book data
4530 ratings, 4.16 average rating, 338 reviews
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published
November 6th 2006
by Voyager
binding
Paperback, 976 pages
isbn
0006486126
(isbn13: 9780006486121)
description
Few books have captivated the imagination and won the devotion and praise of readers and critics everywhere as has George R. R. Martin’s monume...more
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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 5730)
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5 stars (1816)
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4 stars (1697)
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3 stars (818)
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2 stars (153)
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1 star (42)
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avg 4.16
bookshelves:
fantasy,
favorites,
fiction
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 th...more
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 th...more
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4 comments
bookshelves:
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 ...more
Read in August, 2008
recommends it for:
People with lots of time or patience
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 ...more
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bookshelves:
fantasysci-fi
Read in October, 2006
recommends it for:
Completists
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 ...more
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 ...more
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Read in August, 2008
recommends it for:
people who really, really like the first three books in the series.
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 ...more
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 ...more
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Read in October, 2006
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.[return:][return:]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 s...more
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bookshelves:
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. Marti...more
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. Marti...more
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Read in January, 2006
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 ...more
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 ...more
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bookshelves:
fantasy,
not-my-copy
Read in September, 2008
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.
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Read in March, 2008
I finished it and am not as disapointed as I was at the end of the last one. I still feel like too many of the charaters are unredeemable. We are being teased with the idea that Denerys is the only hope, which makes me feel like all this game of thrones in westeros was a complete waste of time. When I didn't think Cercei could sink any lower she decended a good deal deeper into depravity, and I hope they lop off her head for it. That is one execution I will cheer for. Breinne on the other han...more
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bookshelves:
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 fro...more
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 fro...more
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Read in January, 2006
This book was a disaster. Prior to this, his cliffhangers were acceptable, because you knew you'd at least get closure in the next book when it finally came out. But with this one, he simply lost me. By cutting the story in twain, the cliffhanger I'm getting at the end of this book won't get resolved for TWO WHOLE BOOKS! No. That's not gonna cut it. I'm done. Sorry. But the characterization was already moving far too slowly. Now it's slowed to a glacial pace. For what? To make more books? This i...more
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Read in April, 2007
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 reall...more
Martin ends the book with a promise that it's only half the story, and the other half (which concerns the characters I reall...more
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I really wish Martin would hurry up and finish this series. I get the sense that he is slowing down, and possibly losing his way, since more and more time passes between the publication of each book.
A Feast for Crows is more soap opera than swordfights and battles, which is fine with me. Martin tells a good story, and his character development is better than most genre fiction writers, I appreciate the darkness of the lives of many of the characters, and that fact that the good guys often di...more
A Feast for Crows is more soap opera than swordfights and battles, which is fine with me. Martin tells a good story, and his character development is better than most genre fiction writers, I appreciate the darkness of the lives of many of the characters, and that fact that the good guys often di...more
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James' dad reccomended this series and I was instantly hooked....you might think its channeling LOTR in the first 100 pages of book one, but keep reading and you will find it is definitely its own story and world!
I am eagerly waiting for his next one!
I am eagerly waiting for his next one!
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Read in July, 2008
Cheap mass-market edition with ugly font and crooked letters and irregular margins and this is only half a book and some of my favorite characters are missing and I cannot put this book DOWN . . .
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Read in November, 2008
This review is for the first four books in George R.R. Martin's "Song of Ice and Fire". It is written as a single review because the "Song of Ice and Fire" feels like a single story, rather then multiple books.
Pros:
1. The writing is excellent, Martin is able to make a person lose themselves in the story. His use of descriptions and phrases is great, coupled with his ability to describe both violence and sexual situations. Unlike many other authors, he doesn't hold back ...more
Pros:
1. The writing is excellent, Martin is able to make a person lose themselves in the story. His use of descriptions and phrases is great, coupled with his ability to describe both violence and sexual situations. Unlike many other authors, he doesn't hold back ...more
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bookshelves:
fantasy-thriller,
medieval-fantasy,
supernatural-thriller
recommends it for: fantasy lovers, medieval aficionados
Read in November, 2008
recommended to Sandy by:
Zoe Nathan, my daughterrecommends it for: fantasy lovers, medieval aficionados
I finished this book last night and am in severe withdrawal. I downloaded and read the chapter of the next book that's posted on Martin's website. Read it. I'm still grieving. I want to know how all those stories end. Martin creates characters which are utterly compelling. Some of them anyway. Others I have to force myself to go back to after skipping ahead to the stories I like.
The stories move forward inexorably, like history.
This is a flawed series: The books are too long and too comp...more
The stories move forward inexorably, like history.
This is a flawed series: The books are too long and too comp...more
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Read in September, 2008
recommends it for:
Any adult fan of fantasy fiction
The fourth in the Song of Ice and Fire was originally planned to be the last. After 5, yes FIVE YEARS, of writing, Mr. Martin decided to split the story into two concurrent pieces, and a third that would tie the two together.
The split leads to a somewhat unfulfilled ending to the book, as half of the story is still untold. However, this book works very well on it's own and is one of the better books in the series. The wars and fighting are largely over leaving the realm in a state of chao...more
The split leads to a somewhat unfulfilled ending to the book, as half of the story is still untold. However, this book works very well on it's own and is one of the better books in the series. The wars and fighting are largely over leaving the realm in a state of chao...more
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So this is just my overall review for the series so far.....Martin is bloody brilliant. This is one of the best fantasy series I've ever read.....he's not one of the guys trying to be the next Tolkien, he's doing his own thing. It's a bloody, ruthless, painful world he throws us into, but the characters are so strong and so dynamic that you will follow them to the bloody end (and there are quite a few bloody ends). He writes marvelous women, (YAY!), all very different but all very interesting...more
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A Feast for Crows is the fourth novel in the epic fantasy series A Song of Ice and Fire, and I've been waiting ages to get my grubby little paws on it. Although I finished the book in January, I haven't been able to write anything about it before now. I find it very hard to write about books I really like because of my tendency to gush unintelligibly about them, and I loveloveLOVE the A Song of Ice and Fire novels.
I've been trying to entice people into reading this series, and my efforts have ...more
I've been trying to entice people into reading this series, and my efforts have ...more

















