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43 of 47 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
A big wobble (possible spoilers), 30 May 2007
First, let me say that I will be sticking with the series and I have not written off forthcoming instalments based on my opinion of this book.
A Feast for Crows is an extremely frustrating book. Martin has taken the very dubious step of ditching half of the characters and leaving their stories for A Dance With Dragons. This results in a constant, nagging feeling that you really are missing out on half of the plot and that the story would benefit enormously from the perspectives of those characters that have been put on the back burner.
The plot is supposed to be charting the mess left after the various conflicts of the previous books but instead is itself just a tangled mess as the author, trapped in his character per chapter format, is forced to chop backwards and forwards too often between a silly number of threads and in doing so loses the overall continuity of the story.
Sadly, there is the real possibility that Martin has overreached himself and is struggling badly to stay on top of the various sub-plots he has created. I really hope that he quickly consolidates the multitudinous threads in the next book so that the climax has the time to play out properly in the final two volumes. It does not bode well that Martin admits that the writing for A Dance With Dragons is not proceeding quite as he had hoped!
One more thing to get off my chest - I am becoming extremely weary of Martin's love of inflicting cruelty on his key characters. Occasionally it is good for the story (Jaime's hand for instance) but the rest of the time is pretty pointless. Still, it seems Martin will not be happy unless he has killed or horribly maimed all his characters by the conclusion of the series.
Overall this book puts me in mind of a car stuck in a muddy field, frantically spinning it's wheels and beeping it's horn but not actually getting anywhere. I can only hope that Martin rediscovers some of the direction that made the first few books of the series enjoyable.
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19 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
worth waiting for, 14 Dec 2006
Alright, if you've not read any of this series before, then stop right here and go and get a game of thrones first. That was the first in four [well, five really] books that tell the increasingly long story of a war in a fantasy kingdom, and the struggle to see who emerges king.
These are superb novels, ever so well written and bursting with detail and compelling characters and they really command your attention. It's just a shame that the writer couldn't have waited till he'd got them all written before publishing any! I read the first one in 1997, the second in 1999, and book three was so large that it came out in two halves, and I read the first in 2001 and the second in 2002.
So by the time I got onto this one, it was four years since I'd last visited this world. And whilst half the cast of characters are missing and we won't see them again till the next volume [which is in essence book four and a half. Confused? You will be!] That wasn't really a problem because I couldn't remember all of themm anyway! And tyrion's absence is actually rather clever because he's on the run for all of this book, so you spend all your time trying to work out where he might be, and that's effective.
So after four years away from this world, would I be able to get back into it?
Absolutely! It was incredibly compelling, and a really good read. And I really want to know what will happen next! Brienne became a very interesting character and her storyline ends on a cliffhanger. So how many years am I going to have to wait to find out what happens to her?
An excellent read. Just don't make me wait too long for the next one!
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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Much ado about nothing, 8 May 2006
Having finally got round to picking up this book - and its predecessors - from my stacked shelves, I have read the whole series back to back in a short space of time. So perhaps my perspective is rather different to those who have waited for years for this book, only to have been disappointed at its lack of zing that the earlier titles had.
In my view the book is of a different pace to the others, its slower, it spends much more time on characters who arent doing a great deal, and has a lot more sedate plot revelation too.
Which if you squint probably says, its much ado about nothing. However, it does give you nice characterisations of the various people in the world, it shows you how they are thinking, the choices they are making, and you can slowly see why things are working out the way they are, because those people are the way they are. This book is certainly more about a character driven story than an event driven story - its balance is subtly different to the earlier books.
Taken on its own I think the book would be rather dry and probably boring. However its not on its own, and you know the landscape and the characters well from the other books, and as such its a more intimate glimpse into what makes them tick, and the trials and inner demons they face, and so, I think if you really like the world and characters present in this series, this book is a good, albeit differently paced, addition to the set.
For me personally I love the detail of the politics and interplay between characters, its so rarely done in fantasy books, which often just wheel out archetypes doing and saying the same old mush in a new set of clothes within a background of oddly drawn maps inside the front cover.
Hoorah for no "real" knights, and the assassin that goes bump in the night.
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by George R.R. Martin
by George R.R. Martin
by George R.R. Martin
by George R.R. Martin
