A Feast for Crows (A Song of Ice and Fire, #4)

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A Feast for Crows (A Song of Ice and Fire #4)

3.99 of 5 stars 3.99 · rating details · 153,792 ratings · 8,361 reviews

The fourth book in "New York Times" bestselling author Martin's landmark series arrives to the delight of fans the world over. This is historical fiction that never was, filled with gritty characters, realistic conflicts, heroism, barbarism, defeats and triumphs.

Hardcover, 753 pages

Published November 8th 2005 by Spectra Books (first published 2005)

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Sep 24, 2011 mark monday rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fantastickal

Behold: the Ugly Stepchild of A Song of Ice and Fire!
Behold: the Readers of A Feast for Crows: Angry, Sullen, Vengeful!

silly readers. i'm not sure i've ever read such a collection of resentful reviews for one book. one reviewer just decided to repeat the same phrase over and over and over again (sorry Joel, had to say it). another decided to note that "...kids are inherently boring. Kids aren’t clever..." er, wtf?

sigh. i suppose i can understand the backlash. Martin took a long-assed time to...more

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Oct 21, 2010 Joel rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2010, audiobooks, series, read-while-in-a-foreign-land, sci-fi-fantasy, here-there-be-dragons, vote-getters, asoiaf

A highborn maid of three-and-ten, with a fair face and auburn hair. A highborn maid of three-and-ten, with a fair face and auburn hair. A highborn maid of three-and-ten, with a fair face and auburn hair. A highborn maid of three-and-ten, with a fair face and auburn hair. A highborn maid of three-and-ten, with a fair face and auburn hair. A highborn maid of three-and-ten, with a fair face and auburn hair. A highborn maid of three-and-ten, with a fair face and auburn hair. (A highborn maid of thre...more

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Apr 06, 2013 StoryTellerShannon rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy-scifi, owned, books-reviewed, the-sweeping-epic

Whew, this is a tough book to review simply because it doesn't follow on the expectations of the readers after A STORM OF SWORDS.

Now some people are already saying that the book is horrible and a great letdown and others go to the other extreme and hold faithfully that it's just as good as the previous books.

I don't feel either take is fair or accurate.

To be fair, yes, the book doesn't move like the previous books, especially a STORM OF SWORDS. There are simply not the same level of WHAM BAM...more

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May 09, 2008 Kelly rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy-and-scifi, fiction, owned

Dear George,

How do you do this lovely May morning? I'm terribly sorry to bother you, but I really did think that I must in good conscience warn you of this problem I have. You see, I know many people who read these books and absolutely adore them. Legions of fans. I'm sure you know that. Really, the books are quite high quality and quite enjoyable and whatever you need to do to get them to stay at that quality, please do it.

... within reason. It has come to our (the masses') attention that perha...more

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Feb 29, 2008 Collin rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Completists

Shelves: fantasysci-fi

I feel like giving this book 3 stars is being harsh to my man, George Martin, but I'm trying to separate the truly great books in this series from the merely good ones.

Bottom line: fans of the series waited too long for this and therefore were in a position of being impossible to please once this finally came out. This coupled with the facts that numerous spoiler chapters had been available online for years and that George cut his original manuscript in 2 to produce this and the subsequent (as o...more I feel like giving this book 3 stars is being harsh to my man, George Martin, but I'm trying to separate the truly great books in this series from the merely good ones.

Bottom line: fans of the series waited too long for this and therefore were in a position of being impossible to please once this finally came out. This coupled with the facts that numerous spoiler chapters had been available online for years and that George cut his original manuscript in 2 to produce this and the subsequent (as of now, published) volume serves to diminish the stature of "A Feast For Crows" in the context of the whole series.

Still, as its been said elsewhere, Bad George is still better than Excellent Crap. Since I am a completist I was going to love this book no matter what, and I do, but to the more casual fan this will definitely seem like a weak effort, and I think there's justice to this point of view.

The writing here feels uneven to me -- so much time in the real world has passed that I feel like George's writing style has actually changed here. His characters begin using terms that they never used before in the preceeding books ("nuncle" and "coz", in particular). There's also an egregious amount of "not giving a groat" here. I'd hate to be a groat merchant in Westeros at this point. What the hell IS a groat?

The interesting point of view structure of the previous books has been salted with an overabundance of "prologue" chapters that break with the structural traditions that George has already established. Enough with the Prologues! We're under siege here! Just give us one and hold on to some of that story telling goodness -- we already know you rule.

For fans, I think the Brienne chapters feel like wasted time, though Martin tells us that there were stories that needed to be told in "Feast" lest the whole tale would suffer (and I can only presume he includes the 'Brienne' bits in that proclamation). I will reserve judgment here and wait to see.

Also, the fact that only half the POVs (points of view) are represented in "Feast" leaves many fans cold. For myself, I needed me some more Tyrion and I didn't get it here.

I believe once the remaining books are published, the profile of this book may improve. But this is clearly well-seasoned asparagus next to "A Storm of Swords'" filet mignon. (less)

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Feb 21, 2013 Dan Schwent rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, 2013

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. The throne of the Iron Isles is contested. Queen Cercei conspires to keep King Tommen's young queen from influencing him. Jaime Lannister adjusts to having only one hand. Sam Tarly and Gilly head south. Brienne quests for the missing Stark daughters. Littlefinger holds the Vale. A lot of stuff happens in Dorne. Arya Stark continues being one of the more interesting characters in fantasy...

After a years-long void, the Song of Ice and Fire returns. Well, they can't all be home runs. Sometimes you...more

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Jul 16, 2011 Becky rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, nook, 2011, political, reviewed, challenge-1010

This book was fantastic.

These books are so amazingly good. I love them. I can't wait until after I read A Dance with Dragons. Then I can join the hordes of people standing outside GRRM's house, looking at their watches and tapping their feet impatiently while they wait for the 6th book in the series. I haven't experienced that wait yet. I will be one of you soon... Squeee!

Anyway... so, A Feast for Crows. I was talking about the awesomeness. So here are some things, in random order, that I foun...more

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Jul 26, 2011 Matt rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The context here is everything.

A Song of Ice and Fire began with the publication of A Game of Thrones in 1996. Thrones introduced us to the land of Westeros, a continent the size of South America but suspiciously similar to medieval England. We followed a handful of characters representing various factions of the Seven Kingdoms, squabbling for the right to sit upon the Iron Throne. Its grittiness, tactility, fully-realized characters, and high stakes (a major character loses a head) gave it a c...more

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May 07, 2012 Evan Leach rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy, hugo-nominees, 2000-2009

A Feast for Crows, book four of the stellar Song of Ice and Fire saga, is widely maligned as the runt of the series to date:

Img: Runt Horse

This is partly because of the strange circumstances surrounding the book’s publication. Martin cranked out books two and three in just under two years, from February, 1999 to November, 2000. But then trouble arose. Book four grew bigger and bigger. Years passed. As the book approached 2,000 pages, Martin realized the book had to split in two. But how to do so? Instead of ju...more

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Aug 20, 2008 Justin rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: people who really, really like the first three books in the series.

Shelves: fantasy

I'm not quite sure what happened, here.

As others have mentioned, Martin slows the pace of the story down considerably in this fourth installment of A Song of Ice and Fire, ostensibly writing this as the first half of a two-book volume, with a 3-5 year production time on each. As such, the book is by necessity filled with unresolved storylines, AWOL main characters, and lengthy travelogues where nothing of importance happens. Of course, this draws the inevitable comparisons to another famous fant...more I'm not quite sure what happened, here.

As others have mentioned, Martin slows the pace of the story down considerably in this fourth installment of A Song of Ice and Fire, ostensibly writing this as the first half of a two-book volume, with a 3-5 year production time on each. As such, the book is by necessity filled with unresolved storylines, AWOL main characters, and lengthy travelogues where nothing of importance happens. Of course, this draws the inevitable comparisons to another famous fantasy series that started strong and became a sluggish, irritating morass (something to do with wheels and time, as I recall).

The pace isn't really the problem, here, though, as the story still stands on its own two legs. The problem is the writing.

Though the first three books were extraordinarily well-written as a whole, one could never classify Martin's prose as elegant. In this book, he takes three steps backward for some reason, and sounds almost amateurish in some chapters. The book is filled with phrases and sentences that are awkward, clichéd, and sometimes downright hackneyed. Martin's prose may typically be spare and to the point, but I never audibly groaned while reading the first three books.

One of the biggest problems with this is Martin's sudden inclusion of colloquialisms that, so far as I can tell, never existed in the books before this one. Coz's, nuncles, and valonqars abound, even though we've never read any character use these turns of phrase before, and be prepared to hear "groats" referenced multiple times in a single chapter. This doesn't only present a continuity problem, for those of us wondering why these dialect oddities are so suddenly commonplace... Martin seems to have run out of patience for phrasing things differently, so the exact same idiom often gets used ad nauseum. I was weary of these invented clichés before I even truly understood what they meant.

By now, fans of the series thus far are used to the disturbing ubiquity of rape in Martin's world, but even that loses what little subtlety it had in this book, with at least two characters being described as "needing a hard raping" (another example of redundancy in Martin's writing... did that expression really need to be used twice in one book?). The consensual sexuality devolves in this book, as well; Martin uses strange fixations and blunt-force descriptions (the comparison of female private parts to a "swamp" was the high point for me, as it were) which make them seem almost bizarre, and therefore a lot more gratuitous than they were in the first three books.

I gave it two stars instead of one because the standout elements of this series are still evident in A Feast For Crows, despite Martin's apparent attempt to sabotage them with clumsy writing. The characters are multidimensional, unpredictable, and well-developed, and the overarching story is fascinating enough to keep me turning pages. However, I am genuinely concerned about the direction of this series, which has heretofore been my favorite fantasy series and often recommended to friends. I don't know what's going on with Martin's writing, but I truly hope the next book returns to the caliber of the first three. I would hate to have to do with this series what I do with Jordan's: recommend that people stop at Book 3 and pretend it's an open-ended trilogy. I'd much rather dismiss this one as "the mediocre volume" and go back to enjoying the series. Here's hoping.
(less)

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Jul 13, 2007 Guy rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: mustreads

Simply put, the entire Song of Ice and Fire series is my favorite (topping even my beloved Gaiman). I fell in love with the series and I obsess about it in the way that some people obsess about Tolkein or Harry Potter.

In my mind, it's the best epic fantasy since Tolkein. Like Tolkein, Martin creates a real world with an extensive history filled with its own languages and cultures and songs. Tolkein's world is high fantasy with elves and magic and even the main characters aren't human. Martin's...more

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May 14, 2011 Melissa Rudder rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Melissa by: Steve

George R. R. Martin's A Feast for Crows (of the Song of Fire and Ice series) suffers from MBSS, or Middle Book in a Series Syndrome. It lacks the addictive excitement and intrigue necessary for early books and the catastrophes and closures I'm looking forward to from later books. It's just a link in the chain. My initial response to it reminds me of my initial response to J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix . I trust in the vision of the author and am certain the book is ess...more

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Mar 31, 2008 Ryan rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I was fully prepared to be disappointed by this book, for several reasons. First of all, the last book, A Storm Of Swords, ended with a very large cliffhanger and I knew that it was a cliffhanger that wasn't going to be fully explained/explored in this volume.

Additionally, I knew that in general the story was not going to feature the characters that I was most interested in (namely Daenerys, Theon, Tyrion, and especially the whole issue of Jon and the Night Watch). That being said, the volume wa...more I was fully prepared to be disappointed by this book, for several reasons. First of all, the last book, A Storm Of Swords, ended with a very large cliffhanger and I knew that it was a cliffhanger that wasn't going to be fully explained/explored in this volume.

Additionally, I knew that in general the story was not going to feature the characters that I was most interested in (namely Daenerys, Theon, Tyrion, and especially the whole issue of Jon and the Night Watch). That being said, the volume was surprisely enjoyable, and helped to better explore the entirety of the Seven Kingdoms. There was tons of action in the first three volumes - I was actually a little set back by the amount of violence that was featured in the series altogether. This volume takes a somewhat quieter approach - characters die, but most of the death takes place off-page. Perhaps this means that A Dance With Dragons is going to feature much higher levels of action.

Plot-wise, only certain amounts of progress are made of advancing the plot. We learn nothing more about the advancement of the Others, and no word is made of Daenerys' flight towards the west. Instead we get political maneuverings in King's Landing, and Sam's travel from The Wall to Oldtown. What we do get is quality material, though - I was on the bus when I got to the part of the story that featured Cersei's downfall, and I almost started cackling with joy to see her get her final comeuppance. Also of interest was the expanding story of the Seven Kingdoms, as we learn more about the cultures of both the Iron Islands and of Dorne. Interesting material, definitely, but material that feels much like it is build-up for the eventual landfall of Dany from the east, rather than material in its own right.[return:][return:]One of the benefits of the multiple-POV perspective that Martin employs is that it allows the reader to learn about characters not only from how they see themselves, but how they are viewed by those around them. Cersei Lannister, the most prominent character in AFFC, is the most obvious example of this - when she was presented mostly as a scheming mastermind, but in her POV chapters, she's seen as someone almost paralyzed by paranoia. Similarly, we see Jaime as either a sterling knight (from Brienne's perspective) or a craven weakling (from Cersei's perspective). When we see Jaime's one POV, though, we see that he thinks he is how Cersei sees him, but he hopes to become what Brienne believes him to be. It's a very effective literary technique, and easily builds suspense and complexity to a story of this size.(less)

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Aug 31, 2008 Kim rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: People with lots of time or patience

Shelves: fantasy

George R. R. Martin is a blowhard.

I mean that with respect, I suppose. I guess any author that got me to read over 2400 pages of his writing garners some respect, right? A smattering, maybe? I don’t know, maybe it’s because I was raised Catholic, or maybe it’s my sense of follow through or maybe just the fact that I’ve invested so much time in this damn series… whatever. I’m here, I’ve finished book #4. Yay.

Okay, so the reason I’m grumpy is that it took me 480 pages to get into this. Which left...more

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Oct 16, 2011 Jan-Maat added it · review of another edition

Shelves: usa, fiction, fantasy, 21st-century

Of all of the volumes in ASOIAF to date this is the one that continues to grow on me.

This an autumnal volume in the series. Here entropy always increases. There is a sense that the chivalric ideals and dreams of the society inevitable deteriorate to terrorism, savagery and destitution. Political idealism decays into naive failures and the motivation for plotting and manipulation on a grand scale appears to be to create an abusive relationship with the daughter of a lost love. Then for all the fe...more

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Aug 05, 2011 Kate F rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I started reading this series when watching the recent HBO series and I loved the first three books - could hardly put them down in fact - and then I got to this one and the momentum faltered. I'm not sure what has happened -is it a glut of fiction when I normally read mainly non-fiction, is it too much of a good thing all in one go or is it an author that has perhaps lost his way? Perhaps it's a little of all three. Whatever it is, I struggled to get through this book in parts. I feel that some...more

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Aug 27, 2010 Aaron rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, fantasy

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I've read a few critical comments stating that "nothing" happens in this book. While I would say that the events are much more personal for a few non-spotlight characters this time around, you can hardly say "nothing" happens. Brienne's quest to find Sansa Stark is exciting while being sympathetically frustrating, considering the audience knows precisely where Sansa is and Brienne continually makes incorrect guesses as to her location. Sam Tarly becomes an interesting viewpoint character as he b...more

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Jul 13, 2011 Ashley rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, favorites, violent-and-epic

Sigh. There's nothing really wrong with this book, for what it is. The problem is what it is, because what it is is half a book. Half of a VERY VERY LONG BOOK, at that. If you add the pages of A Feast For Crows and A Dance With Dragons together, you have approximately 2,100 pages, and that is actually the size of like TEN BOOKS, and with just as much story. So automatically, A Feast For Crows is not a complete experience. Not only is it missing half the characters (practically the best...more

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Jul 05, 2007 Duncan rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: fantasy/sci-fi fans

(Review applicable to entire series.)

George R.R. Martin's "Song of Ice and Fire" series is still a work in progress after eleven years and four installments; I came to it late, so I read the first four back-to-back, and now I have to play the waiting game. Part of what's frustrating about reading them spread out over many years is that it's going to be virtually impossible to remember what's happened up to now when I finally get to the next one--there are so many damn subplots and the plot moves...more (Review applicable to entire series.)

George R.R. Martin's "Song of Ice and Fire" series is still a work in progress after eleven years and four installments; I came to it late, so I read the first four back-to-back, and now I have to play the waiting game. Part of what's frustrating about reading them spread out over many years is that it's going to be virtually impossible to remember what's happened up to now when I finally get to the next one--there are so many damn subplots and the plot moves so fast.

Song of Ice and Fire is fantasy, but it's modeled on actual medieval conflicts (the Wars of the Roses in particular), and the fantasy elements appear only at long intervals; if I understand the term, it's not "high" fantasy. Indeed, it subverts the conventions of the genre in several ways: the plot is many-stranded, encompassing a wide variety of tussles for power, and the story's morality is cast very much in shades of gray. The few characters that could be said to act nobly are promptly killed off; those that remain are, to varying extents, looking out for themselves. There are a few outright malevolent characters (and many of them have died off as well), but almost none of their opposite numbers.

Indeed, the casualty rate is striking--again and again, Martin introduces and develops a character, then kills him with a casualness that keeps the reader on her toes (and reflects the randomness of wartime death, in a way). Certain characters seem destined to survive all or most of the story arc, but not many. Nor is this a rarefied Tolkienesque fantasy world: there's grit aplenty, in the form of sex, profanity, and gore. More than any other fantasy author I can think of, Martin not only adopts the trappings of medieval conflicts (swordplay, castles, etc.), but imports the prosaic and sometimes stomach-turning features of medieval society. The result is extremely vivid, but often unedifying.

The writing is strong, with occasional veers toward the purple; as befits the multilayered plot, Martin adopts the perspective of a different character in each chapter, and the narrative follows that character in over-the-shoulder style; omniscient narration is entirely absent. But the real strength of the series is in the plot, and for that, either take notes or read the whole thing in one pass when it's finally complete.(less)

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Feb 21, 2013 Kyle Muntz rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

i agree with some of the criticisms of this book; others not so much. it didn't add much to the series as a whole, and it felt more like part of a book than a full story in itself (which, I mean, is exactly what it was), but it was still pretty enjoyable. the smaller central cast made things feel more focused, even if it lacked the wild unpredictability of storm of swords. jaime's chapters in particular were fascinating, and arya's as well. i think this book could have been done better, but it w...more

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Apr 06, 2013 Jonathan rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, fantasy-sci-fi-challenge, gritty-reads

A Feast for Crows is an apt title for a book man fans view as a piece of carrion in a brilliant series. However, I personally found it to be a more readable and interesting book than A Clash of Kings (which, as previously expressed, I found to be a dragging, commercialised novel).

It seems that perhaps most of the disappointment regarding A Feast for Crows stems from the change in direction that G.R.R Martin takes from the brilliant previous novel. In fact this entire novel features no Tyrion or...more
A Feast for Crows is an apt title for a book man fans view as a piece of carrion in a brilliant series. However, I personally found it to be a more readable and interesting book than A Clash of Kings (which, as previously expressed, I found to be a dragging, commercialised novel).

It seems that perhaps most of the disappointment regarding A Feast for Crows stems from the change in direction that G.R.R Martin takes from the brilliant previous novel. In fact this entire novel features no Tyrion or Dany (two of my preferred characters) though it does feature Brienne (view spoiler) and Jaime (view spoiler). And what would any story be without a character to loathe? And this novel has plenty of Cersei. The gradual shift of Cersei being a spoiled, power thirsty, girlish woman in the previous novel seems to come to a conclusion in the next. (view spoiler) I can see why Cersei acts as she does according to the logic of her character but the fact that she's so power hungry that she ignores what her son (as king) wants and is also hypocritical (particularly as regards Margaery) is rather ridiculous.

Again, my review would not be complete without an eyeroll as regards Martin's immaturity. I'm a huge believer that one could be 50 years to 100 years old and still never mature. I believe that maturity is an issue of character development. I don't necessarily see a great deal of maturity in some aspects of Martin's work (or comments - whether it's the almost boastful 'some say this is the greatest fantasy work' comments or others). I particularly see a very juvenile approach to sex and sexuality which is not appealing in the slightest and rather sickens me. Whether it's the need for Martin to gleefully (and constantly) describe what various body parts are doing and the size of various body parts. There's almost a constant need for Martin to return elements back to something relating to body fluids and I don't know about you but that was something I found amusing as...a five year old? Seven year old? And right now it's neither amusing nor pretty to read about. In fact it has a touch of discomfort about it because of how a grown up man is writing about such things. It's not that he is writing about them but how he writes about them. Lawrence Durrell and James Joyce comes to mind as examples of how to write about such things in a mature way.

This all said, though Martin is one of the most popular fantasists writing currently I do not believe he is one of the greatest. Perhaps his story is one of the more entertaining series available now (alongside the longer Wheel of Time - and I certainly consider Martin more conservative in his language use than Robert Jordan, which work - or Mistborn) however when compared to Mervyn Peake, E.R.R Eddison or J.R.R Tolkien, there is no comparison. Anyone seriously rating A Song of Ice and Fire as the greatest fantasy work of all time should go read and re-read the past greats. However, I stand by previous comments that this is a must read work in fantasy for its current impact on fantasy and for what it does with fantasy. I know that I shall be aiming to finish the series myself.(less)

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Mar 25, 2013 Yasiru rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I'd originally awarded this entry in the series a meagre single star, and it remains deserving of such a low estimation in many ways. I'll improve it very slightly by letting you know that I followed the overly generous Goodreads rating system in this- 'did not like it' will do. I've granted a further star now and would have this brief note stand for my review of both A Feast for Crows and A Dance with Dragons. This novel may not be, especially from the vantage of those who like this manner of s...more I'd originally awarded this entry in the series a meagre single star, and it remains deserving of such a low estimation in many ways. I'll improve it very slightly by letting you know that I followed the overly generous Goodreads rating system in this- 'did not like it' will do. I've granted a further star now and would have this brief note stand for my review of both A Feast for Crows and A Dance with Dragons. This novel may not be, especially from the vantage of those who like this manner of sexually-charged historical soap opera stuffed into a novel (if anyone recalls the series The Tudors and possess a less than tolerant view of such, you can imagine the horror of seeing its screenplay given a rough facelift and published), an utter travesty had it stood alone. Then it wouldn't have been a book I would have read and I wouldn't have had to write this review.
But A Feast for Crows belongs to a series, and in my eyes thoroughly betrays the potential the author had cultivated over the past three books.

As I noted in my review of A Game of Thrones (which does for a review of the entire series thus far- this present one for the fourth and fifth entries making a more specific point), A Song of Ice and Fire as a series has plenty of problems to contend with, but some of the charges against it are quite overblown, and though Martin's writing is stylistically poor and fails to make use of basic strengths of the novel format for a linear, ever cliffhanger seeking approach, the mix of war and the elements of political intrigue heightened suspense and endowed an underlying sense of scale to the minuteness of proceedings. A Clash of Kings was an improvement on the first book, and with A Storm of Swords the series reached a height where many of its faults could be forgiven. In this novel which sets its focus on only a subset of characters however, particularly through the handling of the character Cersei Lannister but also in plenty of other ways, the intrigue becomes caricature, while the energy in supporting events, the feudal backdrop, is either absent or has ground to a bare crawl. All melodrama all the time simply does not work as a novel.

In A Dance with Dragons, a better realised book and one where the reader is inclined to have some sympathy for Martin's decision to split events between books (in Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series, the tenth book, Crossroads of Twilight, largely consists of reactions to the climax of the ninth, and is thought a similar debacle by some readers, but at least it has a courting subplot holding it together and explored a wide spectrum of reactions; in A Feast for Crows, Cersei blots out every other concern) at first, Martin reasserts his grip on some of the things which got out of hand here, but in doing so allows those plots and characters he had ignored to stray in a manner not at all conducive to the aim of ending the series satisfactorily with two more books. The problem is that these detours don't even add any depth or scope to the storyline to warrant Martin's free hand with them- all they stand as are distractions.

I thought to put this up on seeing the following article-
http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radi...

It's a little generous about the series as a whole, but reiterates some of what I've said in my Game of Thrones review linked above about how Martin's approach to some unpleasant facts of the times is commendable however much he can't help every so often to be bombastic. Most importantly, it squares on what could have made this a truly worthwhile series, if not a great one worth the influence it's bound to have, given a little discipline. But I think here the chance is squandered and the article seemed to me an unwitting requiem, touting virtues and smoothing over what lacked. It's not outside of possibility that The Winds of Winter could steer events back and undo some of the damage these two books have done, but that would require more tight discipline than I think most genre fantasy writers today have combined. I will probably read it out of a dull sense of commitment, but knowing full well that the series is heading off to die a lesser death than was at one point its due. We can hope that the television series, should it continue as seems very likely, is circumspect in how it follows this part of the saga, and maybe there fans of a more realistic disposition might find some consolation.(less)

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Nov 16, 2011 Rad Ryan rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: e-book-read

3.5 STARS!

I slept with words swirling in my head. I woke up in the morning because words are spinning in my unconscious mind. I don't know what's happening to me. When I close my eyes, suddenly paragraphs are reeling but they doesn't make sense. It's like uttering sentences on and on without anything in it. Gods. Did the series made it to me? Or just this book? Because of the characters telling the tale?

I was uncomfortable at first, A Storm of Swords left the story with fire, hot and ablaze. A...more

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Jul 22, 2011 Ben Babcock rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2011-read, fantasy, own

N.B.: As always, this review does not contain spoilers for this book, but there are significant spoilers for previous books in the series.

All right, I am going to swim against the tide here and come out in unabashed admiration for A Feast for Crows. This book has had to bear an incredible burden: not only has it been "the most recent book" in the Song of Ice and Fire series for six years, but it is infamously "half a book" in the sense that it only follows roughly half of the series' main charac...more

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Jun 18, 2008 Jake rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, fiction, series, favorite-titles

For those who don’t know, A Feast for Crows is the fourth book in George RR Martin’s (GRRM) Song of Fire and Ice series. It is, without question, one of the best fantasy series I’ve ever read. It’s engaging, well-written, and original. It is also fantastically brutal. Do not read this series if you can’t handle characters dying, because they do. Sometimes with great frequency (though the death toll in this one is not quite as high).

A Feast for Crows has been a long time coming. Apparently (I jus...more For those who don’t know, A Feast for Crows is the fourth book in George RR Martin’s (GRRM) Song of Fire and Ice series. It is, without question, one of the best fantasy series I’ve ever read. It’s engaging, well-written, and original. It is also fantastically brutal. Do not read this series if you can’t handle characters dying, because they do. Sometimes with great frequency (though the death toll in this one is not quite as high).

A Feast for Crows has been a long time coming. Apparently (I just learned this today, and it may not be entirely accurate), Martin had originally intended to set the fourth book five years after the third, to allow some of the characters time to age. This idea proved infeasible, and eventually, he scrapped it and went back to writing the narrative. And write he must have, because this book is really only half the book. The other half, A Dance for Dragons should be out some time next year, or so Martin “devoutly hopes”. I devoutly hope so too, because [info]metasomething and the 3rd member of the Hawaiian Syndicate have both threatened me with physical violence for getting them started on this series when it isn’t finished. I fear metasomething’s threats much more, especially since he’s better armed. Hawaiian #3 would probably just poison me…but it’d be tasty poison.

I digress.

A Feast for Crows focuses on events taking place on the northern continent, mostly around King’s Landing. Martin continues with his alternating point-of-view chapters, where each is dedicated to a different character. Focal characters in this book include Arya Stark/Cat/No One, Cersei and Jamie Lannister, Brienne, Sansa Stark/Alayne, Samwell Tarly, and a few others. Cersei is the big new one, and the focus for a lot of the events taking place near the throne. I enjoyed her chapters a lot, in part because it gives some interesting insight into a character who has previous been portrayed as a psychotic bitch. Now…she may still be a psychotic bitch, but these chapters make her much easier to understand, and harder to hate. The only character I’ve found completely despicable at this point is Joffery, her son…who exhibited not a single redeeming impulse whatsoever.

I enjoyed this book a lot, and a number of very interesting things happen in it. I do feel like I need to re-read the first three, and then read this again. I’m sure that there are clues I’m missing and events I’m not getting because I’ve forgotten some major plot points. Maybe I’ll do a re-read over winter break, or something.

The book is good, but it isn’t perfect. The major problem, for me, is that it does feel like half a book. We get next to nothing about Jon Snow, and absolutely nothing about Daenerys, so the book feels much smaller than previous ones. There’s a sense of something missing, and I finished the book wanting more, not just about the characters, but about everything that’s going on.

I also found that it’s getting harder for Martin to surprise me. Maybe it’s because he’s such a brutal writer, but I found that some moments that seemed like they might be suspenseful…weren’t. Knowing that eh was likely to maim or kill a character served not to make me worried (as it has previously), but to make me accepting, almost resigned to their fates. Maybe I’m just not caring as much about this particular set of characters (though I like the Starks, and I’m starting to warm to Jamie).

Also, Littlefinger seems to me to be the Palpatine of this series. The guy no one takes seriously until it’s way to late. I hope that’s true. I love Palpatine, and like Littlefinger too.

All in all, it’s definitely a series worth reading.(less)

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Dec 19, 2007 Cynthia rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 06-and-earlier

As with the rest of the Song of Ice and Fire series, I can pick this one up, reread often and most of the time find something new to like or some detail that I didn't notice before fall into place. The series in general is very well-written and the world, the characters, everything has been so developed that it's just fascinating to watch it unfold.

This wasn't my favorite of the books so far and part of the reason I fel this way was that I wanted desperately to find out what was going on from th...more

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May 03, 2007 Alex rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Truthfully, this one was harder to get through than the first three in the series. I came away with less of a sense of enjoyment, and more just finally being able to put it down. Perhaps it was because the majority of the characters from the first books aren't prominently featured; or, maybe, because it's tiresome to follow the thrashing of the noble families involved.

Martin ends the book with a promise that it's only half the story, and the other half (which concerns the characters I really ca...more

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Feb 03, 2013 Apps *๒l๏๏๔ ๏ภ เςє* rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

What do I say? Things just seem to keep -CCCEEEEEEEERRRSSSSSSSSSSSSEEEEEEEIIIIIIIIIIII!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WHAT THE HELL DID YOU - getting more and more worse. The plot was as intricate as ever, though this time things seemed to move faster, maybe because there were not so many characters. In the beginning when I got to know there were no chapters for Tyrion and Dany and Bran, I was like what the he- JJJAAAAAAAAAMMMMIIIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!...more What do I say? Things just seem to keep -CCCEEEEEEEERRRSSSSSSSSSSSSEEEEEEEIIIIIIIIIIII!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WHAT THE HELL DID YOU - getting more and more worse. The plot was as intricate as ever, though this time things seemed to move faster, maybe because there were not so many characters. In the beginning when I got to know there were no chapters for Tyrion and Dany and Bran, I was like what the he- JJJAAAAAAAAAMMMMIIIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! HOW COULD YOU NOT G- ll?!? But I must say, I did enjoy these people a lot. They are royally screwed up characters (not even mentioning the 'mutilated' and 'freakish' and 'brain-dead'<<=(cersei)) The starting half of the book was not very good, I mean yeah, it was good but slightly boring since I didn't like the characters as much as I loved the missing ones, but as the story continued, I came to like these ones almost just as -AAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRYYYYYYYYYYYYYYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!! NONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONOONOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!NOT YO much. Almost but not quite. As usual, hats off to Martin for ever thinking up such a story without going mad. Or wait, maybe he is mad and all of us who ever read this series are worse...oh well. Besides, there was less sex-stuff in this book, probably because of tyrion's absence, but whatever. It was the ending that- brienne BBRRRRRRIIIIIIIIEEEENNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! OH GWAD!! MOTHER HAVE MERCY, CRONE LIGHT THE WAY, THIS CAN'T HAPPPEENNN TO -
WHAT THE HELL?? Who are you??
Me: I'm me. I'm taken with this book.
Me: wha-? But I'm me!!
Me: Yeah, you are and so am I.
Me: Doesn't even make any sense.
Me: Too bloody true.
Me: Fine whatever, just don't do that crazy-fan-girl-about-to-die scream in between my review.
Me: I CAN'T HELP IT!!!!! EVERYTHING WAS GOING WRONG!!!! OMIGODOMIGOD!!! goshgoshgosh! Jamie and Cersei!! She...she...GOD NOOOOO!!!
Me: Shut up!! I'm not even supposed to like Cersei!
Me: *faints from overload*
Me: grrrr.

(less)

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Jul 21, 2012 Jean-Marc rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Although I like these books, I have a lot of problems with the story jumping too much between characters and many chapters that are just fillers and do not even advance the story in anyway. Book 4 in particular seemed to have little content. So I just read a synopsis, jumb over book 4 altogheter and read book 5!

So I am writing this without having read book 4? Well actually I then re-read book 1-2-3, repented bought book 4 and .....this book is as bad as what I was expecting. It is pretty terribl...more

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Nov 02, 2011 Charon rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2011

I was about to complain about the lack of Tyrion, but the author has apparently expected this and wrote this nice little apology at the end. Well, I see his point, so I won't complain ... much. However, this book was in large parts cleaning up the mess left by all the deaths from A Storm of Swords and it did make the story kind of slow.

Talking about A Storm of Swords - I totally forgot to write this in my last review (spoiler for A Storm of Swords): (view spoiler)...more

2 likes · like · see review

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About George R.R. Martin

George R. R. Martin was born September 20, 1948, in Bayonne, New Jersey. His father was Raymond Collins Martin, a longshoreman, and his mother was Margaret Brady Martin. He has two sisters, Darleen Martin Lapinski and Janet Martin Patten.

Martin attended Mary Jane Donohoe School and Marist High School. He began writing very young, selling monster stories to other neighborhood children for pennies,...more George R. R. Martin was born September 20, 1948, in Bayonne, New Jersey. His father was Raymond Collins Martin, a longshoreman, and his mother was Margaret Brady Martin. He has two sisters, Darleen Martin Lapinski and Janet Martin Patten.

Martin attended Mary Jane Donohoe School and Marist High School. He began writing very young, selling monster stories to other neighborhood children for pennies, dramatic readings included. Later he became a comic book fan and collector in high school, and began to write fiction for comic fanzines (amateur fan magazines). Martin's first professional sale was made in 1970 at age 21: "The Hero," sold to Galaxy, published in February, 1971 issue. Other sales followed.

In 1970 Martin received a B.S. in Journalism from Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, graduating summa cum laude. He went on to complete a M.S. in Journalism in 1971, also from Northwestern.

As a conscientious objector, Martin did alternative service 1972-1974 with VISTA, attached to Cook County Legal Assistance Foundation. He also directed chess tournaments for the Continental Chess Association from 1973-1976, and was a Journalism instructor at Clarke College, Dubuque, Iowa, from 1976-1978. He wrote part-time throughout the 1970s while working as a VISTA Volunteer, chess director, and teacher.

In 1975 he married Gale Burnick. They divorced in 1979, with no children. Martin became a full-time writer in 1979. He was writer-in-residence at Clarke College from 1978-79.

Moving on to Hollywood, Martin signed on as a story editor for Twilight Zone at CBS Television in 1986. In 1987 Martin became an Executive Story Consultant for Beauty and the Beast at CBS. In 1988 he became a Producer for Beauty and the Beast, then in 1989 moved up to Co-Supervising Producer. He was Executive Producer for Doorways, a pilot which he wrote for Columbia Pictures Television, which was filmed during 1992-93.

Martin's present home is Santa Fe, New Mexico. He is a member of Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America (he was South-Central Regional Director 1977-1979, and Vice President 1996-1998), and of Writers' Guild of America, West.

http://us.macmillan.com/author/george...(less)

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Books by George R.R. Martin

A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire, #1)

A Clash of Kings (A Song of Ice and Fire, #2)

A Storm of Swords (A Song of Ice and Fire, #3)

A Dance With Dragons (A Song of Ice and Fire, #5)

A Storm of Swords: Blood and Gold (A Song of Ice and Fire #3, Part 2 of 2)

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Quotes from A Feast for Crows

“My old grandmother always used to say, Summer friends will melt away like summer snows, but winter friends are friends forever.” — 168 people liked it

“Needle was Robb and Bran and Rickon, her mother and her father, even Sansa. Needle was Winterfell's grey walls, and the laughter of its people. Needle was the summer snows, Old Nan's stories, the heart tree with its red leaves and scary face, the warm earthy smell of the glass gardens, the sound of the north wind rattling the shutters of her room. Needle was Jon Snow's smile. He used to mess my hair and call me "little sister," she remembered, and suddenly there were tears in her eyes.” — 141 people liked it

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A Feast for Crows (A Song of Ice and Fire #4)

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