A Feast for Crows is the fourth
book in George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series that takes a breather
from the carnage inflicted on Westeros in the preceding novels, introducing new
points of view (PoV) and setting a tighter focus on the politics and dynastic
intrigues of the Iron Throne and those who seek to acquire or retain its power
over others. Released in 2005, it has
received mixed reviews for its languid narrative and minimal pacing. Having
listened to this on audio book, I have to concur that I took away little
enjoyment from this novel as I had in the first three and was relieved when I
finished it.
The biggest detriment to this novel is that its intended and extant structure hinders that of the overall narrative structure. Martin originally intended to transition AFFC with a 5 year
gap after ASoS. Given the elements of Westerosi politics, the Essos infighting
and supernatural threats looming this would necessitate a significant amount of
filler or flashbacks to cover events that occurred over that time in order for
the intended present situation to make sense to readers (i.e. the Stark
children would be older). Due to the sheer volume of PoVs involved it demanded
more and more span to be devoted to covering what has transpired with these
characters, thus making the inclusion of flashbacks a tedious effort, with
little gain. Frustrated by this, Martin scrapped 18 months of writing to set a new
course by dividing the book into two books: with AFFC covering only those
events transpiring in southern Westeros while A Dance of Dragons would continue
in parallel to canvass the events in Essos and the North; as is well known now,
this would prove just as fraught with problems for the narrative and to the
dismay of readers. This would also bring the series to a total of seven novels.
With the omitted chapters of
fan-favourites such as Tyrion, Jon Snow, and Daenerys Targaryen, AFFC continues
its PoVs on Sam Tarly, Sansa, Jaime, Brienne, Arya, with new major ones added
(Cersei) and a number of random ones interspersed to cover events occurring in
the Iron Islands and Dorne. The novel lacks much of the intensity and magic of
the previous novel with a rather slow pace focused on the political manoeuvring
and scheming of the remaining noble Houses, which foreshadows the eventual
collapse of the incumbent regime and presents a dire situation should Daenerys’
invade (whom no one takes seriously). The
repeated listing of innumerable characters, food and clothing continues unabated,
and glossing over them (or ignoring in the case of the audio) hasn’t diminished
my enjoyment or comprehension of the events transpiring in the story so far.
A Feast of Crows does have some interesting
sections but overall leaves much to be desired given the epic backdrop of the
last three novels. Cersei’s chapters in particular attempted to portray a naive,
spoilt, paranoid noblewoman attempting to hold onto power while it slips from
her hands, but instead its execution only portrayed an amateurish caricature
with stilted dialogue, and only served to make me despise her more (perhaps the
intention). IMO, it feels more like a distraction, a side story that goes on
and on but never actually contributes much and it is only with Dance with Dragons
that I began to enjoy the series again.
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