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''A Song of Ice and Fire'' is an ongoing series of epic fantasy novels by American novelist and screenwriter George R. R. Martin. The first installment of the series, originally planned as a trilogy, was published in 1996. The series now consists of five published volumes, and two more volumes are planned. The series is told in the third-person through the eyes of a number of point of view characters. A television adaptation entitled ''Game of Thrones'' premiered in 2011 on HBO. ''A Song of Ice and Fire'' takes place in a fictional world, primarily on a continent called Westeros, and additionally on a large landmass to the east, known as Essos. Three main story lines become increasingly interwoven: a dynastic civil war for control of Westeros among several competing families; the rising threat of the Others, who dwell beyond the immense wall of ice that forms Westeros's northern border; and the ambitions of Daenerys Targaryen, exiled daughter of the deposed king, to return to Westeros and claim her throne. ==Magic and realism== Martin has said he believes in "judicious use of magic" in epic fantasy.〔 "I wanted to keep the magic in my book subtle and keep our sense of it growing, and it stops being magical if you see too much of it."〔 Effective magic in literature, Martin claims, needs to be "unknowable and strange and dangerous with forces that can't be predicted or controlled."〔 Before ''A Song of Ice and Fire'', Martin initially considered writing an alternate historical novel without any magic.〔 He therefore avoided overtly magical elements in the series.〔 While the amount of magic gradually increases, Martin claims the series will end with less magic than many other fantasies have.〔 Since all fiction is essentially untrue, Martin believes it needs to reflect reality at least in its core. He agrees with William Faulkner's statement in his Nobel Prize speech that "the human heart in conflict with itself" is the only thing worth writing about, regardless of the genre.〔 He thus tried to give the story a little more historical fiction feel than a fantastic feel like previous authors' books, with less emphasis on magic and sorcery and more emphasis on swordplay and battles and political intrigue.〔 ''The Atlantic'' noted that the series attempts to mash together fantasy and realism as two seemingly contradictory genres of literature,〔 and Martin's books are generally praised for their realism.〔 ''The Atlantic'' saw the realist heart of the ''Ice and Fire'' books in that "magic lingers only on the periphery of the world in which the characters dwell, and is something more terrifying than wondrous. () It's a fantasy story that defies expectations by ultimately being less about a world we'd like to escape, at times becoming uncomfortably familiar to the one we live in."〔 The unresolved larger narrative arc of ''Ice and Fire'' encourages speculation about future story events.〔 According to Martin, much of the key to ''Ice and Fire'' story future lies sixteen years in the fictional past of which each volume reveals more.〔 Events planned from the beginning are foreshadowed, although Martin heeds story developments to not be predictable.〔 The viewpoint characters, who serve as unreliable narrators,〔 may clarify or provide different perspectives on past events.〔 What the readers believe to be true may therefore not necessarily be true.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Themes in A Song of Ice and Fire」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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