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The kingdom of the Stark family faces its ultimate challenge in the onset of a generation-long winter, the poisonous plots of the rival Lannisters, the emergence of the Neverborn demons, and the arrival of barbarian hordes.

"Lord Regent Geder Palliako's great war has spilled across the world, nation after nation falling before the ancient priesthood and the weapon of dragons. But even as conquest follows conquest, the final victory retreats before him like a mirage. Schism and revolt begin to erode the foundations of the empire, and the great conquest threatens to collapse into a permanent war of all against all. In Carse, with armies on all borders, Cithrin bel Sarcour,...

In this second volume, the action moves from the icy north, where the bastard Jon Snow seeks to carve out a place for himself among the bitter outcasts and hardened criminals sworn to service upon the Wall ... to the decadent south and the capital city of King's Landing, where Jon's father, Lord Eddard Stark, serves as the Hand of King Robert Baratheon amid a nest of courtly vipers ... to the barbarian lands across the Narrow Sea, where the young...