GEORGE R. R. MARTIN
A STORM OF SWORDS
PART ONE: STEEL AND SNOW
Copyright
An imprint of HarperCollins
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Previously published in paperback by Voyager in 2001, 2003, 2011
First published in Great Britain by Voyager in 2000
Copyright © George R. R. Martin 2000
Cover layout design © HarperCollins
Cover photographs © Scott S. Warren / National Geographic Society / Corbis
George R. R. Martin asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
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Source ISBN: 9780006479901
Ebook Edition © April 2012 ISBN: 9780007447756
Version: 2016-09-27
Praise for
‘This is one of those rare and effortless reads.
’‘George R. R. Martin is one of our very best writers, and this is one of his very best books. ’
‘Such a splendid tale. I read my eyes out – I couldn’t stop till I’d finished and it was dawn. ’
‘George Martin is assuredly a new master craftsman in the guild of heroic fantasy. ’
‘Few created worlds are as imaginative and diverse. ’
Dedication
For Phyllis who made me put the dragons in
A NOTE ON CHRONOLOGY
A Song of Ice and Fire is told through the eyes of characters who are sometimes hundreds or even thousands of miles apart from one another. Some chapters cover a day, some only an hour; others might span a fortnight, a month, half a year. With such a structure, the narrative cannot be strictly sequential; sometimes important things are happening simultaneously, a thousand leagues apart.
In the case of the volume now in hand, the reader should realize that the opening chapters of
MAPS