The main A Song of Ice and Fire books are, in order: A Game of Thrones, A Clash of Kings, A Storm of Swords, A Feast for Crows, and A Dance with Dragons. The next two planned books are The Winds of Winter and A Dream of Spring , but they have not been released yet.

Reading order

If you want the core series only, read:

  1. A Game of Thrones
  2. A Clash of Kings
  3. A Storm of Swords
  4. A Feast for Crows
  5. A Dance with Dragons
  6. The Winds of Winter, unreleased
  7. A Dream of Spring, unreleased

Optional prequels

If you want the wider George R. R. Martin world, two common additions are A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms and Fire & Blood. A common release-order reading path puts those after the main five books, while a chronological reading puts Fire & Blood first and A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms before the main series.

Simple answer

For most readers, start with A Game of Thrones and continue straight through the five published main novels.

TL;DR: A Game of Thrones → A Clash of Kings → A Storm of Swords → A Feast for Crows → A Dance with Dragons.