the harsh conditions. But this winter, supernatural forces are preparing to launch a devastating attack. A great battle is brewing, and whoever emerges the victor will ascend the throne.

Game of Thrones: The Complete Second Season

Format: DVD
Episodes: 10
Number of Discs: 5
DVD Release Date: February 2013
Studio: HBO Home Video

From the scheming south and the savage eastern lands, to the frozen north and the ancient Wall that protects the realm from the mysterious darkness beyond, the powerful families of the Seven Kingdoms are locked in a battle for the Iron Throne.

This is a story of duplicity and treachery, nobility and honor, conquest and triumph. In the Game of Thrones, you either win or you die.

Game of Thrones: The Complete Third Season

Format: DVD
Episodes: 10
Number of Discs: 5
DVD Release Date: February 2014
Studio: HBO Home Video

This epic drama is set in the grounded fantasy continent of Westeros, where ambitious men and women of both honor and ill-repute live in a land where summers and winters can last years. In Season 3, family and loyalty will be the overarching themes, and many critical plot points from the first two seasons will come to a violent head, with several major characters meeting cruel fates.

While a primary focus continues to be on King’s Landing, where the Lannisters barely held onto power after a savage naval onslaught from Stannis Baratheon, stirrings in the North threaten to alter the overall balance of power in Westeros. Robb Stark, King of the North, will face a major calamity in his efforts to build on his victories over the Lannisters in Season 2, while further north, Mance Rayder (new character) and his huge army of wildlings begin an inexorable march south to scale the Wall.

Across the Narrow Sea, Daenerys Targaryen — reunited with her three deadly, fast-maturing dragons — attempts to raise an army of slaves to sail with her from Essos to Westeros, in hopes of eventually overthrowing the Iron Throne.