A Game of Thrones
Nine noble families fight for control of Westeros while a forgotten enemy stirs beyond the Wall, in the novel that redrew modern fantasy.
The first volume of A Song of Ice and Fire opens on a kingdom whose long summer is ending and whose ruling families are already circling one another. Martin tells it through rotating points of view, so loyalty and treachery look different depending on who is watching, and no character carries the protection a reader expects. The result reads less like heroic fantasy than like political history that happens to contain dragons.
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