A Feast for Dragons

on his epic fantasy series, A
Song of Ice and Fire. He has been in the Seven Kingdoms ever since. Whenever
he’s allowed to leave, he returns to Santa Fe,
New Mexico
, where
he lives with the lovely Parris, a big white dog called Mischa, and two cats
named Augustus and Caligula, who think they run the place.
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    B Y G EORGE R. R. M ARTIN
    A S ONG OF I CE AND F IRE Book One:
A Game of Thrones
Book Two:
A Clash of Kings
Book Three:
A Storm of Swords
Book Four:
A Feast for Crows
Book Five:
A Dance with Dragons
    Dying of the Light
Windhaven
(with Lisa Tuttle)
Fevre Dream
The Armageddon Rag
Dead Man’s Hand
(with John J. Miller)
    S HORT S TORY C OLLECTIONS
Dreamsongs, Volume I
Dreamsongs, Volume II
A Song of Lya and Other Stories
Songs of Stars and Shadows
Sandkings
Songs the Dead Men Sing
Nightflyers
Tuf Voyaging
Portraits of His Children
Quartet
    E DITED BY G EORGE R. R. M ARTIN New
Voices in Science Fiction, Volumes 1–4
The Science Fiction Weight-Loss Book
(with Isaac Asimov and Martin Harry Greenberg)
The John W. Campbell Awards, Volume 5
Night Visions 3
Wild Card I–XXI
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    A Dance with Dragons
is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and
incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used
fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or
locales is entirely coincidental.
    Copyright © 2011 by George R.
R. Martin. Endpaper and interior maps copyright © by Jeffrey L. Ward Heraldic crests by Virginia Norey
    All rights reserved.
    Published in the United States
by Bantam Books, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of
Random House, Inc., New York.
    B ANTAM B OOKS and the rooster colophon are registered trademarks of
Random House, Inc.
    LIBRARY OF
CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA
    Martin, George R. R. A dance with dragons / George R. R.
Martin. p. cm — (A song of ice and fire; bk. 5) eISBN: 978-0-553-90565-6 I. Title. PS3563.A7239D36 2011 813’.54—dc22    2011015508
    www.bantamdell.com
    v3.1
    ----
    this one is for my fans
    for Lodey, Trebla,
Stego, Pod
,
Caress, Yags, X-Ray and Mr. X
,
Kate, Chataya, Mormont, Mich
,
Jamie, Vanessa, Ro
,
for Stubby, Louise, Agravaine
,
Wert, Malt, Jo
,
Mouse, Telisiane, Blackfyre
,
Bronn Stone, Coyote’s Daughter
,
and the rest of the madmen and wild
women of
the Brotherhood Without Banners
    for my website wizards
Elio and Linda, lords of Westeros
,
Winter and Fabio of WIC
,
and Gibbs of Dragonstone, who
started it all
    for men and women of
Asshai in Spain
who sang to us of a bear and a
maiden fair
and the fabulous fans of Italy
who gave me so much wine
for my readers in Finland, Germany
,
Brazil, Portugal, France, and the
Netherlands
and all the other distant lands
where you’ve been waiting for this
dance
    and for all the friends
and fans
I have yet to meet
    thanks for your
patience
    ----
    A
CAVIL ON CHRONOLOGY
    It has been a while between books, I know. So a reminder may
be in order.
    The book you hold in your hands is the fifth volume of
A
Song of Ice and Fire
. The fourth volume was
A Feast for Crows
.
However, this volume does not follow that one in the traditional sense, so much
as run in tandem with it.
    Both
Dance
and
Feast
take up
the story immediately after the events of the third volume in the series,
A
Storm of Swords
. Whereas
Feast
focused on events in
and around King’s Landing, on the Iron Islands, and down in Dorne,
Dance
takes us north to Castle Black and the Wall (and beyond), and across the narrow
sea to Pentos and Slaver’s Bay, to pick up the tales of Tyrion Lannister, Jon
Snow, Daenerys Targaryen, and all the other characters you did not see in the
preceding volume. Rather than being sequential, the two books are
parallel … divided geographically, rather than chronologically.
    But only up to a point.
    A Dance with Dragons
is a longer book than
A
Feast for Crows
, and covers a longer time period. In the latter half
of this volume, you will notice certain of the viewpoint characters from
A
Feast for Crows
popping up again. And that means just what you think
it means: the narrative has moved past the time frame of
Feast
,
and the two streams have once again rejoined each other.
    Next up,
The Winds of Winter
. Wherein, I
hope, everybody will be shivering together once again.…
    —George R. R. Martin   April
2011                 
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    Contents
    Cover
    Other Books by This Author
    Title