A Feast For Crows

This post was first published March 21, 2011.

Author: George R. R. Martin
Published: 2005
Publisher: Spectra
Series: A Song of Ice and Fire #4
976 pages (mass market paperback)
 
I finally got around to reading this fourth book in the Song of Ice and Fire series. I surprised myself by finishing it rather quickly compared to the previous (and longer) books, but actually I found this one less interesting than the first three. I’m not saying I didn’t like it; I’m just saying, in comparison to the others, it didn’t hold my interest as well, despite me practically speed reading through it.

In this book, the War of the Five Kings is more or less ending since most of the kings have died. The kings that are left are Stannis and Tommen. Stannis has offered his assistance to the Night’s Watch in the far north, taking himself out of the war if only temporarily. King Tommen, only eight years old, sits the Iron Throne at King’s Landing, but in reality, his mother Cersei, is the regent and is the true ruler. Cersei seems to be going on a downward spiral in this book: she has the makings of an alcholic, is overly paranoid about Queen Margaery, the little wife his son Tommen married to solidify an alliance between their families, and is promoting and getting rid of all the wrong men.

To me, Cersei’s story seemed like the ‘main plot’ of the story, but of course, there are always many characters in this series, and each character has their own story to tell too. My favourite/interesting characters: Jaime Lannister seems to have had a change of heart since the last book and is disgusted with his sister’s actions, as well as trying to regain his lost honor and become a trustworthy person again. Sansa is playing the part of Petyr Baelish’s bastard daughter as he arranges a way for the two of them to take both the Eyrie and Winterfell.

Arya has managed to travel across the narrow sea to the eastern continent and work in the Temple of Black and White (which according to the Wikipedia page on this book, is some sort of assassins’ temple. I didn’t realize my Arya may be becoming a little assassin! That would be cool … except, based on how her chapters ended, I’m not quite sure what’s going to happen to her now that she’s possibly, uh, disabled). Arya, as I’ve mentioned before, is my favourite character, but I’m becoming increasingly disappointed with how far away from the main plot/action she is becoming, and her chapters in this book weren’t the most interesting to be honest. Actually, I’m kind of sad Winterfell and the Stark family in general is so removed now. They were the first characters you encountered in the very first book, they were so honorable and good, I fell in love with the family and it’s just so sad that for the past two books, they’ve had such small parts (well, so it felt, to me. I guess that last point is always arguable).

Brienne, normally one of my favourite characters, was pretty boring in this book to me. All she did was wander around looking for Sansa. Her chapters did end up being a little more interesting when she ran into none other than the living corpse of Lady Catelynn!

There were some other characters, like Victarion Greyjoy and Samwell and whatnot, but frankly I wasn’t really interested in those chapters. I think it’s just that there’s already SO many characters in this series, my brain is turning itself off from new characters being introduced or something. I don’t know. If something really cool happens with his story and plot, my mind will probably change. I was kind of hoping for more Asha because I like kick-ass women in this story, but sadly she has apparently ran off after unsuccessfully becoming Queen of the Iron Isles.

A Feast For Crows is actually part one of a larger book. You see, the author was writing the 4th book of the series but it turned out to be so long that he had to split it into two books; the first one being A Feast For Crows, and the second will be A Dance For Dragons, which will be released this July! It is not split right in the middle of the story, but rather by characters. In this book, we had the perspectives of Cersei, Samwell, Arya, etc. but none from Tyrion, Daenerys, Jon Snow and a bunch of other people who I have grown to miss. I’m very excited for book five to find out what they were up to while the events of A Feast For Crows was going on.

Anyway, my feelings about this book are generally positive. I don’t know, for some reason, it just didn’t seem as exciting as the first three books, but I definitely do like it and I eagerly await book five!

My Rating: 4/5