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A review by tiasmith
A Feast for Crows by George R.R. Martin
3.0
For the fourth part in the A Song of Ice and Fire series, Martin split the story in two: A Feast for Crows follows the war at King's Landing and A Dance with Dragons, covers everyone else. This seems to be fans' biggest complaint, but I appreciated the decision. While A Feast for Crows doesn't have the action of the previous three books, it does have the intrigue, such as a closer view of Littlefinger's plots, first-hand accounts from Cersei, and Jaime's struggle to atone. We also get a better understanding of how the war is affecting Westeros and a foreshadowing of how this could incite an uprising controlled by the Faith of the Seven.
It's also nice to have made it through an entire book without being deceived about a character's death or re-reading an action sequence because I can't follow what's happening.
I wouldn't call Martin's prose superb, but his characters are wonderful. There are the expected favorites - Arya and Tyrian, for example - who began the story with more depth than others, and there are those who've grown over the course of the story. For a man that was introduced to us by pushing an eight-year-old boy out of a tower window, Jaime has joined the ranks of my favorite characters as he battles his fate as Kingslayer. Sam began as a fat coward exiled by his lord father, and now he's Sam the Slayer, killer of undead. Even Sansa and Bran, who whined their way through the first few books, have become necessary - not because they were forced on us but because of the roads they've taken.
The characters make these books, and I think that's why I see so many readers complaining in their reviews. We have a sincere connection to them, and, when something goes awry or we don't hear from them in a while, we get upset. Along these lines, if new characters are forced on us instead of those we've been with, which is my biggest complaint, we're not interested and easily become distracted. I can't say I agree that the fourth book in a series is a good place to introduce characters from two families that have barely been mentioned elsewise. I read the Dorne and Kraken chapters, but a few lines during one of Cersei's small-council meetings would have been enough. Unless those characters are going to develop in the same manner as Stark and Co., they were an unnecessary 300 pages.
It's also nice to have made it through an entire book without being deceived about a character's death or re-reading an action sequence because I can't follow what's happening.
I wouldn't call Martin's prose superb, but his characters are wonderful. There are the expected favorites - Arya and Tyrian, for example - who began the story with more depth than others, and there are those who've grown over the course of the story. For a man that was introduced to us by pushing an eight-year-old boy out of a tower window, Jaime has joined the ranks of my favorite characters as he battles his fate as Kingslayer. Sam began as a fat coward exiled by his lord father, and now he's Sam the Slayer, killer of undead. Even Sansa and Bran, who whined their way through the first few books, have become necessary - not because they were forced on us but because of the roads they've taken.
The characters make these books, and I think that's why I see so many readers complaining in their reviews. We have a sincere connection to them, and, when something goes awry or we don't hear from them in a while, we get upset. Along these lines, if new characters are forced on us instead of those we've been with, which is my biggest complaint, we're not interested and easily become distracted. I can't say I agree that the fourth book in a series is a good place to introduce characters from two families that have barely been mentioned elsewise. I read the Dorne and Kraken chapters, but a few lines during one of Cersei's small-council meetings would have been enough. Unless those characters are going to develop in the same manner as Stark and Co., they were an unnecessary 300 pages.