How many chapters in a dance with dragons
release date, news, plot, chapters and returning characters
Every George R.R. Martin fan wants to know The Winds of Winter release date. It’s been nearly seven years since A Dance With Dragons, the most recent book in Martin’s A Song of Ice And Fire series. Numerous deadlines have been missed and fans are rabidly awaiting news of when book six will finally hit the shelves. Below you’ll find everything we know about The Winds of Winter so far, and we’ll update this page as we receive more news.
First, a warning to Game of Thrones fans who have seen season eight but haven’t read the books: the story described below will probably be unfamiliar. Not only has the series taken liberties with the storylines in George R.R. Martin’s books thus far, but it’s also now gone beyond the first five books’ narratives – so we can presume that some of the storylines we saw in the last few seasons may not appear at all in The Winds of Winter. Ok – now back to A Song of Ice and Fire.
Will
The Winds of Winter be released in 2020?Probably not.
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Game of Thrones has now ended, and while Martin hasn’t finished the books yet – he’s finally confirmed it’s in progress while in self-isolation due to the current coronavirus pandemic.
The author updated his blog informing fans of his current status. “For those of you who may be concerned for me personally… Yes, I am aware that I am very much in the most vulnerable population, given my age and physical condition. But I feel fine at the moment, and we are taking all sensible precautions,” he began.
“I am off by myself in a remote isolated location, attended by one of my staff, and I’m not going in to town or seeing anyone. Truth be told, I am spending more time in Westeros than in the real world, writing every day.
“Things are pretty grim in the Seven Kingdoms… but maybe not as grim as they may become here.
Some days, watching the news, I cannot help feeling as if we are all now living in a science fiction novel. But not, alas, the sort of science fiction novel that I dreamed of living in when I was a kid, the one with the cities on the Moon, colonies on Mars, household robots programmed with the Three Laws, and flying cars.
Martin finished by saying: “I never liked the pandemic stories half so well… Let us hope we all come through this safe and sound. Stay well, my friends. Better to be safe than sorry.”
In a previous blog post marking the end of Game of Thrones, the author said that the Winters of Winter is definitely on the way.
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“And I’m writing. Winter is coming, I told you, long ago… and so it is. THE WINDS OF WINTER is very late, I know, I know, but it will be done. I won’t say when, I’ve tried that before, only to burn you all and jinx myself… but I will finish it, and then will come A DREAM OF SPRING,” he said.
“How will it all end? I hear people asking. The same ending as the show? Different?
“Well… yes. And no. And yes. And no. And yes. And no. And yes.
“I am working in a very different medium than David and Dan, never forget. They had six hours for this final season. I expect these last two books of mine will fill 3000 manuscript pages between them before I’m done… and if more pages and chapters and scenes are needed, I’ll add them. And of course the butterfly effect will be at work as well; those of you who follow this Not A Blog will know that I’ve been talking about that since season one. There are characters who never made it onto the screen at all, and others who died in the show but still live in the books… so if nothing else, the readers will learn what happened to Jeyne Poole, Lady Stoneheart, Penny and her pig, Skahaz Shavepate, Arianne Martell, Darkstar, Victarion Greyjoy, Ser Garlan the Gallant, Aegon VI, and a myriad of other characters both great and small that viewers of the show never had the chance to meet.
And yes, there will be unicorns… of a sort…”
What has Martin said about
TWOW‘s release date in the past?On January 10, 2017, Martin said of the sixth A Song of Ice and Fire book: “I think it will be out this year. (But hey, I thought the same thing last year).”
Later that year, in July 2017, he wrote on his LiveJournal page: “I’ve seen some truly weird reports about WOW on the internet of late, by ‘journalists’ who make their stories up out of whole cloth. I don’t know which story is more absurd, the one that says the book is finished and I’ve been sitting on it for some nefarious reason, or the one that says I have no pages. Both ‘reports’ are equally false and equally moronic. I am still working on it, I am still months away (how many? good question), I still have good days and bad days, and that’s all I care to say. Whether WINDS or the first volume of FIRE AND BLOOD will be the first to hit the bookstores is hard to say at this juncture, but I do think you will have a Westeros book from me in 2018… and who knows, maybe two.
”
Fans’ hopes were reignited at the end of 2017, when he posted a tweet that appeared to hint at good things to come in 2018. “I hope better times are ahead for all of us,” he wrote, giving us all hope that Winds is finally on its way. However, in February GRRM answered a fan question on his live journal explaining that the first volume of his history of the Targaryen dynasty will be out before The Winds of Winter, and this may have been what he was hinting at with his New Year. Volume 2 will come after TWOW, he has said.
Until there is concrete new information, Martin will not be updating fans, he says. “I do post about Ice & Fire and Game of Thrones whenever there is actual news to report,” he wrote in June 2017. “Do you really want or need weekly WoW posts all saying, ‘Still working on it, not done yet?'” Well, there you have it.
However, if you think he’s not got a plan for the novel, you’re wrong: “I don’t get writer’s block in the conventional sense,” Martin said in 2014, “but I do get derailed by distractions.
I do my best writing when I’m not distracted. I’m not like some writers who can write while on the road or on book tours, some people do that. I can’t do that. I try, but I can’t do that.”
Siamo già oltre 12 mesi di ritardo e Martin ha rivelato di essere ancora lontano dalla conclusione del sesto capitolo "The Winds Of Winter" pic.twitter.com/W9eZbqnGxp
— Game Of Thrones (@TronoDiSpade_it) November 30, 2016
What has Martin said about the book’s contents?
Discussing Lady Stoneheart’s role – which does not appear in the show – he said to Esquire: “After Catelyn’s resurrection, it was Lady Stoneheart who became a vengeful and merciless killer. In the sixth book, I still continue to write her. She is an important part of the entire book.”
How many more books are left in
A Song of Ice and Fire?As far as we know, there are two remaining: book six (The Winds of Winter) and book seven (A Dream of Spring).
Some fans have optimistically speculated that the reason The Winds of Winter is taking so long is that George R.R. Martin is planning to release both it and its follow-up, A Dream of Spring, at the same time. This is probably wishful thinking.
In February 2018 Martin sparked speculation that the series may in fact run into eight books in a blog post in which he reflected on how series in general function. In it, he said A Song of Ice and Fire was not a series but “one single story, being published in (we hope) seven volumes”. The “we hope” of this line suggested Martin could even have too much material to fit into just two books. However, Martin appeared to deny this when answering a fan question about a secret eighth book on his blog: “If so, that’s news to me,” he wrote.
Where did we leave the main characters previously in the
ASOIAF series?Here’s where everyone important was at the end of book five, A Dance with Dragons.
- Jon Snow: stabbed loads of times by his own men at the Black Keep, left for dead.
- Sansa Stark: in the Vale, undercover as Alayne Stone with her sort-of ally, Littlefinger, who’s posing as her father.
- Arya Stark: still training with the Faceless Men in Braavos.
- Bran Stark: north of the Wall. He’s just learned ‘greenseeing’ with his teacher, Bloodraven.
- Rickon Stark: said to be in hiding on the island of Skagos, whose inhabitants are rumoured cannibals.
- Daenerys Targaryen: stuck in the Dothraki Sea, surrounded by Dothraki warriors.
- The Hound: left for dead by Arya.
- The Mountain: remains something of a mystery. His skull was supposedly delivered to Doran Martell in Dorne as recompense for the death of Oberyn Martell. But a new knight on the Kingsguard, presumed a product of Maester Qyburn’s experiments, is eerily similar to The Mountain.
Ser Robert Strong never takes off his helmet, never eats, never uses the ‘privy’ and has supposedly taken a holy vow of silence until Cersei’s innocence is proven. - Cersei Lannister: has just completed the walk of shame.
Credit: HBO
- Tyrion Lannister: now a member of the Second Sons, waiting outside Meereen for everything to kick off.
- Lady Stoneheart: in the Riverlands. She’s just tasked Brienne of Tarth with bringing Jaime to her.
- Jaime Lannister: being led to find ‘Sansa’ by Brienne of Tarth; possibly heading to his death at the hands of Lady Stoneheart.
- Stannis Baratheon: in an encampment near Winterfell, planning the battle with the Boltons. The Freys and the Manderlys, under the command of Roose Bolton, are marching on his position.
- Theon Greyjoy: Stannis’ prisoner, awaiting execution. He has just helped Mance Rayder and his spearwives rescue Jeyne Poole (posing as Arya Stark) from Winterfell.
- Roose Bolton: at Winterfell.
- Ramsay Snow: also at Winterfell. Has just sent Jon Snow a letter claiming to have defeated Stannis and Mance Rayder, and asking for him to turn over Jeyne Poole, Selyse, Shireen, Melisandre, Val, Gilly’s son and Reek. He claims he will attack Jon at the Wall if he does not get what he wants.
- Victarion Greyjoy: entering Slaver’s Bay to help Daenerys fight Yunkai.
- Samwell Tarly: has arrived in Oldtown to train as a Maester.
- Jon Connington: is moving to capture Storm’s End with his ward, purported to be Daenerys’ nephew Aegon Targaryen.
- Davos Seaworth: has been told to retrieve Rickon Stark from Skagos by the Manderlys.
- Varys: in King’s Landing, having just shot Kevan Lannister because he was doing too good a job of undoing Cersei’s failures.
- Margaery Tyrell: in King’s Landing.
She’s just been released into her father’s custody and awaits trial by judges for the accusations made by Cersei. - Loras Tyrell: dying of wounds sustained while trying to retake Dragonstone at Cersei’s command.
Credit: HBO
Who else might return?
The Dothraki: Martin has teased that the horse-riders will return to the books “in a big way”, and one of the characters he’s teasing in particular is Mago. Khal Drogo’s former bloodrider (Mago deserted Dany after Drogo’s death) is dead in the series, but Martin has said he’s not in the books. “He’s going to be a recurring character in The Winds of Winter,” he said in 2011.
Marillion: In previous books the glib bard was blinded and had some of his fingers removed as he was tortured into (falsely) confessing to Lysa Arryn’s murder. Martin has since said “Marillion has more to do”. Cryptic…
Osha: Rickon’s guardian was last seen getting offed by Ramsay Bolton in the show.
That’s a shame, because in the books, she’s still alive and well, and Martin has said that when he brings back Osha in the new book, “I’ll have Natalia [Tena, who played Osha] in mind and perhaps give the character more interesting things to do.”
The Sand Snakes: Ahead of their introduction in season five of the show in 2014, Martin expressed his hope that fans liked them at San Diego Comic Con. “You’re also going to be seeing a lot of them in The Winds of Winter,” he said.
Jeyne Westerling: Robb Stark’s widow will definitely make an appearance in the prologue of The Winds of Winter. The POV character in these prologue chapters always dies, but Martin has explained that Jeyne will not be the POV character – so we can presume she’s safe. Ish.
Edric Storm/Gendry: With sightings of Gendry actor Joe Dempsie on the set of Game of Thrones season 7, it’s all but officially confirmed that Gendry (another of Robert Baratheon’s bastards, who in the series absorbed Edric Storm’s storyline) will be returning for the new series.
That may mean we can assume Gendry and/or Edric Storm will be making a comeback for The Winds of Winter.
Credit: Getty
How will
The Winds of Winter begin?George R.R. Martin has said the new book will begin with “a big smash with the two enormous battles”. The battles he’s referring to? Yunkai’s siege of Meereen, and Stannis’ siege of Winterfell. He’s also promised “more deaths… more betrayals… more marriages. A lot of stuff is happening at The Wall.”
Will
The Winds of Winter be split into two volumes?Quite possibly. The author split both book three (A Storm of Swords) and book five (A Dance with Dragons) into two volumes because they were so bloody long. Talking about the forthcoming final two books in the series, he’s said they’re “enormous” and has called book seven, A Dream of Spring, “another 1500 page monster where I try to wrap things up.” That’s right, “another”. This means we can presume Winds may well get the two-volume treatment.
**WARNING: SPOILERS BELOW FOR THE OPENING CHAPTERS OF THE WINDS OF WINTER**
What happens in the 11 chapters so far released from
The Winds of Winter?Plenty of stuff. Allow us to explain.
Since 2011, Martin has been releasing chapters of The Winds of Winter on his website and reading them aloud at conventions to keep fans satisfied while they wait for the whole thing. Some of these chapters are on the internet for you to read, others are on YouTube, and more still are on the World of Ice and Fire app. Links are below to the ones you can read/watch online, but we’ve summarised each chapter so far too.
Theon 1
The one-time Reek – now at Stannis’ beleaguered camp near Winterfell – has just helped Mance Rayder rescue Sansa’s old friend Jeyne Poole (who had been disguised as Arya Stark at Winterfell and married against her will to Ramsay Bolton). Stannis decides to send her to the wall to her ‘brother’ Jon Snow, while Theon becomes Stannis’ prisoner, and is condemned to death for ‘murdering’ Bran and Rickon Stark (who are, of course, still alive).
While in captivity, Theon hears that Stannis is planning to use the Iron Bank’s money to hire mercenaries to help with the forthcoming battle with the Boltons.
Theon’s sister, Asha, convinces Stannis to kill Theon himself in the Godswood, because Ned Stark would have done the same. (“Give him to the tree,” she says.) As she says this, the maester’s ravens appear to say Theon’s name – some fans speculate Bran or his teacher Bloodraven have something to do with this, and that it might mean Theon will survive somehow.
Arianne 1 & 2
Arianne journeys to meet Jon Connington and his ward, Young Griff (supposedly the long-disguised Aegon Targaryen, son of Arianne’s aunt Elia Martell and nephew of Daenerys). Arianne thinks about where her brother Quentyn has ended up – the reader is aware, though, that Quentyn went to propose to Daenerys in Meereen and ended up getting toasted by one of her dragons when he tried to steal it.
In the second Arianne chapter she discovers that the mercenary group The Golden Company have taken Mistfall of House Martyn, noting that the Company have never been successful in their invasions of Westeros.
The chapter also reveals that Nymeria and Tyene have accompanied Myrcella to King’s Landing, with no suggestion that they plan to kill her as in the show – and there’s also news that Aegon Targaryen has taken the Baratheon stronghold of Storm’s End, with an army from King’s Landing coming to get him.
Victarion 1 [read aloud at a convention]
Perhaps the most interesting chapter yet: Victarion is in Slaver’s Bay preparing to join the fight outside Meereen, and planning to use the six-foot Dragonbinder horn given to him by his brother Euron to bind one of Dany’s dragons to his will (the side-effect being that whoever blows the horn dies of internal burning).
Credit: HBO
Ser Barristan 1 [available in the US paperback of A Dance With Dragons] & 2
Barristan gets on Dany’s silver mare and rallies his troops for battle: they’re planning to charge out of Meereen and confront the enemy at the gates. In chapter two, there’s plenty of battle description, and it’s noticed that the Ironborn Fleet is on Dany’s side, fighting against the Yunkai.
Tyrion 1 [read aloud at a convention] & 2 [in the World of Ice & Fire app]
Tyrion tries to convince Brown Ben, commander of the Second Sons, to switch sides and fight for Daenerys. In the second chapter, Brown Ben does this.
Mercy 1 (Arya)
Arya is working in a mummer’s troupe in Braavos and acting as her sister Sansa, in a version of the play we saw on screen in Game of Thrones season 6. She sees Raff the Sweetling in the audience – he’s on her list for killing her friend Lommy – so she leads him away from the theatre, kills him and puts his body in a canal.
Alayne 1 (Sansa)
Sansa, undercover as Alayne and pretending to be Littlefinger’s daughter, meets Harry, the heir to the Eyrie, who Baelish is planning to marry her to. Sansa reveals she knows he’s got two illegitimate children by two different mothers and teases him.
Aeron 1 [read aloud at a convention]
Aeron moves about several dungeons and encounters the victims of his powerful brother Euron.
Euron is clad in a set of Valyrian steel armour, and because of this Aeron believes his claim that he has visited the legendary region of Valyria. Euron binds a load of priests to the front of his ships, with Aeron at the front of his own, the Silence.
Will Martin release any more chapters from
The Winds of Winter?No.
On February 2, 2017, he wrote on his own website, “I may give readings at upcoming cons, but they will probably be of chapters I’ve read before at other cons. There comes a point when you are simply putting too much of the book out there. It was not such a problem before the internet, but now everything I read gets transcribed and posted and leaked all over the world, so…”
What questions does
The Winds of Winter need to answer?1. Is Quentyn Martell still alive?
Unless Quentyn Martell shows up suddenly in Game of Thrones season 7 (unlikely, given that all his family is dead) TV viewers might be a bit stumped by this name.
There are a few crazy theories about Quentyn Martell, the son of Doran Martell who was sent to Meereen to offer Daenerys his hand in marriage and ended up trying to steal one of her dragons after she left the city on Drogon. The reason that makes this theory really interesting is that the person we see as the dying (and finally dead) Quentyn has been burnt into an almost unrecognisable state by Dany’s dragon Rhaegal – meaning it could conceivably be an imposter. Another reason is that alongside Prince Quentyn in the plan was a man known as the Tattered Prince – both of them were both wearing masks when they entered the dragons’ lair. Many people believe that Quentyn, who has Targaryen blood, managed to tame Dany’s other dragon, Viserion, and rode off on his back, while the dying Tattered Prince was mistaken for him. But it is a pretty convoluted theory.
2. Will Stannis survive the siege of Winterfell?
In the series, Stannis was killed off in Season 5 by Brienne after losing most of his men to Ramsay Bolton’s forces outside Winterfell.
Brienne and Stannis have not met for a long time in the books, and although Brienne is still furious with Stannis at this point for killing her beloved Lord Renly, she is currently with Jaime Lannister in the Riverlands – not anywhere near Winterfell.
#GotFactCheck
King Stannis is alive and marching on Winterfell with his army of northmen. pic.twitter.com/slyVPfOBGf— The North Remembers to Vote Meera 🔱🐊 (@beyond_wall) April 21, 2016
Still, he could still be doomed. Stannis is in a perilous state, running low on supplies, sitting out in the cold and he has no tactical advantage should Ramsay Bolton exit Winterfell and come for him. Or has he? When Theon questions his poor defences in a Winds of Winter preview chapter released by GRRM, Stannis indicates that he’s got something up his sleeve: possibly a large nearby lake that his men have been overfishing, making the ice dangerously thin.
If Stannis actually prevails in the battle for Winterfell, it would be a hugely different outcome to what happens in the show, but it’d make the rest of the book more interesting.
3. Where is Brienne taking Jaime?
When we left Brienne, she said she was taking her old pal Jaime to save Sansa from the Hound somewhere in the Riverlands – but we know Sansa is in the Vale at the moment, so it’s generally believed that Brienne is lying. Prior to this point, Brienne was tasked by Lady Stoneheart (the resurrected, vengeful Catelyn Stark) with killing Jaime Lannister. Either she’s taking him somewhere secluded to off him, or she’s taking him to Stoneheart for a trial. Or she’s got another plan up her sleeve – but what could it be?
Game of Thrones 3.02 Jaime Lannister & Brienne of Tarth. pic.twitter.com/BLKlxhjyco
— Game of Thrones Caps (@caps_thrones) August 24, 2016
4. Will Davos find Rickon?
In the last book, Davos Seaworth the ‘Onion Knight’ went to see Wyman Manderly at White Harbour, in the north east of Westeros, to try and get his allegiance to Stannis.
But the Freys were there, so he got arrested and was sent for execution. Then Manderly organised a lookalike criminal to be executed in his place. Then, he said he would give Stannis his support if Davos went to fetch Rickon Stark from the isle of Skagos, which is full of cannibals. We don’t know why Manderly wants Rickon, but given his fate in the show we can only guess it’s not for good reasons – perhaps the execution schtick was simply a feint to gain Davos’ trust. Either way, Davos will be exploring the mysterious island of Skagos soon. Until then, people will keep making concept art like te one below, which suggests Rickon is now a wild Lord of Skagos, who rips Davos in two on his arrival…
5. Will Victarion capture a dragon?
In the books, Euron’s brother Victarion – who doesn’t exist in the show – has been sent to Meereen with a horn called Dragonbinder that supposedly has the power to control dragons – but it kills whoever blows it. As the Greyjoy fleet arrives in Meereen in the midst of a massive siege, will he be able to use it to command Rhaegal or Viserion?
6.
Will Jon Snow survive his betrayal?This one’s pretty obvious, really. Resurrecting Jon isn’t the kind of thing the show could do without George R.R. Martin’s permission. But there is the question of how Snow survives. Will Melisandre bring him back to life, or will he rise, Daenerys-style, from a funeral pyre, as many show-watchers were expecting? After all, we now know from the show that he’s almost definitely part-Targaryen.
7. Will Arya return to Westeros?
In a preview chapter of TWOW released by George R.R. Martin, Arya is in an actors’ troupe like the one we see in the show. She’s meant to be following the orders of her new mentor Izembaro, but instead she recognises someone she has an old vendetta against – Raff the Sweetling – and kills him, going against her status as ‘a girl’ or ‘no one’. Does this mean she’ll be leaving the Faceless Men as she did in the show, embracing her old Arya Stark self, and returning to Westeros?
8.
Will Aegon take Storm’s End?Aegon, aka Young Griff, is supposedly the nephew of Daenerys Targaryen, saved from slaughter at the hands of the Mountain when Varys switched the baby him with a random baby and shipped him over to Essos. He’s recently landed back in Westeros with an army of mercenaries, and in a preview chapter from book six, his Dornish cousin Arianne Martell is on the way to meet him – but what will his next move be? Will he take Storm’s End? And, if Daenerys eventually makes it over the Narrow Sea and back to Westeros, will he give his growing support to her, or will he become her competition for the Iron Throne? And is he even a true Targaryen? Some fans think not…
aegon targaryen (or blackfyre?) – young griff pic.twitter.com/ieHJpS0Hni
— em (@otabekatIin) June 22, 2016
9. Will Sansa marry Harry the Heir?
Don’t forget Sansa. In the show she had to marry Ramsay, escaped and joined her brother Jon in the north, before making a pact with the slimy Littlefinger and saving the day in the Battle of the Bastards.
In the books, she’s still in the Vale with her cousin Robin Arryn, and she’s being set up by Littlefinger not with Ramsay but with Harrold Hardyng, aka Harry The Heir – the man who would succeed to Lord of the Vale should any harm come to young Robyn. Harry is very promiscuous, but Littlefinger has nevertheless arranged for him and Sansa – posing as his daughter Alayne Stone – to be betrothed, with the idea that he’ll reveal her identity and use the Vale’s forces to retake Winterfell for her. But in, yes, another preview chapter from GRRM, Sansa seems to have other plans when she rejects his request for her favour at a tourney. How very Game of Thrones.
10. Will Barristan survive the siege of Meereen?
Alongside Stannis’ siege of Winterfell, the siege of Meereen this is the big opening battle that we’re waiting for. Bit of context: at the moment, Tyrion has just escaped from slavery – it’s the slavers who are besieging the city – and has joined the Second Sons in the midst of a horrible plague of the camps surrounding Meereen.
Now the Second Sons say they will join Daenerys (who is absent from the city, having flown off on Drogon) and Barristan is in charge of the city’s defences in her place. In the show, Barristan Selmy doesn’t survive even up until this point, so will he make it any further, or will this battle be his last?
ALL LEATHER MUST BE BOILED on Tumblr
NB: This post is intended for readers who have not read Feast or Dance yet. If you've read the entire series already, click here for the SPOILER-FILLED veterans' version of this reading order, which also includes a very thorough explanation of how I came up with it, plus an ongoing list of updates and tweaks made to the order. Are you reading A Song of Ice and Fire for the first time? Have you heard that volumes four and five, A Feast for Crows and A Dance with Dragons, cover the same time period but split up the characters, so that most of the people who appear in Feast don't show up in Dance and vice versa? Do you think you'll be one of the people that finds this really frustrating? (I'm not, I was perfectly happy with the books as-is and recommend them as such, but I know y'all are out there.
) Are you interested in recombining the two halves of the story in hopes that it'll make for a more satisfying reading experience? Here's how you do it! To combine A Feast for Crows and A Dance with Dragons into one giant megabook, keeping almost everything in order both within the timeline of the story and in the chapter order that author George R.R. Martin intended, use the chapter list below. NOTE: Though you'll be switching back and forth from book to book at strategic points, you'll almost always be reading the chapters within each individual book in the order they appear. The only exceptions, which you have to rearrange in order to avoid having one storyline spoiled by the other, are ADWD Chapter 7: The Merchant's Man, which you'll be saving for much later in the story, and AFFC Chapter 41: The Princess in the Tower, which you'll skip ahead to much earlier before skipping right back. I've placed instructions regarding these chapters in bold below.
- Prologue: ADWD 1
- Prologue: AFFC 1
- The Prophet: AFFC 2
- The Captain of Guards: AFFC 3
- Cersei I: AFFC 4
- Tyrion I: ADWD 2
- Daenerys I: ADWD 3
- Brienne I: AFFC 5
- Jon I: ADWD 4
- Bran I: ADWD 5
- Tyrion II: ADWD 6 [then SKIP Chapter 7, The Merchant's Man]
- Samwell I: AFFC 6
- Jon II: ADWD 8
- Arya I: AFFC 7
- Cersei II: AFFC 8
- Jaime I: AFFC 9
- Brienne II: AFFC 10
- Sansa I: AFFC 11
- The Kraken’s Daughter: AFFC 12
- Tyrion III: ADWD 9
- Davos I: ADWD 10
- Jon III: ADWD 11
- Daenerys II: ADWD 12
- Reek I: ADWD 13
- Cersei III: AFFC 13
- The Soiled Knight: AFFC 14
- Bran II: ADWD 14
- Tyrion IV: ADWD 15
- Davos II: ADWD 16
- Brienne III: AFFC 15
- Samwell II: AFFC 16
- Daenerys III: ADWD 17
- Jon IV: ADWD 18
- Jaime II: AFFC 17
- Tyrion V: ADWD 19
- Cersei IV: AFFC 18
- Davos III: ADWD 20
- The Iron Captain: AFFC 19
- The Drowned Man: AFFC 20
- Brienne IV: AFFC 21
- The Queenmaker: AFFC 22
- Arya II: AFFC 23
- Alayne I: AFFC 24 [then JUMP AHEAD to Chapter 41: The Princess in the Tower]
- The Princess in the Tower: AFFC 41 [now switch to ADWD and JUMP BACK to Chapter 7: The Merchant's Man]
- The Merchant’s Man: ADWD 7 [now switch to AFFC and JUMP BACK to Chapter 25: Cersei]
- Cersei V: AFFC 25
- Reek II: ADWD 21
- Jon V: ADWD 22
- Tyrion VI: ADWD 23
- Daenerys IV: ADWD 24
- The Lost Lord: ADWD 25
- The Windblown: ADWD 26
- The Wayward Bride: ADWD 27
- Brienne V: AFFC 26
- Samwell III: AFFC 27
- Jaime III: AFFC 28
- Tyrion VII: ADWD 28
- Jon VI: ADWD 29
- Davos IV: ADWD 30
- Cersei VI: AFFC 29
- The Reaver: AFFC 30
- Daenerys V: ADWD 31
- Melisandre I: ADWD 32
- Jaime IV: AFFC 31
- Brienne VI: AFFC 32
- Reek III: ADWD 33
- Tyrion VIII: ADWD 34
- Cersei VII: AFFC 33
- Jaime V: AFFC 34
- Cat of the Canals: AFFC 35
- Samwell IV: AFFC 36
- Cersei VIII: AFFC 37
- Brienne VII: AFFC 38
- Jaime VI: AFFC 39
- Cersei IX: AFFC 40 [remember, you can skip Chapter 41: The Princess in the Tower, because you already read it]
- Bran III: ADWD 35
- Jon VII: ADWD 36
- Daenerys VI: ADWD 37
- The Prince of Winterfell: ADWD 38
- The Watcher: ADWD 39
- Jon VIII: ADWD 40
- Tyrion IX: ADWD 41
- The Turncloak: ADWD 42
- The King’s Prize: ADWD 43
- Daenerys VII: ADWD 44
- Alayne II: AFFC 42
- Jon IX: ADWD 45
- Brienne VIII: AFFC 43
- Cersei X: AFFC 44
- Jaime VII: AFFC 45
- Samwell V: AFFC 46
- The Blind Girl: ADWD 46
- A Ghost in Winterfell: ADWD 47
- Tyrion X: ADWD 48
- Jaime VIII: ADWD 49
- Jon X: ADWD 50
- Daenerys VIII: ADWD 51
- Theon VII: ADWD 52
- Daenerys IX: ADWD 53
- Jon XI: ADWD 54
- Cersei XI: ADWD 55
- The Queensguard: ADWD 56
- The Iron Suitor: ADWD 57
- Tyrion XI: ADWD 58
- Jon XII: ADWD 59
- The Discarded Knight: ADWD 60
- The Spurned Suitor: ADWD 61
- The Griffin Reborn: ADWD 62
- The Sacrifice: ADWD 63
- Victarion: ADWD 64
- The Ugly Little Girl: ADWD 65
- Cersei XII: ADWD 66
- Tyrion XII: ADWD 67
- The Kingbreaker: ADWD 68
- The Dragontamer: ADWD 69
- Jon XIII: ADWD 70
- The Queen’s Hand: ADWD 71
- Daenerys X: ADWD 72
- Epilogue: ADWD 73
The explanation: When I first created the original version of this reading order, I was in the middle of a re-read of the series and had just finished A Storm of Swords.
At a certain point along the way I got to thinking about how to approach A Feast for Crows and A Dance with Dragons. Now that both books have been published, there are options available to us that never were before. George R.R. Martin famously took years to finish Feast after Storm came out, and infamously took even more years to finish Dance after Feast came out. As we know, this came down to several problems. First, he’d intended to have a five-year jump in the narrative following the conclusion of Storm, but after about a year of writing he realized it wasn’t working and had to start over. Then, once he’d started over, he discovered that while the five-year jump didn’t work for most of the storylines, it worked really well for a few, and it was hard to get them right without it. Then he realized that he had way too many characters and way too much story to fit in one volume as planned, and he needed to decide how to split one volume into two – should he tell half the story for all the characters, or (nearly) all the story for half the characters? (He chose the latter solution.
) Finally, he struggled with something called “The Meereenese Knot." To discuss this I'd have to get a little bit spoilery, but it boiled down to how to get a whole bunch of characters to the place where a certain other character was, and in what order, and whether to have all of them get there by the end of Dance, and what to do with the character toward whom they're traveling while they're on their way. As you'd quickly discover were you to read Feast as written, fans who read Storm when it came out had to wait a decade to find out how the stories of many of their favorite characters continued, since Martin decided to save those characters' storylines for Dance — despite the fact that in story time, many of those storylines pick up almost immediately after we left them. Even someone like me, who was late to the party and first read the series about a year, year and a half before Dance ended up coming out, had a delay. In my case it was a delay long enough to read the entire series, then read it over again, then have a month or two to wait before Dance came out.
Between the real-world delay and the weird sensation of following half the characters' stories for a while in Feast before looping back in time to catch up with the other characters in Dance, reading that latter book can feel a little wonky for some readers. Here’s where it changes. Right now, for the first time, the only real-world delay necessary to endure between reading, say, Jon’s last chapter in Storm and his first in Dance is the amount of time it takes you to read the entirety of Feast and get to the beginning of Dance after you’ve finished Storm, since Martin split the characters up between the two books. But since we now have access to both books at once, what’s to stop us from folding the stories back together, re-reading Feast and Dance simultaneously? They cover the same timespan – Feast starts a little earlier with some of the material centered on the Ironborn, and Dance goes a little later with everything in the final third or so of the book, but they mostly overlap.
Moreover, as my colleague Stefan Sasse has persuasively argued, the two books are thematically as well as temporally congruent. Several groups of characters split between them have storylines that parallel, echo, or comment on one another in revealing ways. In other words it’s quite possible, and profitable, to consider them as one giant book. Why not make it so? Figuring that ASoIaF fandom has covered every possible base – not just first, second, third, and home, but bases I don’t even know exist, like fifth, nineteenth, and quarmty-secondth – I asked around and discovered that several proposed A Feast for Crows/A Dance with Dragons merged reading orders are out there. In trying to pick one over the others, I had a few criteria in mind. I want to read something that’s in rough chronological order, rather than following half the characters to (nearly) the end of the story, then going back to the starting line with the other half of the characters.
That’s the whole point, obviously. But I don’t want to read something that’s in strict chonological order, to the point where people are radically re-ordering the chapters even within the context of a single book. I want something that preserves Martin’s original flow as much as possible given the caveat that once the decision was made to split the books he wrote them with that in mind, not something that puts the 9th chapter of Feast featuring Character X after the 20th chapter of Feast featuring Character Y because that’s when it technically takes place. If Martin had wanted to roll out the chapters in strict chronological order he’d have done so, up to and including putting the first few chapters of both books somewhere inside Storm. I did this differently for my original reading order, which is geared toward people who've already read the books. But for the purposes of this new reader–friendly version, I'm willing to make an exception to #1 & #2: Chapters can be read out of order if that helps preserve mysteries from one storyline that would otherwise be prematurely spoiled by another.
The fewer changes necessary to accomplish this, the better. This isn’t a narrative concern but a logistical one: I want a guide that’s easy to follow and easy to fiddle with if I feel like fiddling with it. Clearly labeling each chapter with the book, character, chapter number for that character specifically, and chapter number for the book overall will make it easiest to do that. On some level it’d be nice to understand why this particular order was assembled and suggested– the methodology behind it, any problems the compiler feels they solved or failed to solve, and so on. Not necessary, but nice. None of the proposals quite fit the bill, so I ended up making my own version instead. [NOTE: Consider all the following links SPOILERY.] For the basic framework I took this list by SFFChronicles messageboard member Orionis, then reordered the chapters so that you bounce back and forth between the two books but never read chapters from within one book or the other out of order.
From there, I crowdsourced refinements to the list via my original post, both for actual fixes (i.e. I messed up the timeline because I switched between the books too quickly or too slowly) and to make sure the chapters flowed in a pleasing way. I relied very heavily on Atanvarno's list (explained here) as well as his direct feedback for these refinements, particularly the changes necessary to preserve the reveals. The end result seemed to fit my five criteria better than any of the other options: It has rough chronology, so you pick up with most every character across the board at roughly the same time afterStorm left off and keep going with all of them until they each run out of chapters. It doesn’t have strict chronology, so you’re not radically re-ordering the chapters despite what Martin felt was the best reading order when assembling the books originally.
(I even kept big chunks of chapters together rather than flipping back and forth on a chapter to chapter basis -- at first this was just a coincidence, but thinking about it, I think it's a good way to maintain Martin's original narrative flow.) It does the bare minimum of reshuffling necessary to preserve mysteries and avoid spoiling reveals. I only had to list two chapters out of order to keep the one big spoilable reveal intact. It’s clearly labeled and very easy to read, understand, and even alter, if you want. I’ve explained my methodology to an almost embarrassingly comprehensive degree, so you can understand what the heck I did here. Much more on how the list was created can be found in the original post, which again is spoilery for anyone who hasn't already read the books. It contains an extensive list of updates and tweaks I've made to the list since originally posting it as well. Happy reading -- you've got a long road ahead of you!
In what order should you read George Martin's books
Read time: 3 minutes
Publication date: August 18, 2022
In contact with Telegram OK Want to read George R.
R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire books, also known as the Game of Thrones books? Here is the order in which they are read:
George Martin's Game of Thrones books in order
Photo: Global look press- Game of Thrones (1996)
It tells the sad story of Ned Stark, patriarch of House Stark, who lost his head in King's Landing.
- A Clash of Kings (1998)
Tyrion Lannister is in charge of King's Landing, which Stannis Baratheon intends to attack. Jon Snow leaves the Wall, Daenerys Targaryen rests in Qarth, and Arya Stark roams the Riverlands. nine0003
- A Storm of Swords (2000)
Many iconic moments take place in this book, from the sack of Astapor by Daenerys to the Red Wedding and the deaths of Joffrey Baratheon and Tywin Lannister.
- A Feast for Crows (2005)
Events are slowing down.
The book tells about the travels of some of the characters that readers have followed so far. Not a single chapter dedicated to Tyrion, Jon Snow, Bran and Daenerys.
- A Dance with Dragons (2011)
The slow narrative continues, but there are some great moments like Daenerys riding Drogon. And the first time Jon Snow was stabbed to death in Castle Black.
But of course this is not the end...
The Winds of Winter (still in progress)
Dreams of Spring (planned)
The sixth and seventh books in the series are not out yet, much to our chagrin fans who have been waiting for more than ten years. Martin assured fans that he is hard at work on The Winds of Winter and there is still hope that this book will actually see the light of day. nine0003
That's it for Game of Thrones and its "other" ending.
Photo: Global look pressHow to read George Martin's book in chronological order
In chronological order - that is, how the world developed in Martin's books - the books are arranged as follows:
- "The World of Ice and Fire.
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Co-written by George Martin, Linda Antonsson and Elio Garcia Jr., this is an illustrated guide to the world described in George Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire. nine0003 Photo: Global look press
- "Fire and Blood"
The series "House of the Dragon" was based on this book. The book provides a backstory for the events described by Martin in A Song of Ice and Fire. The first volume has been published and a second is planned.
Photo: Global look pressDescribes the rule of the Targaryen dynasty in Westeros. Fire and Blood is written from the perspective of a learned maester who lived during the reign of Aerys the Mad. The book is stylized as a historical chronicle. nine0003
- "Knights of the Seven Kingdoms"
Collection of three stories about the knight Duncan the Tall and his squire Egge. Based on this book, a TV series based on the Game of Thrones universe is also being prepared.
- Pentateuch "Game of Thrones". These books are described above.
To fully explore the worlds of Westeros, or the worlds of George Martin, you should read all the books in chronological order. So they will help to understand the events that take place in the series "House of the Dragon". nine0003
House of the Dragon premieres August 21 on HBO.
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Game of Thrones. Reading Order - ReadRate
In what order should I read Game of Thrones? Understand this material.
The epic Game of Thrones saga, created by American writer George R. R. Martin, was started in 1991. Then nobody particularly famous science fiction writer conceived a trilogy about a world reminiscent of medieval Europe, but with a certain amount of magic. As it was published, the story kept growing - three volumes turned into five, then two more were announced (at the moment they have not been published).
George Martin for his "Game of Thrones" received the most important awards - "Locus" and "Hugo", and three of his novels were awarded the "Locus" at once. nine0003
The popularity of Martin and his stories led to the script being bought and adapted by HBO. In 2011, the first season of the Game of Thrones series was released, and then the popularity of the saga and, accordingly, its creator exceeded all imaginable and unimaginable scales. Martin quickly became the richest man, and the saga acquired a gigantic fandom. The writer did not limit himself to the Pentateuch, he wrote several stories related to the main plot, and also created a separate cycle, the action of which takes place in the same universe. nine0003
Beginning with the second season, viewers noticed discrepancies between the show's plot and the narrative in Martin's books. There were many reasons for this, ranging from the reaction of focus groups to budget restrictions that did not allow the writer's most daring ideas to be realized on the screen.
Closer to the finale, the scriptwriters had to move blindly at all - Martin only roughly described to them how everything should end. In addition, by that time, many storylines had already gone as far as possible from the original intent of the writer, and the screenwriters had to independently clear up the mess they had made. As a result, the final season of Game of Thrones was heavily criticized. Some fans claim that George Martin would have come up with a more convincing ending, but the author is in no hurry to please fans. The publication of the last two volumes is delayed and delayed. It is not known if it will take place at all. nine0003
What is the correct order to read A Song of Ice and Fire? So, five books have been published so far:
Game of Thrones (1996)
A Clash of Kings (1998)
A Storm of Swords (2000)
A Feast for Crows (2005)
Dance with dragons" (2011). The book was published in Russian in 2 volumes:
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“Dance with dragons.
