Unfortunately, during the war, Lyanna Stark had died, apparently of illness shortly after her brother captured the fortress where she'd been held captive Robert Baratheon instead married Cersei Lannister to cement the alliance with her House. The Tyrells and remaining royalists surrendered and Robert Baratheon was declared King of the Seven Kingdoms. Jaime Lannister of the Kingsguard betrayed and murdered King Aerys and House Lannister swore loyalty to Robert Baratheon. The Lannisters finally agreed to support King Aerys, but then brutally turned against him, sacking the capital at King's Landing. The civil war climaxed with the Battle of the Trident, when Prince Rhaegar was killed in battle by Robert Baratheon. The powerful House Tyrell continued to support the King, but House Lannister and House Martell both stalled due to insults against their houses by the Targaryens. Her second brother, Eddard, joined his boyhood friend Robert Baratheon and Jon Arryn, with whom they had been fostered as children, in declaring war against the ruling Targaryen dynasty, securing the allegiances of House Tully and House Arryn through a network of dynastic marriages (Lord Eddard to Catelyn Tully and Lord Arryn to Lysa Tully).

The Mad King, Aerys II Targaryen, had Lyanna's father and eldest brother executed when they demanded her safe return. In Westeros the seasons last for years, sometimes decades, at a time.įifteen years prior to the novel, the Seven Kingdoms were torn apart by a civil war, known alternately as 'Robert's Rebellion' and the 'War of the Usurper.' Prince Rhaegar Targaryen kidnapped Lyanna Stark, arousing the ire of her family and of her betrothed, Lord Robert Baratheon (the war's titular rebel). The novella Blood of the Dragon, comprising the Daenerys Targaryen chapters from the novel, won the 1997 Hugo Award for Best Novella.Ī Game of Thrones is set in the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros, a land reminiscent of Medieval Europe. The novel was nominated for the 1998 Nebula Award and the 1997 World Fantasy Award, and won the 1997 Locus Award.

A Game of Thrones is the first of seven planned novels in A Song of Ice and Fire, an epic fantasy series by American author George R.

A game of thrones first book