A Clash of Kings: The bestselling classic epic fantasy series behind the award-winning HBO and Sky TV show and phenomenon GAME OF THRONES (A Song of Ice and Fire, Book 2)

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The Atlantic 's Adam Serwer regarded A Song of Ice and Fire as "more a story of politics than one of heroism, a story about humanity wrestling with its baser obsessions than fulfilling its glorious potential", where the emergent power struggle stems from the feudal system's repression and not from the fight between good and evil. After a few more chapters, Martin perceived his new book as a fantasy story [30] and started making maps and genealogies. Four hundred pages of the sixth novel had been written as of October 2012 [update], although Martin considered only 200 as "really finished"; the rest needed revising.

The publication of A Game of Thrones caused Martin's following to grow, with fan sites springing up and a Trekkie-like society of followers evolving that meet regularly. After three chapters, he had a vivid idea of a boy seeing a man's beheading and finding direwolves in the snow, which would eventually become the first non-prologue chapter of A Game of Thrones. Displeased with the provisional title A Time for Wolves for the final volume, Martin ultimately announced A Dream of Spring as the title for the seventh book in 2006. Theon fancies himself the Prince of the Iron Islands…meaning there is yet another contender for the Iron Throne….Ironborn raiders seize control of Moat Cailin, Torrhen's Square and Deepwood Motte, whilst raiding the Stony Shore. It also had the highest single and first-day sales of any new fiction title published in 2011 at that point, with 170,000 hardcovers, 110,000 e-books, and 18,000 audio books reportedly sold on the first day. There's a whole world of Game of Thrones content out there, you just have to pick up a book to see it. Arya Stark, Tyrion Lannister, Jon Snow, and Daenerys Targaryen generate the most feedback from readers.

As soon as we get more news on The Winds of Winter, the next book in the series, we'll update this space. Storm's End itself only falls, however, when Stannis's loyal Ser Davos, a former smuggler, sneaks Melisandre below the castle in a small boat. Two great leaders—Lord Eddard Stark and Robert Baratheon—who held sway over an age of enforced peace are dead .

Martin's stated inspirations for the series include the Wars of the Roses and The Accursed Kings, a series of French historical novels by Maurice Druon. Their review for A Dance with Dragons repeated points of criticism for the fourth volume, and said that, although "The new volume has a similar feel to Feast", "Martin keeps it fresh by focusing on popular characters [who were] notably absent from the previous book.