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A Dance With Dragons

A Dance With Dragons

Epic FantasyFantasy
Pages
1112
Published
2011
Language
English

Synopsis

A Dance with Dragons is the fifth volume of George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire. Its opening stretch runs alongside A Feast for Crows, covering the same span of time with the characters that book set aside, before carrying the whole saga past it.

In the east, Daenerys Targaryen struggles to hold the freed slave city of Meereen, discovering that conquest is far simpler than governance, and that her dragons are no longer hers to command. At the Wall, Jon Snow, now Lord Commander of the Night's Watch, tries to ready the order for winter and for the threat massing beyond it, making enemies with every hard decision. Tyrion Lannister, a fugitive with a price on his head, is carried across Essos toward the dragon queen, while other exiles and claimants converge on her from every direction.

The novel braids many threads across two continents and pushes the story to a series of knife-edge turning points. It won the 2012 Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel.

Prose complexity
10/10

Vibe

DarkTenseAtmosphericComplex
Multiple POVsCourt IntrigueMorally GreyFamily SagaBetrayal

Genres

Epic Fantasy Fantasy High Fantasy Grimdark Adventure

About the author

G
George R. R. Martin

George Raymond Richard Martin (born 20 September 1948 in Bayonne, New Jersey) is an American writer of fantasy, science fiction and horror. His early work includes the novels Dying of the Light (1977), Fevre Dream and The Armageddon Rag, and the story collections Sandkings and Tuf Voyaging. From the mid-1980s he also wrote for television, on the revived The Twilight Zone and on Beauty and the Beast, where he became a co-supervising producer. He is best known for the epic fantasy sequence A Song...

Characters

Daenerys TargaryenProtagonist

Learns that ruling Meereen is far harder than conquering it.

Jon SnowProtagonist

Lord Commander of the Night's Watch, bracing the Wall for winter.

Tyrion LannisterProtagonist

A hunted fugitive making his way across Essos.

Bran StarkSupporting

Journeys beyond the Wall toward a strange destiny.

Davos SeaworthSupporting

Stannis Baratheon's envoy, sent into the north on a difficult errand.

All characters in A Dance With Dragons

Frequently asked questions

  • How does this book relate to A Feast for Crows?

    The narrative of this book occurs simultaneously with the events of A Feast for Crows for the majority of its duration. The author originally intended to write a single volume covering this time period but split the story into two separate books based on character and location rather than chronology.

  • Is there a specific way to read this alongside the previous book?

    Some readers utilize unofficial combined reading orders to experience the events of both books in a single chronological sequence. These guides interleave chapters from both volumes to align the timelines of the various characters.

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