No era in Earth history. FRom Wikepedia:
"The story of A Song of Ice and Fire takes place in a fictional world, primarily upon a continent called Westeros but also on a large landmass to the east, known as Essos. Most of the characters are human but as the series progresses other races are introduced, such as the cold and menacing Others from the far North and fire-breathing dragons from the East, both races thought to be extinct by the people of the story. There are three principal storylines in the series: the chronicling of a dynastic civil war for control of Westeros between several competing families; the rising threat of the Others who dwell beyond an immense wall of ice that forms Westeros' northern border; and the journey of Daenerys Targaryen, the exiled daughter of a king who was murdered in another civil war fifteen years previously (War of the Usurper) and now seeks to return to Westeros and claim her rightful throne. As the series progresses, all three storylines become intensely interwoven and dependent on each other."
My own review:
The series of Books is known as "a Song of Fire and Ice" which the opening tale is "a game of Thrones". It is typical of many of the fantasy/parallel worlds fiction in that it is based in a era of feudalism, knights and castles, dragons and catapults and so on. There are the usual fictional races and dark magicians and what have you, and lots of wholesale rape, murder, pillage, betrayal and general unpleasantness. Although Martin has given us a fresh take, none of this makes the series unique in the genre.
What makes this saga break free of the pack and stand proud is the sheer brutality and graphic nature of the violence, the heartless and seemingly random decimation of major characters in the story, the fact that the tale is so unpredictible that after 5 books there still isn't a clear "hero". In fact, at the rate of attrition of the nobility, the soldiers and indeed everyone else on the whole continent, you wonder who will be left alive at all. Martin writes as would a homicidal maniac, a very intelligent homicidal maniac with a vision that we can't grasp. It is a saga of majestic slaughter, of the strong destroying the weak, of shifting alliances and a glimpse into the true horror at the core of the human soul. You can almost hear the metal playing in the background during the fights.
Awesome shit.
Hope that helps.
