A DANCE WITH DRAGONS
 
A Dance with Dragons is the fifth of seven planned novels in the epic fantasy series A Song of Ice and Fire by American author George R. R. Martin. Despite original predictions of possible completion in late 2006, the novel was released on July 12, 2011. Martin officially finished the book April 27, 2011 by delivering the 1,500+ page manuscript into the hands of book editor Anne Groell while completing it at her office in New York City.
"The Dance of the Dragons" is the name given to a civil war in the prior history of Westeros, leading to much speculation that the novel would feature the long-awaited invasion of Westeros by the army of Daenerys Targaryen. However, at ComicCon 2006, Martin said that is not necessarily what the title is referring to.
A Dance of Dragons was originally the title of the second novel in the sequence, when Martin still envisaged the series as a trilogy. Some early US editions of A Game of Thrones list A Dance of Dragons as the forthcoming second volume in the series. It was also the original planned title for the fourth novel.
Much as A Storm of Swords was divided in the UK Mass Market Paperback editions into Steel and Snow and Blood and Gold, so it was announced that those of A Dance With Dragons would also be published in two volumes, named Dreams and Dust and After the Feast.