http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Literature/AGameOfThrones

— Cersei Lannister When you play the game of thrones , you win or you die. There is no middle ground.

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The first book in George R. R. Martin's Doorstopper A Song of Ice and Fire fantasy series, released in 1996.

After the death of Jon Arryn, the Hand of the King, King Robert Baratheon travels to the North to offer the position of Hand to Eddard Stark, Warden of the North and his most trusted friend. When Eddard receives a letter from his wife Catelyn's sister which claims that Jon Arryn was murdered by House Lannister (the Queen's family), Eddard decides to become Hand of the King to protect Robert's life and the realm, even after an accident leaves his son Bran paralyzed from the waist down. Thus, Eddard travels to the South with his daughters, Arya and Sansa Stark. Three of his sons, Robb, Bran and Rickon, are left at Winterfell and he allows his illegitimate son Jon Snow to go with Benjen Stark, his brother, to the Night's Watch.

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Due to Switching P.O.V., the novel follows three main plotlines:

Honourbound Eddard Stark in the King's treacherous court trying to unravel the machinations behind Jon Arryn's death and House Lannister's motives. Meanwhile, his wife Catelyn foils a murder attempt on the already-crippled Bran, and ends up going after Tyrion Lannister, the queen's dwarf brother who is known as "the Imp," because she believes he is responsible...

Across the sea, Viserys Targaryen — the last heir of the Targaryen dynasty who fled after the successful rebellion fifteen years ago — is plotting vengeance against the usurper Robert Baratheon, who stole the throne and killed Viserys' family. To achieve his goals, he marries his younger sister Daenerys to a clan of Mongols known as the Dothraki, expecting an army in return. Viserys is a Royal Brat, but things are a bit different with Daenerys...

Advertisement: Jon Snow, bastard son of Ned Stark, decides to join the Night's Watch after his father leaves Winterfell, and defend the realms of men against whatever foes lie Beyond the Wall. For some eight thousand years, the answer to that question has been, "Not much," but today things are different: rangers are lost, dead men begin walking the land and creatures known as "The Others" have been sighted. And the Night's Watch, once a noble order but now mostly an Army of Thieves and Whores, is only marginally ready to stop them...

There are eight POV characters, six of them being from the Stark family: Eddard, Arya, Sansa, Bran and Catelyn Stark present the majority of the events in the Seven Kingdoms and Jon Snow narrates the events beyond the Wall after the Stark family is separated early in the narrative. Meanwhile, Tyrion Lannister provides an insight into the villainous House Lannister while Daenerys Targaryen narrates the events across the sea. Minor character, Will, provides this book's prologue.

The events of the novel were adapted in the first season of Game of Thrones.

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