A Feast for Crows....what the hell?

I'm halfway through it, and it's boring me to tears. Honestly, what was Martin thinking when he decided to write about the majority of boring as hell characters as such Brienne and Sam that are so pointless. It's such a bore to read.

I'm thinking of skipping straight to A Dance of Dragons and reading a summary online. Would you recommend this?

That's pretty much Martin's big problem. He should have focused on the good characters. There is really no excuse for books overlapping like this.

For all the attention Martin gets for killing characters he always ends up creating 5 new ones for every one he kills.

For all the attention Martin gets for killing characters he always ends up creating 5 new ones for every one he kills.

Storm_Marine

Found it hilarious how basically nothing happened until the last couple of chapters. A bunch of filler plot and then bam the end hits. Turned me off of reading the next in the series (considering its not in paperback and costs more). Pittfan666

A Feast for Crows was imo, a chore to read. As it's been said earlier, too many POV characters, overly long chapters, not enough plot moving events. I don't know if I'll even pick up the next one.

At least the HBO series is doing pretty well so far.

A Feast for Crows was imo, a chore to read. As it's been said earlier, too many POV characters, overly long chapters, not enough plot moving events. I don't know if I'll even pick up the next one.

At least the HBO series is doing pretty well so far.

xerxes5678

That's why I stick with Tolkien for my fantasy books

[QUOTE="Pittfan666"]Found it hilarious how basically nothing happened until the last couple of chapters. A bunch of filler plot and then bam the end hits. Turned me off of reading the next in the series (considering its not in paperback and costs more). ShadowsDemon

I really hate the amount of new characters he chucks in and just blanks off others for a long time. Even if he made the plot progression snappier it would still be too many characters to focus on, but with George you don't get anywhere.

I get the feeling he wants people to get truly immersed in a realistic fantasy world where - like real life - you do have times where little happens, instead of a rushed plot, more like a slow-paced immersive intrigue.

[QUOTE="xerxes5678"]

A Feast for Crows was imo, a chore to read. As it's been said earlier, too many POV characters, overly long chapters, not enough plot moving events. I don't know if I'll even pick up the next one.

At least the HBO series is doing pretty well so far.

ShadowsDemon

They might not. I think I heard that A Storm of Swords was being split into two seasons (not sure where). If that book warranted a split, I'm pretty sure AFFC would get the same treatment as well.

[QUOTE="ShadowsDemon"][QUOTE="Pittfan666"]Found it hilarious how basically nothing happened until the last couple of chapters. A bunch of filler plot and then bam the end hits. Turned me off of reading the next in the series (considering its not in paperback and costs more). Pittfan666

[QUOTE="ShadowsDemon"][QUOTE="xerxes5678"]

A Feast for Crows was imo, a chore to read. As it's been said earlier, too many POV characters, overly long chapters, not enough plot moving events. I don't know if I'll even pick up the next one.

At least the HBO series is doing pretty well so far.

xerxes5678

They might not. I think I heard that A Storm of Swords was being split into two seasons (not sure where). If that book warranted a split, I'm pretty sure AFFC would get the same treatment as well.

Yea, it's not great but try to finish it.

That's why I stick with Tolkien for my fantasy books

brucewayne69

That's why I stick with Tolkien for my fantasy books

brucewayne69

Yeah, definitely the weakest book of the series so far. I still suggest you get through it as it has some key story elements you don't wanna miss. Dance with Dragons will get you interested again though :).

i think a lot of the point of view characters in crows are interesting. it's just that most of them don't come off as important for the story. i mean, [spoiler] brienne is a great character, but the decision to follow her as she searches for arya felt pointless when arya is herself another point of view character and well beyond the scope of her search. and then we still aren't sure about the consequences of her quest even after the twist at the end. [/spoiler] still, it's a great world to be in regardless of how martin moves the plot along, so that alone makes crows worth reading. plus, there's no way some of those chapters aren't setting up big events for books 6 and 7.LoG-Sacrament

[QUOTE="brucewayne69"]

That's why I stick with Tolkien for my fantasy books

svenus97

[QUOTE="LoG-Sacrament"]i think a lot of the point of view characters in crows are interesting. it's just that most of them don't come off as important for the story. i mean, [spoiler] brienne is a great character, but the decision to follow her as she searches for arya felt pointless when arya is herself another point of view character and well beyond the scope of her search. and then we still aren't sure about the consequences of her quest even after the twist at the end. [/spoiler] still, it's a great world to be in regardless of how martin moves the plot along, so that alone makes crows worth reading. plus, there's no way some of those chapters aren't setting up big events for books 6 and 7.ShadowsDemon

[QUOTE="ShadowsDemon"][QUOTE="LoG-Sacrament"]i think a lot of the point of view characters in crows are interesting. it's just that most of them don't come off as important for the story. i mean, [spoiler] brienne is a great character, but the decision to follow her as she searches for arya felt pointless when arya is herself another point of view character and well beyond the scope of her search. and then we still aren't sure about the consequences of her quest even after the twist at the end. [/spoiler] still, it's a great world to be in regardless of how martin moves the plot along, so that alone makes crows worth reading. plus, there's no way some of those chapters aren't setting up big events for books 6 and 7.LoG-Sacrament

Am I the only one that thought A Feast For Crows was the second best book behind A Storm of Swords? The whole series is fantastic either way, I can't really understand the hatred for the last two books. dragonball3900

You're a fool who has been spoiled by the greatness of Storm of Swords and Game of Thrones. Feast of Crows is an amazing novel if you are actually interested in Martin's world, instead of "whose the next big character that will be killed off" mentality that a lot of readers have. Also you will have no idea wtf is going on in Kings Landing if you skip to Dance.

[QUOTE="ShadowsDemon"][QUOTE="stanleycup98"]It's probably the weakest book in the series IMO. ADWD has some of the same issues, but the good characters are back. I think Martin needs to learn how to condense his writing. He wouldn't have had to split his writing into the two books if he hadn't written so much boring crap. AFFC get's pretty good near the end. The thing with AFFC is that it is boring until then end, and then the end happens and you get the excitement again that you had in previous books. Also, there are a TON of subtle things that you probably never picked up on when you first read through the book that could have made the reading more exciting. Like the Hound, the identity of the alchemist in the prologue, etc.stanleycup98

"Useless information you don't really caer about" Many people care about that info just saying. The longer the book the better. You would probably prefer some 200 page cookie cutter fantasy which is what most of them look like now adays.

A Feast for Crows wasn't my favorite but I still enjoyed it (no Tryion or Jon :cry: ) Some of the characters introduced here aren't bad. Weak point in the series but still a good read.

AFFC was pretty damn horrible, I'm surprised I stuck with it. You'd be fine skipping to the last few chapters where it gets good.

Don't skip on ADWD though, I absolutely loved that book.

I'm pretty sure Feast for Crows and DWD were meant to be one book but it would have been far too long so it was split in two. I never really got why people dislike it so much. I enjoyed it.

You're a fool who has been spoiled by the greatness of Storm of Swords and Game of Thrones. Feast of Crows is an amazing novel if you are actually interested in Martin's world, instead of "whose the next big character that will be killed off" mentality that a lot of readers have. Also you will have no idea wtf is going on in Kings Landing if you skip to Dance.

Smatmat

I read all the books back to back and when I got to FFC, I almost stalled. Even though it took me quite a bit longer, I felt it was worth it in the end. About 2/3rds of DwD takes place over the same course of time and its really cool to see how some of the stories interact indirectly.... I must say I thought DwD was a huge improvement. It wasnt SoS good (not much is), but still improved. It seems like what may be FFCs biggest problem is that it had to follow SoS. wolverine4262

Once the storylines in ADWD picked up, it got really good. Yeah, not ASOS level, but pretty close. Honestly the thing that I am getting upset with in this series is... Spoilers all books: [spoiler] All the coming back from the dead. One of the main reasons many consider ASOS to be so good is the shock from when Robb died. There was other good parts, like the Mountain/Red Viper fight, Tywin's death, Tyrion's escape, etc., but the shock from Robb dying is biggest part of the book. But after that, it seemed like GRRM didn't want to kill any more characters off. He leads up to their deaths, makes it seems like they are going to die, ends the chapter with them fading out or something, and then they suddenly appear. Brienne? Not dead! Asha? Not dead! Catelyn? Not dead! There are plenty of other examples. He just isn't killing off characters anymore. So then we get to what, in my opinion, was supposed to be the most emotional part of ADWD - Jon's "death". It had been foreshadowed quite a bit, by Melisandre and by the prologue. But the moment came sudden, when it wasn't expected, very similar to Robb's death. Yet, I didn't give a ****. With all the "resurrection" that's been happening, and considering Jon is probably the biggest and favorite character left in the series for many, I know he isn't actually dead. I know he will be back. I don't know how, and I can speculate, but he will be back. If you go read fan forums, the discussion doesn't revolve around if he is dead, it revolves around how he will come back. GRRM has kind of dug himself into a hole. He can't really kill the big characters at this stage, but he wants to put their lives in jeopardy. But it's like when you are watching a movie with a single main character and their life if thrown into jeopardy 30 minutes in. Like, you know they aren't going to die, there are still 2 hours left. So why bother caring? [/spoiler] stanleycup98

[spoiler] I'm pretty sure one of the prophecies with Jon was he would die, live as his direwolf, then be reborn as AA [/spoiler]