Hello, can someone tell me the order in which to read the story of Westeros?
I’m sure someone can! And since you’re asking me, I assume you’d like me to. :)
OK, so first off, you want to read the main books, George R.R Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire (ASOIAF):
A Storm of Swords (if you live in the UK, this is divided into two books: part 1: Steel and Snow, part 2: Blood and Gold)
A Dance with Dragons (if you live in the UK, this is divided into two books: part 1: Dreams and Dust, part 2: After the Feast)
You can get all 5 books in a set, in paperback or leather bound. If you live in a non-English-speaking country, there are translations available, but people generally seem to prefer them in English.
Note the series is unfinished. We’re all waiting on book 6, The Winds of Winter (which might be out in 2018, or might not), and then the series is supposed to end with book 7, A Dream of Spring (god knows when). If you finish ADWD, and TWOW isn’t out yet, you can read the available TWOW preview chapters if you like.
Then there’s the prequel short stories, called the Tales of Dunk and Egg, which take place about 100 years before the main ASOIAF books. You can read these without reading the main books, as they’re lighter and pretty self-contained, but having a background in Westeros helps. The first three stories are called “The Hedge Knight”, “The Sworn Sword”, and “The Mystery Knight”, and they’re collected in this book:
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms
There are supposed to be more Dunk and Egg stories and eventually more collections, but GRRM has to write them first. :)
For further information about Westeros and ASOIAF, I very much recommend:
The World of Ice and Fire
Note TWOIAF isn’t a narrative story, it’s a companion book written as a in-world history book and guide to the lands of Westeros and Essos. It’s got lots of info about the world of ASOIAF, fleshing out all kinds of details hinted to in the main books and D&E. And it’s lavishly illustrated too, it makes a great coffee table book. Plus it has family trees for the three main families of ASOIAF, the Starks, Lannisters, and Targaryens. But I wouldn’t recommend reading it unless you’ve read ASOIAF and want more.
And for even more information, one of the historical events referred to in ASOIAF and detailed in TWOIAF was a civil war called The Dance of the Dragons. GRRM released two short stories in anthologies, expanding this history, but note again they’re not a narrative story, they’re written like a history book – or more accurately, like a book written by a very opinionated historian. They’re kind of dry, tbh… not dull, but they definitely are not the same as ASOIAF or D&E. If you’d like to read those, you can find them here:
“The Rogue Prince”, published in Rogues (Amazon / Kindle)
“The Princess and the Queen”, published in Dangerous Women (Amazon / Kindle)
And if those appeal to you, there’s going to be another historical short story, coming out this fall:
“The Sons of the Dragon”, published in The Book of Swords (Amazon / Kindle, coming October 10)
Important note: All three of these short stories, plus some of the historical excerpts from TWOIAF, will be released and expanded in a book called Fire and Blood, volume 1, out in late 2018 or 2019. So if you’d rather not buy a fantasy anthology book for one short story, and you can wait, you might as well wait. :)
And one more thing, there’s the “map book”, The Lands of Ice and Fire. This isn’t something to read, it’s not even a book really, but it is a beautiful collection of maps of the world of ASOIAF, including many places that we will probably never visit in the books themselves – but also including a map tracking the paths of the story’s protagonists, and maps of cities like King’s Landing and Braavos.
Oh, in case you like comic books (never know), there are graphic novel adaptations of A Game of Thrones and the Dunk and Egg stories. (A Clash of Kings is currently being adapted, a new issue every month, but not collected into a book yet.) I’m not a huge fan of the AGOT comic art, though a lot of people seem to like them. But the Dunk and Egg comics are just gorgeous (the artist does covers for the AGOT and ACOK adaptations) and I love them almost more than the actual text stories. But remember, they are adaptations – not new stories, just the books in comic book format. Still, to keep this post complete:
The Hedge Knight (Amazon / Kindle)
The Sworn Sword (Amazon / Kindle)
The Mystery Knight (Amazon / Kindle)
A Game of Thrones: The Graphic Novel - Volume 1, Volume 2, Volume 3, Volume 4
So, this is probably more than you wanted to know, but I hope it helps!
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