A Game of Thrones is an epic fantasy novel by American author George R. R. Martin. It was published in August 1996 as the first entry in his series A Song of Ice and Fire. It was Martin's fourth novel and his return to writing prose fiction after a long period working in television. He had the initial idea in 1991 while writing science fiction; he wrote a hundred pages and submitted them to his agent, originally planning the novel as a trilogy.
A Game of Thrones is narrated in third person, with each chapter alternating between eight narrators who sometimes provide unreliable accounts. In the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros, House Stark and House Lannister influence the political fate of the continent. In Westeros' far north, an illegitimate son of House Stark joins a group maintaining a giant wall of ice to protect Westeros from raiders and a group of mythical enemies. Across the sea in Essos, the last surviving members of Westeros' deposed royal house, House Targaryen, live in exile.
Following the novel's publication, several reviewers commended the novel's focus on political intrigue and historical influences. It won the 1997 Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel and was nominated for several others, and a novella comprising the Targaryen chapters won the 1997 Hugo Award for Best Novella. The novel's first printing sold only a few thousand copies, but gained a small following through word of mouth. The HBO television adaptation Game of Thrones (2011–2019) reignited interest in the novel. It became a best-seller and the subject of academic and popular discourse.
An epic fantasy novel, it has been widely compared with the work of J. R. R. Tolkien and characterized as subverting the genre's major tropes; it is sometimes described as historical or medieval fantasy. There are few direct historical analogues, but there are clear echoes of real history, like Hadrian's Wall inspiring the novel's giant wall of ice. Scholars have explored whether the novel authentically represents the Middle Ages and discuss how it responds to medieval literary conventions or themes, like chivalry. Gender, motherhood, and sexual violence are other frequently explored topics, and the authority of rulers or kings is sometimes discussed with reference to feudalism. In 2019, the BBC named it among the 100 most inspiring novels.
Plot
In the Seven Kingdoms After the death of Lord Jon Arryn, King Robert Baratheon recruits his childhood friend Eddard "Ned" Stark, the lord of the northern castle of Winterfell, to replace Arryn as Hand of the King and betroths his son Joffrey to Ned's daughter Sansa. Shortly thereafter, Ned's son Bran discovers Robert's wife, Queen Cersei Lannister, having sex with her twin brother, Jaime. Jaime throws Bran from a tower, leaving Bran comatose and paralyzed.
Ned brings his daughters Sansa and Arya to the capital city, King's Landing, and finds that Robert is an ineffective king whose only interests are hunting, drinking, and womanizing.
At Winterfell, an assassin fails to kill Bran while he is unconscious, and Ned's wife, Catelyn, travels to King's Landing to bring word to Ned. Catelyn's childhood friend, Petyr "Littlefinger" Baelish, implicates Tyrion Lannister, the dwarf brother of Cersei and Jaime, in the assassination attempt. On the road home, Catelyn encounters Tyrion and arrests him for the attempt on Bran's life. In retaliation for Tyrion's abduction, his father, Lord Tywin Lannister, sends soldiers to raid the Riverlands, Catelyn's home region. Tyrion regains his freedom by demanding a trial and recruiting a mercenary named Bronn to defend him in trial by combat.
Ned investigates Jon Arryn's death and discovers that the children thought to be Robert's heirs are in fact Cersei's children by Jaime; he infers that Jon Arryn was killed to conceal this information. Before Ned can act, Cersei arranges Robert's death and installs Joffrey on the throne. Ned enlists Littlefinger's help to take Cersei and Joffrey into custody. Littlefinger betrays him and Ned is arrested. Arya escapes, but Cersei and Joffrey take Sansa as a hostage.
Ned's eldest son, Robb, marches his army south in response to his father's arrest. To secure a strategically necessary bridge crossing, Catelyn negotiates a marital alliance between Robb and the notoriously unreliable House Frey. Robb defeats a Lannister army in the Riverlands, capturing Jaime. Tywin sends Tyrion back to King's Landing to act as Joffrey's Hand of the King. Joffrey has Ned executed and Robb's followers declare independence from the Seven Kingdoms, proclaiming Robb the "King in the North".
On the Wall The prologue of the novel introduces the Wall: a huge magical wall of ice at the northern border of the Seven Kingdoms. The Wall is defended by the Night's Watch, a great order of warriors who serve for life to defend the realm from the Others, an ancient and hostile inhuman race, and human "wildlings" who live north of the Wall.
Jon Snow, Ned's bastard son, is inspired by his uncle Benjen to join the Night's Watch. He becomes disillusioned when he discovers that its recruits are mostly convicts. Jon unites his fellow recruits against their harsh instructor and protects the cowardly but good-natured and intelligent Samwell Tarly. Jon is appointed steward to the leader of the Watch, Lord Commander Jeor Mormont. Benjen fails to return from an expedition north of the Wall; when the bodies of two men from his party are recovered, they re-animate as undead wights before being dispatched by Jon.
When word of Ned's execution reaches Jon, he attempts to join Robb against the Lannisters, but is persuaded to remain loyal to the Watch. Mormont declares his intention to march north to find Benjen, and to investigate rumors of a "King-beyond-the-Wall" uniting the wildlings.
Across the Narrow Sea Across the eastern sea, in Essos, live the exiled children of the dead and deposed Mad King Aerys of the Seven Kingdoms: Viserys and Daenerys Targaryen.
Viserys betroths Daenerys to Khal Drogo, a warlord of the Dothraki people, in exchange for the use of Drogo's army to reclaim the throne. Daenerys receives three petrified dragon eggs as a wedding present from a wealthy merchant. Jorah Mormont, a knight exiled from Westeros and Jeor's son, joins Viserys as an adviser. Initially terrified of her new husband and his people, Daenerys eventually embraces her role as Drogo's queen. Drogo, however, shows little interest in conquering Westeros. When Viserys publicly threatens Daenerys and her unborn child, Drogo executes him by pouring molten gold on his head.
An assassin attempts to poison Daenerys, convincing Drogo to conquer Westeros. While sacking villages to fund the invasion, Drogo is badly wounded, and Daenerys commands the captive folk healer Mirri Maz Duur to save him. The healer, angered by the Dothraki raids against her people, sacrifices Daenerys's unborn child to power the spell to save Drogo's life, which restores Drogo's physical health but leaves him in a persistent vegetative state.
With Drogo incapacitated, much of his army disperses. Daenerys smothers Drogo with a pillow and has Mirri tied to Drogo's funeral pyre. She places her three dragon eggs on the pyre and enters it herself. When the fire burns out, she emerges unharmed, with three newly hatched dragons.
Background
Author
George R. R. Martin was born and raised in Bayonne, New Jersey. His family was poor, lived on a government housing project, and did not own a car. He started writing in childhood and sold horror stories to other children for a nickel. Martin's passion for comic books led to his interest in science fiction and fantasy and, as a teenager, he wrote superhero fiction for fan magazines. His first published work was a science-fiction story for Galaxy Science Fiction in 1971. At Northwestern University, Martin studied journalism, and he was a conscientious objector to the Vietnam War—he performed alternative service instead.
Martin's first two published novels, Dying of the Light (1977) and Fevre Dream (1982), performed well, and by 1983 he had accrued 3 Hugo Awards. Martin's publisher provided a large advance payment for his third novel, The Armageddon Rag (1983). It was a commercial disaster, temporarily halting his literary career. A fan of The Armageddon Rag hired Martin as a writer on a revival of The Twilight Zone (1985–1989); he later worked on the CBS series Beauty and the Beast (1987–1990) and The Outer Limits (1995–1997). This work paid Martin well, but he was frustrated by the limitations of television budgets and the early cancellation of projects.
Writing and publication Martin was writing a science fiction novel titled Avalon in summer 1991, and had wanted to write an epic fantasy novel since reading the work of English writer J. R. R. Tolkien. He had an idea for the first chapter—a young boy seeing a beheading and the discovery of dire wolf pups in "summer snows"—and wrote it in a few days. Over that summer, he sketched a map, wrote a hundred pages, then sent the pages – alongside a series outline – to his literary agent. He expected he was writing a trilogy because they were the standard for the fantasy genre, and built the world as he wrote the story. Martin pointed to historical fiction as an important influence, and described French writer Maurice Druon's seven-book historical series The Accursed Kings as "the original game of thrones". He describes epic fantasy and historical fiction as siblings.
A Game of Thrones was published in August 1996 by Bantam Books (USA) and HarperCollins Voyager (UK). The cover bore a recommendation from The Wheel of Time author Robert Jordan; the UK edition positioned him as an heir to Tolkien. Several thousand copies were printed in the United States; only 1500 were produced for the United Kingdom. Bantam's edition was printed several months earlier so that copies could be disseminated at the June 1996 American Booksellers Association convention. Further copies were distributed at the July Westercon.
Style
Narration A Game of Thrones is narrated in the third person from a character's limited perspective, alternating character with each chapter. Martin primarily uses noble-born perspective characters, which Shannon Wells-Lassagne says keeps the reader's interest and loyalty with the aristocratic houses. A non-noble member of the Night's Watch, named Will, focalizes the novel's prologue.
There are three main plot lines. Daenerys Targaryen provides the sole viewpoint on her exile. Concurrently, the politics of the Seven Kingdoms mainly unfolds through the perspectives of House Stark members—Ned, Catelyn, Sansa, Arya, and Bran—dispersed across Westeros, with Tyrion Lannister also offering a viewpoint. Finally, Jon Snow's service to the Night's Watch on the far northern Wall forms the third plot line.
Martin's viewpoint characters often provide unreliable accounts; Brian Pavlac describes the viewpoints as "sources" sometimes at odds with each other. Some narrators actively suppress their thoughts to conceal information from the reader. A notable example is the true parentage of Ned Stark's supposed illegitimate son, Jon Snow. Ned's recurring memory of his dying sister Lyanna's plea—"Promise me, Ned"—provides the reader with more information about the circumstances of her death as the novel progresses.
Genre Martin described the series as epic fantasy "inspired by and grounded in history", and some scholars concur. Others apply labels like modern fantasy, romance fantasy, medieval or neomedievalist fantasy, historical fantasy, and fantastical history. Literary scholar Shiloh Carroll notes a broad range of influences for Martin's series, and writes that Martin's attempts to subvert or avoid medievalist literary conventions resulted in thematic overlap with Victorian medieval romance.