About a month. It took me a long time (2 weeks, maybe) to actually get interested in A Game of Thrones, so I was reading it halfheartedly, but as soon as I started to learn who everyone was (seriously: having a huge cast of characters can be very off-putting), then I started getting into it. The other 4 books only took 2 weeks. The first episode of the series picks up in 112 AC (after a first scene prelude in 101 AC) , during the reign of Viserys I. This is almost 200 years before the first episode of Game of Thrones Elia Martell is long dead by the time the events of Game of Thrones take place, however she has a bit more history with the Lannisters than the show lets on. When Elia and Oberyn were young, they were taken to Casterly Rock in the hopes of possibly arranging marriages between Elia and Jaime as well as Oberyn and Cersei. Back in 2014, long before HBO's "Game of Thrones" was close to wrapping, Martin spoke about "The Winds of Winter" in an interview with Vanity Fair. The author said that he hoped the HBO series would combine the narratives of the fourth and fifth books in the series, "A Feast for Crows" and "A Dance with Dragons," into at least several seasons The FAQ section on this is: Judging by the ages of children given in the appendices, just under 2 years pass between the start of aGoT and the start of aDwD. So I'd say about 2.5-3 years pass across the span of the first 5 books. Just over a year passes over the course of aGoT. (again determined by looking at the ages of children) Some of the Rhaenyra Targaryen, born in 97 AC, was the only surviving child of King Viserys and his first wife, Aemma Arryn. Their first son died as an infant. And their second son passed away a day after UPDATE 10/29/2019: HBO has reportedly decided not to move forward with its first Game of Thrones prequel series, per Deadline. According to Entertainment Weekly, this news will not affect the There are 335 deaths in the first 5 books of the series. This works out as a death roughly every 35 minutes for more than 8 days straight in the audiobook version. A Storm of Swords is the deadliest book so far with 97 deaths and a death every 10 pages. However, A Clash of Kings averages a death every 9 pages. YZa6u6V.