A Feast for Crows

Summary (from the publisher): With A Feast for Crows, Martin delivers the long-awaited fourth volume of the landmark series that has redefined imaginative fiction and stands as a modern masterpiece in the making.

After centuries of bitter strife, the seven powers dividing the land have beaten one another into an uneasy truce. But it's not long before the survivors, outlaws, renegades, and carrion eaters of the Seven Kingdoms gather. Now, as the human crows assemble over a banquet of ashes, daring new plots and dangerous new alliances are formed while surprising faces—some familiar, others only just appearing—emerge from an ominous twilight of past struggles and chaos to take up the challenges of the terrible times ahead. Nobles and commoners, soldiers and sorcerers, assassins and sages, are coming together to stake their fortunes...and their lives. For at a feast for crows, many are the guests—but only a few are the survivors.

Review: "Before he had lost his sight, the maester had loved books as much as Samwell Tarly did. He understood the way that you could sometimes fall right into them, as if each page was a hole into another world" (72). If any book lets the reader fall into another world, its the one George R. R. Martin has created in his Game of Thrones series.

A Feast for Crows is the fourth installment of the A Song of Ice and Fire series. It continues the story of the Seven Kingdoms and the fight for power for the Iron Throne. However, due to the complexity of these thousand pound tomes, and the risk of plot spoilers, I won't delve much into the plot developments in this novel.

It seems as if the greatest complaint with this installment is that it completely ignores several cliffhangers from book three. Martin explains this in the conclusion by saying he wrote too much and had to winnow this book down to only concerning characters around King's Landing and that the next volume will contain reference to more of what's happening at the wall and beyond the sea. However, it's still disappointing, especially since it seems as if for many readers, myself included, many favorite characters include Jon Snow, Daenerys Targaryen, and Tyrion Lannister, none of whom are seen in this. Perhaps that means book five will be really enjoyable though.

As anyone who has read Martin knows, he spares none of his characters. While he has plenty to spare, and takes the opportunity to kill many off,  he also has the future of seven kingdoms to unfold for his readers. As in previous volumes, this book is composed of a multitude of perspectives. In this novel, 13 alternative points of view are used to give the reader an inside look at different families and regions of the kingdoms. However, since Martin has killed many prominent characters off, he is now venturing into kingdoms that were previously only mentioned. Most notably are the Martells in Dorne and the Greyjoys - my only memory of the Martells in previous books was of Myrcella Baratheon, who is bethrothed to Prince Trystane of House Martell, although its more than possible I'm forgetting other references. This large investment of time in this volume to introducing more whole kingdoms of characters was difficult to follow at times. However, the majority of the focus of the book is still on characters we've known and loved and hated from book one. The greatest number of chapters are devoted to Cersei Lannister and Brienne of Tarth, however, Jaime Lannister and Samwell Tarly also have a great deal of time devoted to them.

I think the thing I love about these books is the rich sense of history Martin has been able to create around an entirely fictional world. There's great depth and breadth in his imaginings. There's history beyond and before what the reader sees. "The castle had been triangular, with square towers at each corner. Its gates were badly rotted" (290). And, "a passage to the black cells had been found, and a stone well that seemed to have no bottom. They had found a chamber full of skulls and yellowed bones, and four sacks of tarnished silver coins from the reign of the first King Viserys" (174).  It also seems like a historical story we've never heard, but yet seems familiar. Like the uncanny similarity between the real life Anne Boleyn's orchestrated downfall, and Cersei's plotting to bring down Margaery, "By dawn the singer's high blue boots were full of blood, and he had told them how Margaery would fondle herself as she watched her cousins pleasuring him with their mouths. At other times he would sing for her whilst she sated her lusts with other lovers" (581).

I can only wonder where Martin intends to lead the story. Many of the characters (the ones that still survive) are weary and haggard. In the aftermath of war, corpses and orphans are plentiful. Many question the world they now live in; they ask, "How much can a crown be worth, when a crow can dine upon a king?" (123). They yearn for an end to strife, and victory for their own house. "I am tempted to say this is no game we play, daughter, but of course it is. The game of thrones.' I never asked to play. The game was too dangerous. One slip and I am dead" (157).

Stars: 5

Previous Reviews of the Series: Book 1, Book 2, Book 3