A Game of Thrones

What's inside (9 sections)

1. Bran at Winterfell and the Fall from the Tower
2. Eddard Stark Rides South to Serve as Hand
3. Catelyn Seizes Tyrion and Lights the Fuse of War
4. Daenerys Across the Narrow Sea with Drogo
5. Jon Snow and the Night's Watch on the Wall
6. Eddard Learns the Blood Secret and Joffrey Takes Power
7. Aftermath and Honest Limits of This First Book
8. Key takeaways
9. FAQ

I picked up A Game of Thrones to see if the famous shock ending felt earned. It did, though not how I expected. First published in 1996 by Bantam Spectra, it reads like a history with dragons at the far edge. Martin gives you Winterfell in snow and King's Landing in heat and a Dothraki grass sea wider than both. I came for politics and stayed for the family. The Starks feel real within fifty pages. By the end I saw why Ned Stark had to die for the story to keep its word.

Martin tells the book through rotating point of view chapters. Bran sees the fall. Ned sees the capital. Catelyn sees the arrest that starts a war. Daenerys sees exile turn to power. Jon sees the Wall. The method carries news across great distance. It also repeats doubts you already share. Still, the design pays off when all the roads fail at once.

Bran at Winterfell and the Fall from the Tower

Eddard Stark holds Winterfell as Lord and Warden of the North. He lives with his wife Catelyn. His heir Robb trains daily with Jon Snow, who is Ned's bastard son by a mother never named in this book. Sansa loves songs and courtesy. Arya loves running and swords. Bran is seven and loves to climb roofs and walls. Rickon is only three. Theon Greyjoy lives with them as ward after his father's failed rebellion. Maester Luwin counsels. Rodrik Cassel drills the guard. The house feels worn and warm.

King Robert Baratheon rides north with a large party. Robert won the throne with Ned's help and now has grown fat and bored. His wife Cersei Lannister travels with him. Her twin Jaime serves in the Kingsguard. Their brother Tyrion comes too, clever and mocked for his small size. Robert brings his heir Joffrey with Myrcella and Tommen. Robert asks Ned to serve as Hand of the King after Jon Arryn died in the capital. Ned refuses at first. Then Catelyn gets a letter from her sister Lysa, who says the Lannisters poisoned her husband. Ned accepts from loyalty and fear.

Before they leave, Bran climbs a broken tower he was told to avoid. At the top he finds Jaime with Cersei in a lover's grip. Jaime throws Bran from the window to hide the secret. Bran lives but falls into coma with a broken back. Ned must still ride south. Catelyn stays by the bed. Jon takes the black and leaves for the Wall. Robb stays to learn rule in Winterfell. Sansa with Arya go south with their father. The direwolf pups found in the snow go with the children. Summer stays beside Bran.

A hired knife comes for Bran while Catelyn sleeps by his bed. Fire is set to draw men away. Catelyn holds the killer with bare hands and takes deep cuts. Summer tears his throat. Bran wakes days later. He cannot walk. He recalls nothing of the climb. Catelyn rides south to warn Ned. She leaves Robb with Luwin to hold the north. The castle feels thin with its lord gone and its boy crippled and its bastard gone to ice.

Eddard Stark Rides South to Serve as Hand

Ned hates King's Landing on sight. The streets smell of smoke and waste. Robert drinks and hunts and leaves rule to his council. Petyr Baelish, called Littlefinger, runs coin and smiles at all sides. Varys runs whispers and knows most secrets. Grand Maester Pycelle bows toward the Lannisters. Renly Baratheon jokes at court. His brother Stannis has left for Dragonstone in anger. Ned tries to rule clean in a court built for deals.

Sansa loves the south at first. She is promised to Joffrey and sees a prince from a song. Arya hates it. Ned hires Syrio Forel of Braavos to teach Arya with a thin blade. Trouble comes near the Trident when Joffrey torments a butcher's boy. Arya's wolf Nymeria bites Joffrey to stop him. Cersei demands a wolf's life. Since Nymeria has fled, Sansa's wolf Lady dies in her place. Ned swings the sword himself. Arya never forgives Sansa for siding with Joffrey. A small cruelty poisons sister love for many chapters.

Ned serves while Robert feasts. He learns the crown owes vast sums to Tywin Lannister. He learns Jon Arryn died after asking after Robert's heirs. Ned reads the heavy book of bloodlines that Jon had studied. He visits a smith's yard to see a baseborn son of Robert with black hair. Ned moves slowly for proof. The court moves fast against him. Arya chases cats and hears plotting in the dark. Ned warns his men to pack for home.

Catelyn Seizes Tyrion and Lights the Fuse of War

Catelyn sails south in disguise to warn Ned. At an inn she meets Tyrion by chance on his return from the Wall. She calls on men loyal to her father and takes Tyrion for the attempt on Bran. She names the Valyrian steel dagger used by the killer. Littlefinger had told her the blade was once Tyrion's. Tyrion denies the charge. Catelyn turns east to the Eyrie for her sister's protection. She wants a trial far from Lannister swords.

The mountain road nearly kills the party. Hill men strike from rocks. Tyrion fights well and shields Catelyn at one turn. Lysa greets them cold in her hall above the clouds. Her son Robin is sickly and spoiled. Lysa wants Tyrion dead at once. Tyrion calls for trial by combat. The sellsword Bronn fights for him and kills Lysa's knight with speed. Tyrion walks free with Bronn beside him. Catelyn loses her prisoner. Tywin Lannister calls his banners to answer the insult to his blood.

News of the arrest brings blood in the capital. Jaime halts Ned in the street with guards. Ned's men die in the clash. Ned's leg breaks under his falling horse. Jaime rides to join his father. Robert makes a false peace and rides to hunt. Ned sends Beric Dondarrion to stop Gregor Clegane, who burns villages in the riverlands at Tywin's order. Robb calls the northern banners and marches south. Theon rides with him. Bran with Rickon stay in Winterfell under Luwin. Catelyn joins Robb on the march. She counsels care at the Twins, where the Freys hold the crossing. Robb pledges a future marriage for passage. His host crosses and splits for war.

Robb proves swift. He baits with foot under Roose Bolton. He leads horse himself to the Whispering Wood. There he traps Jaime and takes him alive. Then he breaks the siege at Riverrun. The boy wins two strokes. Villages still burn behind the lines. What began as a mother's arrest is now open war between lion and wolf.

Daenerys Across the Narrow Sea with Drogo

Daenerys lives in exile with her brother Viserys. They are the last children of the king Robert threw down. Viserys calls himself true king and begs for swords. Illyrio Mopatis shelters them in Pentos. Jorah Mormont, an exiled knight from the north, offers his sword as guide. Illyrio weds Dany to Khal Drogo, who leads a great Dothraki horde. Viserys trades his sister for promised spears. Dany is young and afraid. She has no say.

Wedding gifts shape her path. Illyrio gives three dragon eggs turned to stone by age. Jorah gives books. Dany learns the Dothraki tongue and the saddle. She learns to face Drogo and then to lead him. She takes bloodriders. She grows with child. Viserys grows sour as no ships come. He draws a blade in Drogo's hall and threatens Dany's belly. Drogo pours molten gold on his head. The crown Viserys craved kills him. Dany watches and lets him die. Pity for her brother dies with him.

Drogo falls to a small wound. A rival cuts his chest in a duel. The cut festers. The healer Mirri Maz Duur offers blood magic and warns of a price. Dany pays without grasp of the cost. Drogo lives on as an empty shell. Dany loses her son. Most of the horde rides away. Dany smothers Drogo to end his torment. She builds his pyre and sets the eggs on the wood. She binds Mirri in the flames for betrayal. Then she walks into the fire herself.

Dawn finds her alive with hatchlings on her skin. The eggs have opened in heat. Jorah kneels. The few riders left kneel. Dany names the black dragon Drogon for her dead husband. The sold girl is now a mother of dragons. Her middle chapters ride long and some readers will find them slow. The payoff reframes all talk that magic had left the world.

Jon Snow and the Night's Watch on the Wall

Jon rides north with his uncle Benjen and Tyrion as far as the Wall. The Wall stuns him. It stands high in ice and is held by a few hundred men in stained black. Lord Commander Jeor Mormont rules. Alliser Thorne drills new boys with scorn. The recruits are poachers with runaways and younger sons. Jon comes trained and proud. Thorne beats pride out of him. Jon learns to teach the weak instead of shaming them. He guards Samwell Tarly, who is soft and kind and craves books. He gets Sam a place with Maester Aemon.

Benjen rides beyond the Wall after lost rangers and never returns. Jon fears him dead. Tyrion leaves with hard jokes. Jon takes his vow with Sam in the godswood beyond the Wall, before heart trees. He is made steward to Mormont and takes it as slight until he sees the trust in it. He saves Mormont from a dead ranger that rose in the night. The corpse had been brought back from the cold and woke hungry. Jon burns it with a lantern. Fire holds where steel failed. Aemon says the cold has changed and the dead walk.

The old horror proves real. The prologue showed rangers slain by pale things in the wood. Old Nan's tales spoke of white walkers in long winter. Now dead hands reach from snow. The Watch still quarrels over stores while winter nears. Jon aches to ride south when Robb marches. Mormont holds him to his words. When word comes that Ned is taken, Jon stays though sick at heart. When word comes that Ned is dead, Jon rides out in the night to join his brother. His friends bar his way and bring him back. He bends again to duty and joins the ranging planned beyond the Wall. His vow holds by a thread.

These were my favorite chapters on reread. Duty is plain. Cost is plain. Sam gives Jon a mirror for fear turned to use. He circles shame and honor for pages. Yet the loop fits a boy with few tools shaping a self. Attack by the wight proves the stakes beyond southron games.

Eddard Learns the Blood Secret and Joffrey Takes Power

Ned puts the blood puzzle together at last. Robert's baseborn sons show his dark hair and jaw. Joffrey with Tommen and Myrcella show Cersei's gold hair. The book of bloodlines backs the pattern across past unions. Jon Arryn saw it. Stannis saw it and fled. Ned faces Cersei alone in the godswood. He tells her he knows Jaime sired her children. He bids her flee before Robert returns from the hunt. Cersei weeps and then steels. She owns her love for her brother and her hate for her husband.

Robert dies of a boar on that hunt. Strong wine from Cersei's cousin had slowed his arm. Ned holds a will naming him Protector till Joffrey comes of age. Renly offers his swords to seize the night. Ned refuses for lawful form. He writes to Stannis as true heir by blood. He pays Littlefinger for the City Watch. Littlefinger takes the coin and sells him. In the throne room the Watch turns on Ned's men at his word. Joffrey takes the throne. Sansa pleads for her father. Arya hides in the crowd.

Varys comes to Ned in the black cells. He bids confession to save his girls. Sansa begs Joffrey for mercy in court. Cersei pledges the Wall for a false plea. Ned agrees to lie to shield Sansa with Arya. At the Great Sept of Baelor he owns treason before a crowd and hails Joffrey as true king. The crowd looks for mercy. Joffrey wants force to mark his rule. He calls for Ned's head despite promises made by his mother. Ilyn Payne lifts the sword. Arya sees birds rise. Sansa must watch. Mercy shown to Cersei comes back as steel.

Tywin names Tyrion acting Hand to curb the boy king while Tywin holds the field. Tyrion rides to the capital with Bronn. Sansa stays as hostage for Jaime's life. Arya flees with Yoren of the Night's Watch, clad as a boy called Arry. Robb gains a cause that hardens his lords. Martin proves he will not spare a good man for goodness.

Aftermath and Honest Limits of This First Book

After the beheading the board runs red. Robb holds Riverrun. His lords hail him King in the North when terms fail. Catelyn counsels and mourns in private. Sansa lives under guard and takes beatings for Robb's wins. Arya marches north with Yoren beside Gendry, who may be Robert's son. Bran keeps Winterfell with Luwin. Rickon hides with his wolf. Theon chafes to serve a boy he grew up with. Jon holds to the Watch and rides toward the cold wood. Dany nurses small dragons in waste. Tyrion enters the capital to rule in his father's name.

No clean win closes the book. Robb wears a crown born of grief more than plan. Sansa learns songs will not shield her. Bran dreams of a three eyed crow and wakes to price. Jon learns vows cost kin. Dany learns fire gives with one hand and burns with the other. The dragons perch on a shoulder, too small for war. Winter still waits. Hunger for the next book is the true end.

Plain limits must be named. The book bloats at feasts and dress. Dish lists slow councils. Sigil lore slows rides. Some chapters restate known fears. Sansa trusts songs too long. Catelyn fears for Bran in circles. Dany rides far pages with scant change. I tired in the tourney and on the marches. The late payoff repaid my patience, but not every page pulls fair weight.

Violence needs plain talk too. The book opens with a beheading and a child's fall. The capital keeps a brothel lens. Drogo claims Dany by custom that reads as assault under modern law, though care grows later. The Mountain burns farms and breaks men. Joffrey has guards strike Sansa. Ned dies as show. Readers hurt by sexual assault or harm to children should know Martin does not look away. Cruelty proves cost, yet the pile weighs heavy.

Point of view repeats as well. Ned with Catelyn learn slowly what many readers guess about the dagger and the blood. Tyrion jests in one key. Jon loops shame. I prize the voices, but a tighter middle would aid them. None of this broke my trust. If you want lean prose, pass by. If you want flawed souls who choose under weight, start with snow at Winterfell and close with ash and wings.

FAQ

Does A Game of Thrones include the Red Wedding?

No. The first book ends with Ned beheaded and Robb hailed King in the North. It closes with Dany hatching dragons in Drogo's fire.

How does Ned Stark die?

Ned proves Joffrey is Jaime's son and trusts Littlefinger to hold the Watch. Littlefinger betrays him. Joffrey orders his beheading at the Great Sept of Baelor despite a promised pardon.

Is A Game of Thrones very violent?

Yes. It opens with a beheading and a child's fall. It also shows assault and burned villages with Sansa beaten by guards. Martin uses cruelty to show cost, so sensitive readers should tread with care.