A Feast for Crows by George RR Martin

January 30, 2015     erinbook     Book review

A Feast for Crows (A Song of Ice and Fire #4) by George RR Martin 


Release Date: October 17, 2005
Publisher: Spectra Books
753 Pages
Received: Gifted
Format: Hardcover


Rating: 

4 Nuts
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Description: With A Feast for Crows, Martin delivers the long-awaited fourth volume of the landmark series that has redefined imaginative fiction and stands as a modern masterpiece in the making.
After centuries of bitter strife, the seven powers dividing the land have beaten one another into an uneasy truce. But it’s not long before the survivors, outlaws, renegades, and carrion eaters of the Seven Kingdoms gather. Now, as the human crows assemble over a banquet of ashes, daring new plots and dangerous new alliances are formed while surprising faces—some familiar, others only just appearing—emerge from an ominous twilight of past struggles and chaos to take up the challenges of the terrible times ahead. Nobles and commoners, soldiers and sorcerers, assassins and sages, are coming together to stake their fortunes…and their lives. For at a feast for crows, many are the guests—but only a few are the survivors.
Review: I’m kind of obsessed with this series, and I have been since before I’d ever watched the TV show. George RR Martin’s writing is so detailed and reminds me a great deal of my favorite author of all time: JRR Tolkien himself. But this book seems to be people’s least favorite book in the series, and while I can understand why I don’t really think it’s as bad as everyone says.
Here’s the thing, this book is the followup to the best book of the series so far. A Storm of Sword has by far the most going on. It’s the most brutal and two very major plot twists happen within its pages. So I’m sure people were expecting him to raise the bar with A Feast for Crows. When that didn’t happen, they were very disappointed. It also spends a lot of time with the character of Samwell, who I find to be kind of boring, and Brienne who does a lot of wandering around throughout the book. Are those bits particularly engaging? No. Do they ruin the book? I don’t think so, and I believe we will find that some important information was revealed in those chapters.
This is the book where Martin splits up his characters. Many people were unhappy that their favorite characters (like Tyrion) weren’t in it. By this point Martin has a lot of characters to deal with. The book was actually originally much too long so he had to split it into two. Rather than just split the book right in half as it was he divided it geographically. The characters in Westeros make up Feast for Crows while the characters elsewhere had to be moved to the next book. I actually kind of like this way of doing it, it makes it much easier to keep track of everybody, at least I think so. While I missed Tyrion and Dany, Cersei’s chapters certainly made up for anything I was missing. Boy, that woman is a loon.
For the first time this book actually made me enjoy reading about Sansa. I really couldn’t stand the character for the first three books but now that she is starting to use her head she has become much more likable. I’m also getting very attached to Jaime, he’s really a good guy when Cersei isn’t around. And Cersei herself is probably the most entertaining character in the book. She’s nuts and you know her elaborate plans are eventually going to be her downfall.
I’m definitely looking forward to the next book in the series, which is a monster! I certainly hope Martin brings out books 6 and 7 soon so I don’t have long to wait after A Dance with Dragons!
What do you think of this book/series? Share your thoughts in the comments.
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