A Feast for Crows

This is, hands down, my least favourite book in the series. It is a tedious read with my favourite characters Dany, Jon and Tyrion nowhere to be found, in a plot that meanders and doesn't accomplish much. 

The previous book A Storm of Swords, left off with a shocking cliff hanger that veers from the popular TV show and yet, A Feast for Crows doesn't mention it until the final pages but its mention is so brief and not even close to being satisfying. Instead, the story centres around dull tertiary characters - the stragglers, the 'do we need to know this guy?' characters who will probably never been seen again and they are in situations that aren't remotely important to the overall plot. 

It's just a confusing and tiresome melee for 1000 pages. We still have Cersei but she's the same old bitter, power hungry wanna-be queen and then there's Brienne who wanders the forest, encountering a variety of well-described corpses in search of Sansa. Arya is also there with a lackluster story line, but she's called various names to add to the confusion. That's the extent of the Stark family. A fair bit of page time is devoted to the Greyjoys and Martells (including Arianne who came out of nowhere forcing me to Google her because I had no idea who she was). They're not a riveting bunch.

This book lacks focus and is inundated with digressions from the main plots. I ended up skimming the majority of the second half out of frustration and because I just wanted to be done. I wouldn't have finished this book except that one of my son's bought me the series last year for Christmas, so I set myself a goal to read the entire series in 2020. This is one of those books where the TV series (which doesn't follow this book) is better than the book. Ya, I can't believe I said that either. 

One more book to go. I hear that it's really good so with fingers crossed, I desperately hope that Martin finds his plot and brings back the interesting characters in the final (so far) book in this popular Fantasy series.

My Rating: 1.5 stars

Author: George R.R Martin

Genre: Fantasy

Series: #4 in the A Song of Ice and Fire series (aka Game of Thrones)

Pages: 1060

Publisher: Bantam Books

First Published: October 17, 2020

Opening Lines: "Dragons," said MOllander. He snatched a withered 

apple off the ground and tossed it hand to hand.

Book Description from GoodReads: 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.