Dance with Dragons - A Song of Ice and Fire Book 5

The War of the Five Kings in Westeros seems to be winding down. In the North, self-declared King Stannis Baratheon has installed himself at the Wall and vowed to win the support of the northmen to continue his struggle to claim the Iron Throne from the supposed children of his dead brother Robert Baratheon, actually offspring of incest between Robert's wife Cersei Lannister and her twin brother, Jaime the Kingslayer; this is complicated by the fact that the Lannisters have installed the traitorous House Bolton as Lords Paramount of the North, and much of the west coast is under occupation by the Ironborn. On the Wall itself, Eddard Stark's bastard son Jon Snow has been elected the 998th Lord Commander of the Night's Watch, but the young man has enemies both in the Watch and beyond the Wall.

Meanwhile, the dwarf Tyrion Lannister has been wrongfully condemned to death for the murder of his young nephew, King Joffrey Baratheon, and has fled by ship across the narrow sea to Pentos, but not before murdering his hated father Tywin. In the far east, Daenerys Targaryen—sole heir to the deposed ruling family, the Targaryens—has conquered the city of Meereen, and rules it to hone her skills of leadership before she moves on to take back Westeros. But, her presence is now known from the Iron Islands, Dorne and Oldtown to the Free Cities. There are now emissaries on their way to find Daenerys and use her cause for their own ends.