A Feast for Crows

Cersei


She dreamt she sat the Iron Throne, high above them all.

The courtiers were brightly colored mice below. Great lords and proud ladies knelt before her. Bold young knights laid their swords at her feet and pleaded for her favors, and the queen smiled down at them. Until the dwarf appeared as if from nowhere, pointing at her and howling with laughter. The lords and ladies began to chuckle too, hiding their smiles behind their hands. Only then did the queen realize she was naked.

Horrified, she tried to cover herself with her hands. The barbs and blades of the Iron Throne bit into her flesh as she crouched to hide her shame. Blood ran red down her legs, as steel teeth gnawed at her buttocks. When she tried to stand, her foot slipped through a gap in the twisted metal. The more she struggled the more the throne engulfed her, tearing chunks of flesh from her breasts and belly, slicing at her arms and legs until they were slick and red, glistening.

And all the while her brother capered below, laughing. His merriment still echoed in her ears when she felt a light touch on her shoulder, and woke suddenly. For half a heartbeat the hand seemed part of the nightmare, and Cersei cried out, but it was only Senelle. The maid s face was white and frightened.

We are not alone, the queen realized. Shadows loomed around her bed, tall shapes with chainmail glimmering beneath their cloaks. Armed men had no business here.

Where are my guards? Her bedchamber was dark, but for the lantern one of the intruders held on high. I must show no fear. Cersei pushed back sleep-tousled hair, and said, What do you want of me? A man stepped into the lantern light, and she saw his cloak was white. Jaime? I dreamt of one brother, but the other has come to wake me.

Your Grace. The voice was not her brother s. The Lord Commander said come get you. His hair curled, as Jaime s did, but her brother s hair was beaten gold, like hers, where this man s was black and oily.

George R. R. Martin

"Of those who work in the grand epic-fantasy tradition, Martin is by far the best.... [He] is a tense, surging, insomnia-inflicting plotter and a deft and inexhaustible sketcher of personalities.... This is as good a time as any to proclaim him the American Tolkien." Time Magazine

"The only fantast series I'd put on a level with J.R.R. Tolkein's The Lord of the Rings . It's a fantasy series for hip, smart people, even those who don't read fantasy . If you're new to the series, you must begin with Book 1, A Game of Thrones. Once you're hooked . you'll be like the rest of us fans, gnawing your knuckles until book 5 Marta Salij, Detroit Free Press

THE MOST impressive modern fantasy, both in terms of conception and execution, is George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire. A masterpiece that will be mentioned with the great works of fantasy. Contra Costa Times

"Long-awaited doesn t begin to describe this fourth installment in bestseller Martin's staggeringly epic Song of Ice and Fire." Publishers Weekly

"Grabs hold and won't let go. It's brilliant." Robert Jordan

"Such a splendid tale and such a fantistorical! I read my eyes out." Anne McCaffrey

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