This book is quite boring....

[Lord Ravenstark]

I really liked AFFC. The pace was well-kept (unlike the next book where three characters, specially Jon, will have more than ten chapters... some of them so boring that the only explanation is "People stay blissful when the chapter is entitled with character. So lets put a dozen. Or more." There's five or six chapters that could be condensed reduced numbers), the subtle plotting requires attemption, some characters are well developed (others are undeveloped, though).

[jaimereborn]

Definitely the best book in the series for me.

There's just such a consistent tone of aftermath, melancholy and quiet suspense. The new characters are fascinating, the amount of depth, detail and worldbuilding that builds a greater picture and gives heavy foreshadowing for future events is just so brilliantly written. It feels hugely rich and gives really rewarding re-reads, far more so than the first three books.

I may be biased because Jon and Tyrion are my least favourite characters so I didn't miss them at all (and when we came back to Tyrion in ADWD I found many of his later chapters a real struggle to enjoy), but this book for me is by far the most complex and the greatest piece of writing that GRRM has produced.

[Elessar]

My favorite book in the series, by a large margin.

[Jez Targaryen]

I was apprehensive before I started Feast for Crows because of all the negative reviews out there. But actually I really enjoyed it. Maybe it helped that I knew going in that it is not as action packed as Storm of Swords or Clash of Kings.

I've seen many people saying that certain POVs were cut, or that the book should be just plain shorter (or even that FFC and DWD should be skipped altogether). I couldn't disagree more. Personally, I enjoyed all of the POVs, loved the closer glimpse of Dorne and the Iron Islands. Love seeing the evolution of Sansa and Arya, viewing the wreckage of the Riverlands through Brienne's eyes (which I think is the purpose for giving so much attention to her quest), the growing estrangement between Cersei and Jamie, seeing more of Littlefinger's plan unveiled, Sam trying to make it to Oldtown. There is so much good stuff here. I also really don't understand how strongly some readers seem to dislike Martin playing with the chapter titles... I mean, you look at it for maybe 5 seconds at the most -- who cares!

Anyway, I enjoy this world of Westeros so much that I love stretching the story out as much as possible. I don't want Martin to just jump from one battle to the next.

[ummester]

I'm half way through and I'm quite enjoying it. Probably because I haven't already seen most of this book in the show.

I like the new POVs. I like Arriane - she may be my favourite female character in ASoIaF. Sexy, smart, reasonably morally aligned and quite a player.

Also, Arya is far more interesting in this book than she has been for ages.

Cersie is funny. The Iron islanders are interesting. Brienne is a bit boring.

[kirt]

I've recently finished this book and I really enjoyed it, but the ending disappointed me. I liked that the book was more character-driven as I always considered the creation of characters the strongest advantage of this series. The point is, GRRM promised me I'd be better served if he divided the books geographically (I agree, I've kept doing it myself since somewhat like the half of AGOT, reading main plot first, then Dany, then Jon) because that would let him "tell ALL THE STORY FOR HALF THE CHARACTERS, rather than half the story for all the characters".

He didn't keep that promise.

Cersei's story was ended just before the climax

Jaime's story was ended without any climax and

[theory/prediction]

provided it's true that Brienne's word was "sword", I'd say that Jaime's storyline is not far from the climax too, ending one way or another

Arya's story was cut in the most frustrating moment.

Even while the resolution is what was the most likely option I'm really thankful that I'm reading the series now and didn't have to wait 6 years to be able to skip forward to her chapter in ADWD to get the confirmation.

Sansa, Samwell, Dorne and Iron Islands all just seemed like they would fit in the first half of any other book. I liked the first three, but I don't know what such many people see in the Ironmen plot. I found it really dull for most of the time and not much really happened. In the beginning Euron has most of the power and in the ending Euron has most of the power. This whole Kingsmoot stuff probably had to happen, but I'd rather it was shown in the flashbacks and all the characters were introduced when they finally start to do something.

So really only one plot, Brienne's, had in fact an ending good enough to be the ending of the book, but her plot was boring for most of the time on the other hand. I really can more or less imagine what the country looks like after a war and I don't need a new 100-page story invented only to describe it.

Maybe GRRM has some idea why he cannot proceed to the end of some plots, maybe those who have read ADWD already know that the ending required some stuff from the second book or that time gap had some important advantages (it is quite likely with Jaime, though about Cersei and surely Arya I'd not say so), but for now I fell more like he decided he wants the next book to have good ending so he just removed the best stuff from this one, and what was left was really good but in the end did not feel much different than if he just put all the characters, told half of their (very good) story and wrote "to be continued".

[ummester]

Brienne gets better towards the end of the book but this book finishes all of the plots in really bad places, especially considering how long it took for the next one to come out.

I don't think the book itself is bad. It offers some interesting character developments and insights into the world but I can understand why it is a book that would leave a sour taste in fan's mouths and make them think GRRM is full of shit - which he very much seems to be with the structure of this book.

Feast does not simply cut stories geographically, it deliberately ends in multiple cliffhangers. It's whole framing device is a cliffhanger for Sam. Feast seems deliberately devised in a way to make people interested in the next book, to me, whereas ASoS tied up storylines, Feast leaves them all hanging.

[MIMLannister]

I read The first three books with so much interest but since I started this book it's getting so boring. Tho i still like the POV's of Jamie,Arya and Dorne's.

[Eddard Stark is online]

I found A Feast for Crows quite slow going at times. I think it may be in part due to the big jump in the number of POV characters. It's harder to care about people you didn't even know existed until you start reading their chapter.

Also lots of people (including me) have cited A Storm of Swords as their favourite novel in the series. There is so much action and awesome stuff in that one (well, two) volumes that there is quite a drastic slamming on the brakes in terms of pace between that and A Feast for Crows.

[Vlaars]

I read all books before that in 2 months too, but then I took a whole month to read AFFC. Luckily DWD stepped up a notch too.

I have to say though, there were some standout chapters (Irion Island chapters)

[Kaguya]

Okay guys it seems i prefer this to ADWD now (which is also a drag. Started that in like june and still have yet to finish)

[Eddard Stark is online]

Don't worry, A Dance with Dragons does get better. I found it quite a drag to begin with too. But whereas a Feast for Crows can drag for most of the way, A Dance with Dragons gets loads better later on.

[Lord Hyrule]

I too find this book to be rather... Not entertaining. I really like the Ironborn chapters though, and the chapter when Sam finally has sex with Gilly.

The book is a pain in the butt, can't wait to finish it.

[Drekinn]

Haven't finished it yet, but still, this was far better than what I expected. I haven't come across a boring chapter yet compared with the previous books. SOS was amazing and so much happened in it, and FFC is the perfect follow up with everything slowing up and taking time to react to what happened. I do understand why many people don't enjoy it since many waited 5 years for it, and many great characters are either not featured or dead. I didn't run into any of these thankfully, and I happen to enjoy pretty much the whole entire cast. I don't like to be biased and want to read from everybody's perspective.

[Ser Cold Fingers]

While AFfC was a little slow my first read...mostly because my favorite POV characters were not featured.

From my second read through and on, I have read it as A Feast with Dragons...which combines chronologically AFfC & ADwD. I have this as an eBook & Audiobook. It makes for a VERY long book but this is by far my favorite book of the series now.

[Eddard Stark is online]

While AFfC was a little slow my first read...mostly because my favorite POV characters were not featured.

From my second read through and on, I have read it as A Feast with Dragons...which combines chronologically AFfC & ADwD. I have this as an eBook & Audiobook. It makes for a VERY long book but this is by far my favorite book of the series now.

A Feast with Dragons! Do you mean as in, read a chapter of Feast, then a chapter of Dragons, and alternate with a chapter from each book or something?

[paramount]

I know that this book is far from being the most favorite book of ASOIF readers but this book is underrated when one of my friends started came up to it I thought he find it his least favorite of the whole series. I was wrong it was his favorite particularly the Cersei chapters and her full contempt for Tyrion so I would say the book certainly pays off in many parts.

[Moonfall2]

I just finished my second read of this book, I think it is amazing at the second read. I really enjoyed the first 3 books on the first read, AFFC was pretty hard to read the first time because all those new places and names of lord whoever son of whoever. 2nd read was amazing, the details in it! The stuff I completely missed on the first read. It's an amazing book, but unless you have a perfect memory it's hard to see all the foreshadowing. Also not having Bran and Daenerys was great.

[dopplerdog]

Reading it as "A Feast with Dragons", the combined books in chronological order. I'm loving them so far, and could understand why people would have issues with them when read separately.

[Ser Cold Fingers]

A Feast with Dragons! Do you mean as in, read a chapter of Feast, then a chapter of Dragons, and alternate with a chapter from each book or something?

Yes.

It is much easier to combine the eBook into one book. There is a list of the chronological order of the chapters on the Boiled Leather website. I edited my eBooks and created one new book with the chapters in the correct chronological order...it makes it MUCH easier to read that way. Plus I edited my Audiobooks (thanks to sj4iy for the suggestion) so that each track was a separate chapter. So I just created a playlist with the correct chapter order and it became A Feast with Dragons!

Also, I now have playlists for specific characters so I can do a character re-read.