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A Dance with Dragons

A Dance with Dragons is the fifth novel in George R. R. Martin's epic fantasy series A Song of Ice and Fire. Published on July 12, 2011, in the United States and on July 17, 2011, in the United Kingdom, the book runs 1,056 pages in the American hardcover edition and features cover art by Larry Rostant. It follows A Feast for Crows (2005) and is set concurrently with that novel, covering the events on the other side of the world—primarily in the North of Westeros and across the Narrow Sea in Essos. The novel won the 2012 Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel and solidified Martin's reputation as the leading voice in modern fantasy.

The plot picks up immediately after A Storm of Swords. In the North, Jon Snow has been elected Lord Commander of the Night's Watch and faces the herculean task of defending the Wall against both the wildlings and the impending threat of the Others. He allows wildlings through the Wall to bolster the Watch's numbers, but this decision alienates many of his own men. Across the Narrow Sea, Daenerys Targaryen struggles to rule the city of Meereen after conquering Slaver's Bay. Her dragons grow ever more wild and dangerous, and she must balance her desire to break the slave trade with the need to secure peace before she can sail for Westeros. Tyrion Lannister, having killed his father Tywin, flees Westeros and is taken by Varys to Pentos, where he becomes embroiled in a scheme involving a young man claiming to be Aegon Targaryen, the son of Rhaegar. Bran Stark journeys beyond the Wall to find the three-eyed raven and learn the secrets of greenseeing. Arya Stark continues her training with the Faceless Men in Braavos, but her identity as a Stark of Winterfell remains a stubborn obstacle. Meanwhile, Theon Greyjoy, now a broken wretch named Reek, languishes in the dungeons of the Dreadfort under the sadistic Ramsay Bolton, until a rescue mission gives him a chance at redemption. Additional storylines follow the ironborn, the Dornish, and the schemes of the enigmatic Quaithe.

Central themes in A Dance with Dragons include the corrupting nature of power, the search for identity, the cost of war, and the return of magic to the world. The title itself is a metaphor for the dangerous entanglements characters enter into with forces they cannot control—whether dragons, prophecies, or political alliances. The book's writing was famously delayed: originally intended to follow quickly after A Feast for Crows, the sheer scope of the narrative forced Martin to split the story and spend six years completing the manuscript. This period of waiting became a cultural phenomenon among fans, dubbed the "Merlin Cycle." Upon release, the novel was a commercial and critical success, though some critics noted its slower pace and fragmented structure compared to earlier volumes. Nevertheless, it deepened the series' mythology and set the stage for the anticipated final two books, The Winds of Winter and A Dream of Spring. The impact of A Dance with Dragons extends beyond literature; it provided crucial source material for the later seasons of HBO's Game of Thrones, though the show eventually diverged from the books. Today, the novel is regarded as a dark, complex, and essential chapter in one of the greatest fantasy sagas ever written.

About the Author

George Raymond Richard Martin, known professionally as George R. R. Martin or GRRM, was born on September 20, 1948, in Bayonne, New Jersey. His father, Raymond Collins Martin, was a longshoreman, and his mother, Margaret Brady Martin, was a homemaker. He grew up in a working-class family with two younger sisters. Martin developed a passion for reading early and began writing monster stories for neighborhood children at a young age. In high school, he became an avid comic book fan and fan writer, winning the Alley Award in 1965 for his fan fiction. He attended Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, where he earned a B.S. in Journalism in 1970, graduating summa cum laude, followed by an M.S. in Journalism in 1971. To avoid the Vietnam War draft, he registered as a conscientious objector and performed alternative service. During this time, he also organized chess tournaments to support his writing.

Martin began his professional writing career in the early 1970s, selling short stories to science fiction magazines. His first sale was “The Hero” to Galaxy in 1971. He quickly gained recognition for his short fiction, winning Hugo and Nebula Awards for stories like “Sandkings” (1979) and “The Way of Cross and Dragon” (1979). His early novels include Dying of the Light (1977) and Windhaven (1987, co-written with Lisa Tuttle). In the 1980s, Martin moved to Hollywood and worked as a television writer for The Twilight Zone and Beauty and the Beast. He also served as a script editor and producer. However, he grew frustrated with the constraints of television and returned to novel writing. In 1991, he began working on A Song of Ice and Fire, initially conceived as a trilogy. The first volume, A Game of Thrones, was published in 1996 and became an international bestseller. The series expanded over the following decades: A Clash of Kings (1998), A Storm of Swords (2000), A Feast for Crows (2005), and A Dance with Dragons (2011). Two more volumes, The Winds of Winter and A Dream of Spring, are still forthcoming. The series was adapted by HBO into the enormously popular television series Game of Thrones (2011–2019), which Martin executive-produced. He also co-created the spin-off series House of the Dragon (2022–).

Martin has been married twice: first to Gale Burnick from 1975 to 1979, and then to Parris McBride since 2011. He resides in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where he owns a movie theater and a vast collection of comic books and memorabilia. He has been called “the American Tolkien” by Time magazine critic Lev Grossman and was named one of Time’s 100 Most Influential People in 2011. His works have sold over 90 million copies worldwide and have been translated into dozens of languages. Martin’s writing style is often described as “gardener” rather than “architect”—he plants seeds and lets the story grow organically, which contributes to the richness of his world but also to the long delays between books. Despite criticism over the pace of his writing, Martin remains one of the most revered and influential authors in fantasy literature, his work having redefined the genre for a new generation.