A GAME OF THRONES [The 20th Anniversary Illustrated edition], Book 1 - George Martin - 9780008209100

Published in celebration of the twentieth anniversary of George R. R. Martin’s landmark series, this lavishly illustrated special edition of A Game of Thrones—with gorgeous full-page illustrations in every chapter—revitalizes the fantasy masterpiece that became a cultural phenomenon.

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 and supernatural forces are massing beyond the kingdom’s protective Wall.

At the centre of the conflict lie the Starks of Winterfell, a family as harsh and unyielding as the land they were born to. Sweeping from a region of brutal cold to a distant summertime kingdom of epicurean plenty, here is a tale of lords and ladies, soldiers and sorcerers, assassins and bastards, who come together in a time of grim omens.

Amid plots and counterplots, tragedy and betrayal, victory and terror, the fate of the Starks, their allies, and their enemies hangs perilously in the balance, as each endeavours to win that deadliest of conflicts: the game of thrones.

"In the grand epic fantasy tradition, Martin is by far the best … tense, surging, insomnia-inflicting" - Time Magazine

"The sheer mind-boggling scope of this epic has sent other fantasy writers away shaking their heads …Its ambition: to construct the Twelve Caesars of fantasy fiction, with characters so venomous they could eat the Borgias" - Guardian

"Colossal, staggering … Martin captures all the intoxicating complexity of the Wars of the Roses or Imperial Rome in his imaginary world … The writing is always powerful …" - SFX

"Truly epic … with its magnificent action-filled climax, it provides a banquet for fantasy lovers with large appetites." - Publishers Weekly

George R.R. Martin is the author of fifteen novels and novellas, including five volumes of A Song of Ice and Fire, several collections of short stories, as well as screenplays for television and feature films. Dubbed ‘the American Tolkien’, George R.R. Martin has won numerous awards including the World Fantasy Lifetime Achievement Award. He is an Executive Producer on HBO’s Emmy Award-winning Game of Thrones, which is based on his A Song of Ice and Fire series. He lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico.