Customer Reviews

A Feast for Crows: A Song of Ice and Fire: Book Four

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I finished it yesterday and was not disappointed. I was wary out of fear that Martin might be pulling a Jordan on us - you know, writing 1000 pages with no content, but this fear was unreasonable. Things happen in this book, oh yes. No huge battles but a lot of character developments, intrigues and murder AND you learn a lot of the history of Westeros in countless small anecdotes and stories from the characters, which I personally found very satisfying. Which brings me to my only complaint: it was too long. I understand Martin's reason to cut it in half but he should have taken one more character in to make the book bigger. It merely has 680 pages and - though it is great to read it - one is left with the feeling, that was all? I would also recommend reading Tino Georgiou's masterpiece--The Fates --if you haven't read it yet.

I was a bit put off by all the negative reviews of the work before I started reading it. With this in mind, I read it with a thought for the reviewer's eye. I can put the doubts to rest now. George R. R. Martin hasn't lost it. This book is as good as the rest of the series. No, the chapters on Brienne weren't boring. No, Cersi isn't going mad, as one reviewer claimed. She's flawed, which is quite different.

The story and the characters were both complex and interesting. The book did have the feel of being a bit short and incomplete, a mere 684 pages and divided in two at the last moment. 684 pages isn't short, you say? Well, it seemed short. The reason is that George R. R. Martin isn't telling a story about a character, which may easily falter and lose it's interest before one gets to six volumes. GRRM is telling a story about an entire world, and it's a great big fascinating world out there. The story is told by examining the lives of some of the people involved at critical times and places.

There was one complaint that the number of cliffhangers was excessive, and I do recall that one of them seemed especially contrived, bringing to mind a picture of tipping a barrel of monkeys over a vine-laden cliff resulting in "a lot of cliffhangers". I wonder if GRRM has visions of a T.V. series?

Characterization outpaces plot in this volume, but the tale was ready for more characterization and less plot. This would only be a flaw if things continued in this vien forever, and plot didn't take up the reins again at some point.

The story makes you think, and it makes you remember. I read a lot of fantasy, but most of it is forgettable. Not this series. The realism that is not present in most fantasy series is appealing. Medieval life, morals, and principles seem more accurately depicted in the world of Westeros. The willingness of the author to allow his characters to die is a startling change from the norm. This is due to the world view adopted in this series. With many fantasy novels you wonder "Will anyone ever die?", with the underlying thought that probably no one ever will, despite an un-ending list of perils to be faced. In this series you wonder "Will anyone live?" with the underlying thought that perhaps no one will.

A Feast For Crows was a darned fine bit of storytelling, and I'm glad the next one is almost written, since it won't be such a long wait. I'm looking forward to it. GRRM's writing pace is slow, but I won't complain about it when it continues to turn out a fine product.

Overall, I give this book 5 stars.

A for "Feast for Crows"

I enjoyed this novel as much as any other novel by GRRM. However, I say this with a caveat: it is not a complete novel. I fully trust GRRM to complete Dance of Dragons and and give us the missing half, but I do want to make my position clear on this book as a standalone. It was good. Here are my thoughts from a few years ago regarding the split.

Re: The Split
I didn't really mind the split between this book and "A Dance with Dragons", and while I found it frustrating to not hear about some characters that will only make me more anxious to read the next book. The plot moves well (for the characters that you do get to see). Really, I should be waiting till both books (this and Dance) are released to rate them, but I have to rate it something and since it's "A Song of Ice and Fire", it gets a 5. Note that I don't blindly rate it a five, but carefully consider before giving it a ranking.

As to readers that called this a "money grab" I'd point out that every book that is ever published is, in some way, "a money grab". It's up to you whether you buy the book or not. It was absolutely necessary to split the books into two copies, and although I'm disappointed the companion tale isn't around yet to fill in the blanks, I'm extremely happy with what he did in this book. The great characters are still there, the plot still moves forward, and the world continues to expand.

Saying that it isn't as good as the first three novels is not much of problem to worry about, considering the first three are some of the best fantasy novels ever written, if not THE best. GRRM may not be an incredibly fast writer, but his work is unbelievably well crafted.

Contrary to many readers of this series, I happened to become interested after the HBO series and we had all four paperbacks already at home. I had the pleasure of immersing myself in Westeros etc. for weeks. With no waiting between the next installment. Only problem with that is the slight repetition.

I was in love with this series till book 4. I'm an avid reader and a disciplined one, I never read the end before the end, and don't skip pages or paragraphs in spite of too much descriptive fill-in background. Well, I confess I broke my own rules and skipped and skipped and skipped, even moved forward to see which character was next and sometimes started reading those sections before I was through with the previous chapters.

I hear book 5 suffers from the same problems. I will still read it, but only because I am dying to hear about Bran, Rickon, Jon, Davos, Brienne, Sam, Daenerys and Arya.

These long series from authors which take 15 to 20 years to write always seem to suffer in the end. Writers are human beings after all, and nobody keeps the exact same skills over this kind of time span. It's a shame. I hope there in one and final book 6, Mr. Martin.

A Feast For Crows is most assuredly not wanting. Some people are confusing their personal favorite characters as the central plot axis. ALL the characters contribute to the plot. It is ludicrous to compare Martin with Jordan. A Feast For Crows has significant plot developments, they just don't fit the mundane fantasy norm, and have a high degree of subtlety and intelligence. Essentially, this book establishes the various religious factions which do not share the same boundaries as the political alliances. This is something not usually depicted in fantasy to any degree of sophistication.

The characters are not the srory, they are a part of the story. I think some readers have their romantic notions as to who should be doing what. Martin is not catering to that thought. He is redefining the archetypes of fantasy to be reflective of historical and contemporary political and human realities.

I too missed some favourite characters. This did not detract, however, from enjoying the overall story and the complex interplay manifesting from the seeds planted in the first book. A great read.

...and by that title I mean is GRRM giving in to the pressure of the money bags weighing him down? I understand he couldn't follow the brilliant ASOS with something better (He should leave that to authors like Steven Erikson anyway who can pull it off in spades), but it should have AT LEAST satisfied the masses of his fans who have waited upwards of about 5 years (which is FAR to long for it to have taken) for it. I say this KNOWING that he split it into two, and the following "A Dance With Dragons", will have the missing characters plotlines, but here's my BIGGEST issue with AFFC.It has WAY too much filler. Brienne does so very little with her time, that I may as well be watching days of our lives....and Cersei's chapters are WAY too many for what it is that she is doing in the book (her and Jaime monopolize the book), and the stuff in the Iron Islands could be taken care of in about 3 chapters, but instead the take FOREVER to tell me what I knew was going to happen after the first one and had me thinking "Get to the point!!". I mean, is it seriously going to take this long to wrap this story up? He didn't need to split the book up, he needed to chop out all the filler and he would have had it all down to enough but not too much. Instead, what we get is a book that is bloated because I guess he was caught between JUST too much and, once split he need to make it bigger....who knows.It's either that or he just wants to prolong it and make money hand over fist(ala Jordan), with the difference being that Jordan's books aren't good to begin with, and GRRM first 3 books are.

I say this, GRRM should take lessons from authors who haven't let it go to their heads and get the book OUT ON TIME, and for gods sakes someone who is COMPETENT should be editing this and not be afraid to tell his highness to cut the filler.

I'm not saying to avoid this book (Jaime and Samwell are still good chapters), but be warned, it is quite a boring read, and you get about 6 chapters of solid plot, and the other like 18 are filler, no lie.

I just can't get enough of these books. I was so sad when I finished. It was like closing a chapter of my life. I want more, MOOOOREE!

Rage Fan below has a valid point. This volume seems to lack some of the luster and appeal of its predecessors. But that's because it's telling only HALF the story. Of course, many of the plot threads we have so dearly and faithfully followed in the past are absent here. But this book focuses on continuity, which I think is essential and effective. I think George made the right decision here. For a story of such epic proportions, it's easy to lose focus, and you risk this very thing if you try to deal with every single plot thread at once. But this book can clearly stand alone as a solid piece of work.

Let's face it, even though this Act deals with the less 'glamourous' players in the 'game', this writing is still as flowing and as rich as ever. It's just beautiful storytelling. And the fact that I know that the next Act will be even MORE engrossing, it just makes me thirst for MORE AND MORE!!!

But Rage Fan, how dare you compare him to Jordan! ;) Because there's simply no comparison. Martin is just 'In The Zone', and he does it all for a purpose, for a reason.. And a good story deserves to be told - no matter how long in the telling. If that telling is craftily done, then who cares how long it takes! All that I ask is: if it does end, let it end well and on terms we can all live with...

Kudos to George!

Having now read the first 3 books of a Song of Ice and Fire (actually 4 - the UK publishers split the paperback of A Storm of Swords into two books. However, I forgive them because they've commissioned very classy cover art for the series, much superior to the North American books) half a dozen times, I was well ready for the next installment and have been prompted to write this review in defence of what still is the best read in fantasy, bar none. 3 and a half stars? Are you kidding me? Just because it took him a while to write? This book is anything but dull; sure, it's half a book, but give me half a book of this series over any other fantasy writer's work any day. Martin still packs plenty of action in, cliff-hangers a-plenty, all the characters you love to hate and absolutely brilliant dialogue: Brienne's deadly encounter with three thugs sticks in my mind, an incredibly sinister series of threats delivered with brutal gallows humour, hilarious and heart-stopping all at once. It should suffice to say: if you've read the previous books, rest assured that you'll finish this one just as eager for the continuation of the series as you were at the end of Storm of Swords. Don't listen to the uncharitable words of the impatient.
Incidentally, I will be interested to see what happens at the end of the series when the publishers re-release the entire saga as a lushly-bound collection of hardbacks (I'll buy 'em); will AFFC and DWD be reshuffled into one monster volume?

I was very pleased to find, that after all these years of waiting, the characters and the setting still have the same feel. I was afraid that the vision of the story had changed or that Martin had lost interest and that the series would flounder. That just doesn't seem to be the case.

The writing is top notch. This book continues with the same tight prose full of excellent dialogue and characters with real personalities and motivations. However it moves slowly and has limited plot and/or character development. There's also the knowledge that this is just the first volume of the two that will cover the same timeline. The effect is that reading it feels like a chore at times - something you have to do in order to get to the real story.

Deffinately the low point in the series - though the low point in this series is still far and away higher than the high point in most.