This is a second-hand copy of the book A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin. It is the second impression of the first UK edition, published by Harper Collins Voyager in 1996.
From the inside flaps:
This is the fantasy epic of the decade, a story of treachery and ambition, love and magic in the Sunset Lands, a fabulous world scarred by battle and catastrophe over eight thousand years of recorded history. Even now the children of the forest and the giants that came before the First Men linger like myth in the north beyond a great wall of ice. Wildlings and Others share the vast frozen landscape with them, and direwolves and creatures of death. Now cold winds blow once more from the north. Winter is coming. In the first volume of A Song of Ice and Fire, George R. R. Martin tells of the deeds of men and women south of the Wall - and the terrible legacy they will leave their beautiful children.
In the game of thrones, you win or you die.
Not long ago, a mad tyrant, the Dragon King Aerys Targaryen, sat on the Iron Throne of the Sunset Lands. At last, the lords of the Seven Kingdoms rose against him to claim the throne for Robert Baratheon, foremost amongst them. Though Robert won bravely in battle, the Dragon King hid in his citadel, where he was slain by one of his own Kingsguard. Since it is understood in the south that blood runs truer than oaths, Robert wed the Kingslayer's twin sister, Cersei Lannister. A dozen years of peace have followed.
When his first minister dies, Robert turns to his champion and boyhood friend, Lord Eddard Stark. Generations of Starks have been Wardens of the north, close to the Wall where the old gods are worshipped in weirwoods, their faces carved in trees. Ned Stark counts it a curse, not an honour, when Robert bestows on him the office of Hand. But Stark wears his honour like a suit of armour. It weighs him down at court where a true man does what he will, not what he must ... and a dead enemy is a thing of beauty.
Worse, Robert has changed. Once he knew the man, but the king is a stranger to Stark. And the Dragon King's surviving children, a vengeance-mad boy and a baby girl, have grown to maturity in exile in the Free Cities beyond the sea.
The old gods Stark worships have no power in the south. His family is split and there is treachery at court, and honour forbids his assent to the despatch of assassins to still the threat of invasion from across the sea by the mad Dragon King's heir.
Most deadly of all, winter is coming.
A Game of Thrones begins the most imaginative, ambitious and compelling fantasy epic since The Lord of the Rings Thronged with memorable characters, it unfolds with astonishing skill a tale of truly epic dimensions. There have been many pretenders to the throne of Tolkien: now at last he has a true heir.
George R.R. Martin is the author of Fevre Dream, several collections of short stories and numerous scripts for film and television drama. He lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Condition: this is a used book in good condition. The dust jacket is protected in part by a non-adhesive PVC cover. This keeps it safe but can easily be removed as it is simply folded in place with no sticky points or anything securing it. See images.
Publisher: Harper Collins Voyager
Format: Hardcover
Pages: 694
ISBN: 0 00 224584 1 / 9780002245845
Year: 1996
Condition: used (good)
