A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms

George R. R. Martin was born in 1948 in Bayonne, New Jersey. He trained as a journalist at Northwestern University and began his career in science fiction and horror, publishing acclaimed short fiction and early novels such as Dying of the Light, Fevre Dream, and The Armageddon Rag. After a stint in Hollywood as a writer and producer for series like The Twilight Zone and Beauty and the Beast, he returned to prose in 1996 with the publication of A Game of Thrones, the first book in his A Song of Ice and Fire series. In it, he established the world of Westeros that serves as a setting for much of his fiction, including A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms.

The genesis of A Song of Ice and Fire can be read as a response to two intertwined traditions: the high fantasy of J. R. R. Tolkien and the rigor of historical fiction. Martin has often cited his admiration for rich medieval chronicles and epic fantasy that takes politics seriously. Westeros and its neighboring continents are not backdrops for a single hero’s quest, but a living system of houses, lineages, bannermen, creditors, and commoners whose interests collide.