Spoiler-free book guide
A Game of Thrones
Book 1 of 5 in A Song of Ice and Fire · by George R.R. Martin
How it opens
Lord Eddard Stark of Winterfell beheads a deserter from the Night's Watch, and his son Bran, who is seven, watches without looking away. On the ride home Robb finds a dead direwolf with a broken antler in its throat and a litter of pups, and Lord Eddard lets his children keep them if they feed and train the pups themselves. Bran's bastard brother Jon Snow counts himself out, then finds a sixth pup, a white one, and claims it for his own. That night Lady Catelyn brings Lord Eddard word that Jon Arryn is dead and that King Robert is riding to Winterfell.
Who you meet early
- Eddard StarkEddard Stark, Lord of Winterfell, is the Warden of the North, a solemn man who holds that whoever passes a sentence of death should swing the sword himself.
- Catelyn StarkCatelyn Stark of Winterfell, born a Tully at Riverrun, keeps to the Faith of the Seven in a northern castle whose godswood she has never liked.
- Bran StarkBran Stark is a young son of Lord Eddard Stark of Winterfell who rides out on his pony to see the king's justice carried out and comes home with a direwolf pup.
- Robb StarkRobb Stark is Lord Eddard Stark's son and the future lord of Winterfell, a big, broad youth with blue eyes, fair skin and red-brown hair.
- Jon SnowJon Snow is a bastard of fourteen raised at Winterfell alongside the trueborn children of Lord Eddard Stark.
- Jory CasselJory Cassel is the captain of Lord Eddard Stark's household guard at Winterfell, a man quick with a sword who rides out at his lord's side.
Where it sits
A Game of Thrones is the first of 5 books in A Song of Ice and Fire. Start here.
Next · Book 2
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