A Feast for Crows, by George R.R. Martin
A Feast for Crows, by George R.R. Martin
Book 4 - A Song of Ice and Fire series
Reviewed by Ciara
A Feast For Crows focuses very strongly on King’s Landing, the Iron Islands and Dorne, so straight off, it may not be to everyone’s taste.
Fans of Tyrion Lannister, Jon Snow and Danerys Targaryen will notice their absence from this book (even Arya only gets five chapters and a guest appearance in someone else’s chapter).
As Martin explains in a chapter entitled “Meanwhile, back on the wall…” he did write the narratives for these characters, but including them would make the book too long. So, instead of cutting out aspects of their stories to allow it all into one book, he decided to concentrate on King’s Landing and the characters there, and deal with the others in the fifth book, A Dance With Dragons.
Despite the absence of Dany and Tyrion, their presence is still felt throughout the book. Rumours of a beautiful queen with a three-headed dragon reach Westeros through chatty sailors, and everyone in the realm is searching for Tyrion.
It was expected, I guess, that the sheer breadth of Martin’s writing would eventually prove unwieldly, and though this book is brilliant in its own right, the absence of some of the series’ most compelling characters weakens it somewhat when compared to others in the series. It’s worth bearing in mind though, that it’s weak compared to some of the best books in the world ever, so it’s still pretty damn good.
This book is narrated by about a dozen characters, and a one-off prologue at the beginning by a minor character. Martin writes in the third person, but in such a way that each chapter feels as though it’s written in the first person.
There are ten story threads running through this book (and to think how many there would have been if Martin hadn’t edited massively). The viewpoints of new characters help set the post-war scene, which Martin presents as negative and chaotic for everyone, whether they won or lost the war.
Other characters undergo some nice changes. Cersei gets all the best scenes in this book, as she struggles to hold on to the power she craved so desperately. Sansa is a lot less whiny and annoying, and though I’m still not as excited to see her name at the start of the chapter as I am when I see Dany or Tyrion, she is definitely beginning to hold her own.
Jaime Lannister replaces Tyrion as the sarcastic, cynical character, but not to the same extent. His character is fascinating in this book though, and all the underlying faults and attributes that have been hinted at throughout the series finally come to the fore and he become a lot more than just the Kingslayer.
The scenes which are set in Dorne have a slightly pointless feel to them. I never really took to the characters there, and they seemed to serve no purpose other than setting the scene for future stories.
The most interesting new character has to be Asha Greyjoy, who is determined to become the first queen of the Iron Islands, making her somewhat similar to Dany, but again, we don’t see much of her.
This book is a lot less viscerally violent than previous books. There is no Red Wedding, or Battle of the Blackwater in this book. This book is more focused on the political machinations of war and its aftermath than on the actual violence.
In summary; an amazing continuation of an amazing fantasy series, made somewhat weaker by the absence of the best characters. But that just makes me want the next book all the more.
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