How To Read the Game of Thrones Books In Order

Nobody understands the waiting game quite like Game of Thrones fans. Loyal devotees of George R.R. Martin's epic fantasy series have been hanging on for more than a decade since the last novel, A Dance with Dragons, was released in 2011, and the author has been pushing the next book's release date back ever since. (A clarifying point here: the HBO series based on the novels is named Game of Thrones, after the first novel. The collective novel series is titled A Song of Ice and Fire.)

“The Winds of Winter is going to be a big book,” Martin wrote on his blog earlier this year, by way of explanation for what Esquire called "the most public case of writer’s block in human history." Martin went on to add that the book "could be bigger than A Storm of Swords or A Dance With Dragons, the longest books in the series to date. I do usually cut and trim once I finish, but I need to finish first.”

In that update, Martin didn't give any indication of how close he actually was to finishing, so it's safe to say that fans of his A Song of Ice and Fire series will have to wait a while longer. For the uninitiated, this long book hiatus is a perfect opportunity to get caught up on the famously hefty novels.

As the much-anticipated prequel series, House of Dragons, which depicts the Targaryen civil war, wraps up season one, now is the perfect time to dive back into the books. Here's how to read them in order.