HBO’s hit series A GAME OF THRONES is based on George R R Martin’s internationally bestselling series A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE, the greatest fantasy epic of the modern age. A STORM OF SWORDS: BLOOD AND GOLD is the SECOND part of the third volume in the series. ‘Colossal, staggering . . . one of the greats’ SFX

What is more important to you? Wealth? Peace? Freedom? With her powers finally under control, the Oncoming Storm returns to Pernula. But not everything is as she left it. There is a new King of the Underworld and he is out for blood. And submission. The Oncoming Storm has no intention of bending the knee to anyone but she is still reluctant to enter yet another power struggle. However, not getting involved turns out to be impossible when her enemy can turn every single underworlder against her. Staying on the sidelines has always been the way she survives, but now the Oncoming Storm might have to step out of the shadows and become something else. A leader. In this fight, the Oncoming Storm will have to draw on everything she has. Skills, wits, friends, and old contacts. And maybe a wicked knife or two. She is determined to win this battle by herself, but her enemy has the Underworld in an iron grip and breaking it on her own sounds more like a desperate dream. Maybe it is time to accept that sometimes, even an arrogant selfish thief must bow to someone?

Some are born to power. Some seize it. And some have the wisdom never to wield it. The Red Knight has stood against soldiers, armies and the might of an empire without flinching. He's fought on real and magical battlefields alike, and now he's facing one of the greatest challenges yet. A tournament. A joyous spring event, the flower of the nobility will ride against each other for royal favor and acclaim. It's a political contest -- one which the Red Knight has the skill to win. But the stakes may be higher than he thinks. The court of Alba has been infiltrated by a dangerous faction of warlike knights, led by the greatest knight in the world: Jean de Vrailly -- and the prize he's fighting for isn't royal favor, but the throne of Alba itself... This is the third book in the Traitor Son Cycle, following on The Red Knight and The Fell Sword.

About the Book : In September 1996 a fourteen-year-old Fatima Bhutto hid in a windowless dressing room shielding her baby brother while shots rang out in the streets outside the family home in Karachi. This was the evening that her father, Murtaza, was murdered along with six of his associates. In December 2007 Benazir Bhutto, Fatima's aunt, and the woman she had publicly accused of ordering her father's murder, was assassinated in Rawalpindi. It was the latest in a long line of tragedies for one of the world's best known political dynasties. Songs of Blood and Sword tells the story of the Bhuttos, a family of rich feudal landlords who became powerbrokers in the newly created state of Pakistan; the epic tale of four generations of a family and the political violence that would destroy them. It is the history of a family and nation riven by murder, corruption, conspiracy and division, written by one who has lived it, in the heart of the storm. The history of this extraordinary family mirrors the tumultuous events of Pakistan itself, and the quest to find the truth behind her father's murder has led Fatima to the heart of her country's volatile political establishment. Finally Songs of Blood and Sword is about a daughter's love for her father and her search to uncover, and to understand, the truth of his life and death. About the Author : - Fatima Bhutto was born in Afghanistan in 1982. She studied at Columbia University and the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London. She currently writes columns for The Daily Beast, New Statesman and other publications. She lives in Karachi, Pakistan.

New epic fantasy in the grand tradition—including a never-before-published Song of Ice and Fire story by George R. R. Martin! Fantasy fiction has produced some of the most unforgettable heroes ever conjured onto the page: Robert E. Howard’s Conan the Barbarian, Michael Moorcock’s Elric of Melniboné, Fritz Leiber’s Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser. Classic characters like these made sword and sorcery a storytelling sensation, a cornerstone of fantasy fiction—and an inspiration for a new generation of writers, spinning their own outsize tales of magic and swashbuckling adventure. Now, in The Book of Swords, acclaimed editor and bestselling author Gardner Dozois presents an all-new anthology of original epic tales by a stellar cast of award-winning modern masters—many of them set in their authors’ best-loved worlds. Join today’s finest tellers of fantastic tales, including George R. R. Martin, K. J. Parker, Robin Hobb, Scott Lynch, Ken Liu, C. J. Cherryh, Daniel Abraham, Lavie Tidhar, Ellen Kushner, and more on action-packed journeys into the outer realms of dark enchantment and intrepid derring-do, featuring a stunning assortment of fearless swordsmen and warrior women who face down danger and death at every turn with courage, cunning, and cold steel. FEATURING SIXTEEN ALL-NEW STORIES: “The Best Man Wins” by K. J. Parker “Her Father’s Sword” by Robin Hobb “The Hidden Girl” by Ken Liu “The Sword of Destiny” by Matthew Hughes “‘I Am a Handsome Man,’ Said Apollo Crow” by Kate Elliott “The Triumph of Virtue” by Walter Jon Williams “The Mocking Tower” by Daniel Abraham “Hrunting” by C. J. Cherryh “A Long, Cold Trail” by Garth Nix “When I Was a Highwayman” by Ellen Kushner “The Smoke of Gold Is Glory” by Scott Lynch “The Colgrid Conundrum” by Rich Larson “The King’s Evil” by Elizabeth Bear “Waterfalling” by Lavie Tidhar “The Sword Tyraste” by Cecelia Holland “The Sons of the Dragon” by George R. R. Martin And an introduction by Gardner Dozois “When fine writer and expert editor [Gardner] Dozois beckons, authors deliver—and this surely will be one of the year’s essential anthologies.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

Rhea Spencer feels like a normal teenager—even if she is the reincarnation of Cleopatra. All that changes on Rhea’s sixteenth birthday, when a hot representative of the secret Order of Antony shows up. Together, they travel to Egypt to stop a dark cabal of Octavians from unleashing a devastating magical force.

The Seven Kingdoms are divided by revolt and blood feud. In the northern wastes a savage horde is poised to invade the Kingdom of the North where Robb Stark wears his new-forged crown. Throughout Westeros, the war for the Iron Throne rages more fiercely than ever, but if the Wall is breached, no king will live to claim it.