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 forces are massing beyond
the kingdom's protective Wall. To the south, the king's powers are
failing: his most trusted advisor dead under mysterious circumstances
and his enemies emerging from the shadows of the throne. At the center
of the conflict lie the Starks of Winterfell, a family as harsh and
unyielding as the frozen land they were born to. Now Lord Eddard Stark
is reluctantly summoned to serve as the king's new Hand, an appointment
that threatens to sunder not only his family but the kingdom itself.
Sweeping from a harsh land of cold to a summertime kingdom of epicurean
plenty, "A Game of Thrones" tells 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 wildings carry men off into madness, a cruel
young dragon prince barters his sister to win back his throne, a child
is lost in the twilight between life and death, and a determined woman
undertakes a treacherous journey to protect all she holds dear. Amid
plots and counterplots, tragedy and betrayal, victory and terror, allies
and enemies, the fate of the Starks hangs perilously in the balance, as
each side endeavors to win that deadliest of conflicts: the game of
thrones.
