"A Feast with Dragons" - advisable for a first read or not?

[LemonyLemony]

Sorry if this is in another thread, i couldn't see if but might have been searching wrong.

 

I became aware of this that someone has carefully constructed - an order of reading the chapters of both aAFfC and ADwD in combination, simultaneously.

 http://afeastwithdragons.com

I am on my first read through of the book series (started after binge watching all the TV adaptation to date this summer) and now have about a quarter of ASoS left to go (getting through this one even quicker than the first 2 and I'm usually a slow reader, can't leave it alone).

I am inclined to proceed in the way described on this website and read the last 2 books "A Feast with Dragons" style. This is because the main criticism i've seen people take with either of these volumes (apart from how the pace slows right down after the all-killer-no-filler rollercoaster that is book 3, although that might be appreciated so I can get anything apart from reading this epic done with my life... and the introduction of too many new POVs) is how half of the characters and storylines are missing. Just intuitively, I tend to expect I'd find AFfC the more interesting of the pair to read individually, judging by the how POVs are shared out, but who knows.

 

My question is...

I get the impression that this sort of alternative reading order (like the concept of just following one character POV from start to finish) is designed for re-reads.

Is there any good reason you think I should not attempt to read the books in combination on my first read through?

 

I'm aware there's other combined reading orders, significantly the www.boiled leather.com version, so if you have a preferred mash-up or a constructive criticism of the ordering decision in the AFwD listing, feel welcome to share.

 

Thank you for your insights.

[Ralphis Baratheon]

You'll be fine either way. One positive of reading AFfC first and then ADwD is it will be easier to remember what happened in one of the new POV characters previous chapters when you come to the next, if that makes sense. It will be less spread out.

[Walda]

I wish I'd thought of that -  and yeah, you'll be at least fine (the show has already given you one kind of narrative order anyway), and most probably better than fine (reading in something more like the order in which GRRM thought of it, rather than what fit the pressures of publishing houses and the constraints of the paperback bookbinders a dozen years ago).

Look forward to seeing your insights here.

[Lost Melnibonean]

On 11/25/2017 at 0:46 AM, Beeswing said:

Sorry if this is in another thread, i couldn't see if but might have been searching wrong.

 

I became aware of this that someone has carefully constructed - an order of reading the chapters of both aAFfC and ADwD in combination, simultaneously.

 http://afeastwithdragons.com

I am on my first read through of the book series (started after binge watching all the TV adaptation to date this summer) and now have about a quarter of ASoS left to go (getting through this one even quicker than the first 2 and I'm usually a slow reader, can't leave it alone).

I am inclined to proceed in the way described on this website and read the last 2 books "A Feast with Dragons" style. This is because the main criticism i've seen people take with either of these volumes (apart from how the pace slows right down after the all-killer-no-filler rollercoaster that is book 3, although that might be appreciated so I can get anything apart from reading this epic done with my life... and the introduction of too many new POVs) is how half of the characters and storylines are missing. Just intuitively, I tend to expect I'd find AFfC the more interesting of the pair to read individually, judging by the how POVs are shared out, but who knows.

 

My question is...

I get the impression that this sort of alternative reading order (like the concept of just following one character POV from start to finish) is designed for re-reads.

Is there any good reason you think I should not attempt to read the books in combination on my first read through?

 

I'm aware there's other combined reading orders, significantly the www.boiled leather.com version, so if you have a preferred mash-up or a constructive criticism of the ordering decision in the AFwD listing, feel welcome to share.

 

Thank you for your insights.

I have read it both ways. The only reason to read all of Feast before Dance is to avoid spoiling the Quentyn subplot, and to see the order of events told by the author. Keep in mind that the ancillary novella The Mystery Knight was published after Feast and before Dance. 

[Yukle]

My feeling is that it would still be easier for a first read to go in published order. There are a lot of subplots, and it'd be a massive mental task trying to remember who is who. This is further made difficult by the fact that chapter names in the fourth and fifth books aren't always names and it's not immediately apparent who is in the chapter at first, unless you have an excellent memory.

[kissdbyfire]

For what it's worth, I wish I had read AFwD the first time.

 

[Faera]

1 hour ago, kissdbyfire said:

For what it's worth, I wish I had read AFwD the first time.

 

Seconded. 

[Jon Fossoway]

Made no difference to me. It was messy all the same.

[Makk]

I'm wondering if there are a few other surprises, apart from the already mentioned Dornish plot, that will get ruined by this order. Without giving too much away, reading chronologically in time means that you will be aware of how a particular event around Jon/Sam and another one involving Davos without the writers intended suspense. It might not be a big deal but my recommendation would actually be to stick with how it is published.

[Knight Of Winter]

If you find good reading plan which sensibly combines chapters from ADWD and AFFC - you should be fine.

[elder brother jonothor dar]

Since both books have been published the frustration of missing some PoV will be short lived

[Hooded Wayfarer]

I used the combined reading order on one of my rereads. You should probably read it the first time through the way the the author intended. Chronology isn't everything,(GRRM could have split the books up that way if he wanted to), there are thematic linkages that you might miss if you choose this for your initial read.

[Black Dragons]

I like AFFOC it my favorite book series I don't understand why people diss so much?

[Walda]

On 02/12/2017 at 3:32 AM, Sophia [email protected] said:

I like AFFOC it my favorite book series I don't understand why people diss so much?

I've been coming around to it for a few years now, but found the first encounter with it very heavy going.

Barrelling out of Storm of Swords buzzing, head spinning, full of crackpot and tinfoil, to the sedate pace and tranquillity of a golden day in the beer garden by the river at the Quill and the Tankard.,,well, OK, time to catch a breath before - before Aeron Greyjoy, never pleasant,  an infestation of Theon's other uncles, a host of names never heard before (Merlyn, Rus, Sparr, Gorrold etc.) that were unlikely to be significant. My heart sank a bit on learning Balon had nine bloody brothers. That only two had died in infancy was insufficiently consoling.

Then Dorne. Dorne that I had been looking forward to for so long. But why now, when there were Starks to follow up, and Jon, and Tyrion, and Dany, ... and yet another placid waterside setting. He gives us Sand-snakes, but he also gives us  Areo Hotah. I tried to remember that I had wanted to see a Norvoshi priest, but then, I'm not sure if Hotah is one of those or not, and being frankly aphasic is not great for a viewpoint in a novel. Although to give Hotah his due, he was the most sufferable Dornish point of view I encountered. I'm still wondering if he has a point, or is just another non-entity whose point has been made already. Yes, it was a slow start to a disappointing slog the first time through.

The worst was, still is, what GRRM chose to call 'chapter 46'. Lies,  I call them. By the time I read them, close on a decade old - I can't imagine how bitter the taste they left must have been to the readers who had waited six years already and would have to wait for another six for Dance, but I did feel genuine anger at his disrespect for them, and, by extension, contempt for us. By his condescending tone, it seems he assumes his readers are all sixteen-year-old boys that would rather play football and would have preferred the graphic novel to all those words anyway.  As if his meta-fictional efforts were not gleefully offensive enough, he gives it a title that implies it will contain something about what is happening on the wall. (The most disappointing of a series of chapter headings that deliberately frustrate expectations.)

I was lucky, in that Dance with Dragons was already written, I could plunge into it and the parts of it that have largely reconciled me to Feast, and changed my view of everything but that last snide attack on the reader's patience and intelligence. But that 'chapter' was a mistake. His editor should have insisted he keep that to maybe a promotional blurb after the appendices, or maybe nowhere between the bound pages of AFfC at all - if it had been in an article by Variety or Entertainment Now, it would still be all over the internet, if anyone bothered to look for it, but it wouldn't be a part of his body of work. Now it hangs like an albatross around his neck, reminding us that sometimes he is not so much a genius as a resentful and petty man that could forget about literary reputation long enough to send out a big f-u to all his readers for all time.

I mean, sure, artists do things that contend against their own interests sometimes, eg. Lena Heady has tattoos everywhere, gave birth to two children, and had a relationship that ended badly with one of her co-workers, but she had directors and producers that airbrushed all that out, so we see the art in all its glory, unmarred by the murky mundanities of the person who created that otherwise marvellous art. Which we can read about elsewhere if that is what we really want to do.

Why his editors could not do what D&D did, forestall the artist vandalising his own work, make him look good and keep his literary reputation where it deserves to be... I don't know. Maybe he likes them because they signed a contract that gave him his own way in everything, and minimal deadlines, and truckloads of money dumped on his doorstep at the least provocation, and more long lunches in fine dining restaurants than he can attend or eat, but still, I think sometimes an editor has a duty to oppose what their artist wants, and that was one of those times.

Now, of course, we can read it AFwD, which eliminates nearly all the perceived deficiencies of AFfC. However you choose to read it, I strongly recommend skipping 'Meanwhile back on the wall', as all it tells you is that sometimes even a genius can be a two-bit putz.

On 01/12/2017 at 9:51 AM, Hooded Wayfarer said:

there are thematic linkages that you might miss if you choose this for your initial read.

You know, I don't think so. I think the real danger is that AFwD makes those thematic linkages too obvious, so the reader can't miss them. I'm pretty sure the misleading heading and unexpected cast of new points of view, and the lack of Tyrion, Dany, Jon etc. were about building anticipation for the next book, and partially concealing themes, especially the ones that only start developing in Feast.

[Dorian Martell's son]

Read the originals first, as the author intended. Do the alternate reads on the second read through 

[LemonyLemony]

Thank you for the advice all, it did give me cause to consider carefully, and I wasn't sure how to proceed, but I finished Storm and had to make a decision and I think I'm going to read Boiled Leather style. Comparing the reading order lists of that one and AFWD I hadn't realised how much the latter jumbles up chapter orders within each individual book, I wasn't cool with that. BL keeps reading in the order the author intended within the volumes (mostly, with one suggestion for jumping to avoid a spoily reveal), just allows switching between which one you pick up. Hope this doesn't come across as ignoring anyone's advice!

[Lost Melnibonean]

24 minutes ago, Beeswing said:

Thank you for the advice all, it did give me cause to consider carefully, and I wasn't sure how to proceed, but I finished Storm and had to make a decision and I think I'm going to read Boiled Leather style. Comparing the reading order lists of that one and AFWD I hadn't realised how much the latter jumbles up chapter orders within each individual book, I wasn't cool with that. BL keeps reading in the order the author intended within the volumes (mostly, with one suggestion for jumping to avoid a spoily reveal), just allows switching between which one you pick up. Hope this doesn't come across as ignoring anyone's advice!

I did it that way once. Enjoy.