A Feast for Crows is the fourth of seven planned novels in the epic fantasy series A Song of Ice and Fire by American author George R. R. Martin. The novel was first published on October 17, 2005, in the United Kingdom, with a United States edition following on November 8, 2005. Because of its size, Martin and his publishers split the narrative of the still-unfinished manuscript for A Feast for Crows into two books. Rather than divide the text chronologically in half, Martin instead split the material by plot location, resulting in "two novels taking place simultaneously" with different casts of characters. A Feast for Crows was published months later, and focuses mainly on southern Westeros. The concurrent novel A Dance with Dragons, which focuses on other locations such as the North, the Wall and Essos, was advertised for the following year, but was eventually released six years later in 2011. Martin noted that the A Song of Ice and Fire series would now likely total seven novels. A Feast for Crows was the first novel in the series to debut at number one on The New York Times Best Seller list, a feat among fantasy writers only previously achieved by Robert Jordan and Neil Gaiman. In 2006 the novel was nominated for the Hugo Award, the Locus Award, and the British Fantasy Society Award. It has since been adapted, along with A Dance With Dragons, for television as the fifth season of Game of Thrones, though elements of the novel appeared in the series' fourth and sixth seasons. Plot summary The War of the Five Kings is slowly coming to its end. The secessionist kings Robb Stark and Balon Greyjoy have been killed. One claimant to the throne, Stannis Baratheon, has gone to fight off invading wildling tribes at the northern Wall, where Robb's half-brother Jon Snow has become the 998th Lord Commander of the Night's Watch, the order responsible for guarding the Wall. The eight-year-old King Tommen Baratheon now rules in King's Landing under the regency of his mother, Cersei Lannister. The warrior woman Brienne of Tarth has been sent by Cersei's brother (and lover) Jaime Lannister on a mission to find Robb's sister Sansa Stark. Sansa is hiding in the Vale, protected by her mother's childhood friend Petyr “Littlefinger” Baelish, who has murdered his wife (and her aunt) Lysa Arryn, and named himself Protector of the