How did audiences across the world engage with the blockbuster TV series Game of Thrones? This book presents the findings of a major research project that gathered the responses of more than 10,000 people. Its findings challenge many conventional approaches and open up new ways of thinking about the value of contemporary 'fantasy'.

Martin Barker is Emeritus Professor in the Department of Theatre, Film and Television Studies at Aberystwyth University and Visiting Professor at UWE Bristol
Clarissa Smith is Professor in the Department of Arts at Northumbria University
Feona Attwood is an editor of the journals Sexualities and Porn Studies

1 The remarkable phenomenon that is Game of Thrones
2 Generating a 'richly structured combination of data and discourses'
3 Distinguishing different kinds of audience
4 Favourite characters, favourite survivors
5 The significance of favourite character choices
6 Winter is coming...
7 Conflicts and controversies
8 Making predictions for an unpredictable world
Postscript: 'If you think this has a happy ending, you haven't been paying attention'
Index