The war in the Seven Kingdoms has burned itself out, but in its bitter aftermath new conflicts spark to life. The Martells of Dorne and the Starks of Winterfell seek vengeance for their dead. Euron Crow?s Eye, as black a pirate as ever raised a sail, returns from the smoking ruins of Valyria to claim the Iron Isles. From the icy north, where Others threaten the Wall, apprentice Maester Samwell Tarly brings a mysterious babe in arms to the Citadel. As plots, intrigue and battle threaten to engulf Westeros, victory will go to the men and women possessed of the coldest steel and the coldest hearts. 'In the grand epic fantasy tradition, Martin is by far the best? tense, surging, insomnia-inflicting' - Time Magazine 'Truly epic? with its magnificent action-filled climax, it provides a banquet for fantasy lovers with large appetites' - Publishers Weekly ?Colossal, staggering ? Martin captures all the intoxicating complexity of the Wars of the Roses or Imperial Rome' - SFX.