A Song of Ice and Fire is a series of
epic fantasy novels by the American novelist and screenwriter
George R. R. Martin. The first volume of the series,
A Game of Thrones, was begun in 1991 and first published in 1996. The series has grown from a planned trilogy to seven volumes, the fifth and most recent of which,
A Dance with Dragons, took Martin five years to write before its publication in 2011. The sixth novel,
The Winds of Winter, is still being written.