Themes in A Song of Ice and Fire

A Song of Ice and Fire is an ongoing series of epic fantasy novels by American novelist and screenwriter George R. R. Martin. The first installment of the series, A Game of Thrones, which was originally planned as a trilogy, was published in 1996. The series now consists of five published volumes, and two more volumes are planned. The series is told in the third-person through the eyes of a number of point of view characters. A television series adaptation, Game of Thrones, premiered on HBO in 2011.

A Song of Ice and Fire takes place in a fictional world, primarily on a continent called Westeros, and additionally on a large landmass to the east, known as Essos. Three main story lines become increasingly interwoven: a dynastic civil war for control of Westeros among several competing families; the rising threat of the Others, who dwell beyond the immense wall of ice that forms Westeros's northern border; and the ambitions of Daenerys Targaryen, exiled daughter of the deposed king, to return to Westeros and claim her throne.

Martin has said he believes in "judicious use of magic" in epic fantasy. "I wanted to keep the magic in my book subtle and keep our sense of it growing, and it stops being magical if you see too much of it." Effective magic in literature, Martin claims, needs to be "unknowable and strange and dangerous with forces that can't be predicted or controlled." Before A Song of Ice and Fire, Martin initially considered writing an alternate historical novel without any magic. He therefore avoided overtly magical elements in the series. While the amount of magic gradually increases, Martin claims the series will end with less magic than many other fantasies have.

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