A Feast for Crows = Best Book of the Series So Far (No Spoilers)

[Ile de Le Fleur]

I never knew there was such a cult of Tyrion, Jon, and Dany. I do not understand why people hate on this book. I DO understand it does not read at the pace of the previous book-- it starts slow at first, but goes on to become the most intriguing, the most mature, and by far the creepiest. It's practically a psych-horror novel IMO...

Cersei's chapters were insane, she is such a monstrosity and will let nothing get in her way. The subtleties provided by her POV's change my whole perspective on the Lannister dynasty and King's Landing. And her deceitful plots to ruin the lives of her enemies... downright scary.

Qyburn too-- truly horrifying. With him its more about what Martin doesn't say than what he does. This guy is possibly my favorite new character. I feel ill when I think about what he is doing to his specimens down there. And Cersei just keeps sending them into his dungeon/lab one after another!

Brienne-- love her or hate her, Brienne's adventures are the most fun in this book. Her squire, Pod, picks up where he left off from Tyrion as an innocent, but well-intentioned, dedicated, and quite effective squire for her. Brienne really comes into her own in this book as a honorable knight and leader. Her companions, Ser Hyle and Septon Maribald make for a great company. I thought their adventures in the Saltpans and surrounding areas drew up some of the most vivvid and realistic imagery in my mind of the environment and setting of this complex world. She becomes brave and noble, and I can't wait to see her portrayed in Season 2 of GoT.

I'll cut if off here for now, probably later I'll add more thoughts on:

-Arya-- where to begin??

-Jaime-- redeemed?

-Best prologue/epilogue ever!

-Dorne & Iron Islands

This is the HBO season I will be looking most forward to! Thank god it's on cable, idk how they would pull it off otherwise. Honestly, people talk about skipping this book-- I wish I could skip DwD and just go straight to Winds of Winter!

[mlkluther]

I think all the books are good in their own way. The entire series is great so far. I am half way through AFFC. The characters in all the books are fascinating.

[Cuthbert Allgood]

I really loved this book too. ASOIAF has always been praised for being a fantasy for adults, and this book is really that, fantasy for adults. I loved how Martin didn't mind taking slow with his story. All those chapters that seems hard at first, about Dorne and Ironborn, you slowly start to get used to them and in the end you know why he was telling us about them. He just doesn't choose the easy way out of many writers (books or for tv series) do: establish a world, write some characters people love and exploit them all the way till the end. He dares to introduce whole new storylines and characters and manages to make us care about their fate eventually. I know it's almost a cliche now but, really this is so much like The Wire kind of mature storytelling, hats off!

I'm glad all those nagative reviews I read before about AFFC wasn't doing it justice as I feared, and now I hope those negative stuff about ADWD are false too. Just people who think the story should be quick because they had to wait for years and they imagined a lot of things..and some avarage people who are not patient can only appreciate full speed action / adventure that came into the series because it is the flavor of 2011 :P

Let me end this quoting David Simon, creator of The Wire, I feel it somehow connects ;)

"My standard for verisimilitude is simple and I came to it when I started to write prose narrative: f* the average reader. I was always told to write for the average reader in my newspaper life. The average reader, as they meant it, was some suburban white subscriber with two-point-whatever kids and three-point-whatever cars and a dog and a cat and lawn furniture. He knows nothing and he needs everything explained to him right away, so that exposition becomes this incredible, story-killing burden. F* him. F* him to hell."

[Nahlim]

I'm glad all those nagative reviews I read before about AFFC wasn't doing it justice as I feared, and now I hope those negative stuff about ADWD are false too. Just people who think the story should be quick because they had to wait for years and they imagined a lot of things..and some avarage people who are not patient can only appreciate full speed action / adventure that came into the series because it is the flavor of 2011 :P

Couldn't agree more! I hope that aDwD criticism is exaggerated, too... :) In fact, I am pretty sure it is.

[richardya]

My only real critique is a silly one. I hate that he used some "titles" instead of names for the chapters. Why the "Queen in the Tower" instead of Arianne?

[Lord Barristan]

The only reason these last two books are being criticized is because it Martin 5 years to write Feast and 6 more to write Dance...

If he kept up the book every 2 years like he did in the first 3, no one would complain...

People just flip out because they don't want to wait 5 more years to see what happens, but I too loved Feast

[sulla88]

I have just finished 'Feast' and I have to say that it was really good, although like some other people I thought the slow pacing was *sometimes* too much. The expanding number of POV characters took some getting used to, and I found that some characters were just not as interesting as others, and I found myself skimming through some of the less appealing characters. I think 'Feast' has received a bit of harsh reviews because it seems to lack the fast-paced action of the previous two that had the fan-favourite characters front and centre. But I think 'Feast' will be judged in a much better light as time goes on and we see it in the context of the entire saga.

[sweet_cersei]

A lot of people balk at the slow pace. If martin went at the same pace as ASOS there would be no more characters left to kill off.

[Roose Seal]

I think those who liked Feast won't like Dance and those who disliked Feast will like Dance. All of my favorite characters were in Feast and the first half of Dance was all the characters that I hate (except Reek and another character)

I loved Feast, it's probably my favorite book in the series so far. I'll take heavy characterization over action for action's sake any day. I am however struggling to finish Dance. I finally got to the part where the timeline catches up with that of Feast and that's 600 pages in and so far it's been nothing but travel travel and more travel. I found myself speed reading Dany's and Tyrion's chapters just so I could get to the Reek chapters. Man the Dany chapters are boring as the seven hells.

[Bearbert Dondarrion]

I loved both Feast and Dance. Feast was the best, and Dance the third after ASOS

[Greyjoy the Reaver]

I love all these books. Maybe I am biased however. I had never heard of GRRM until the game of thrones series came out. Since then I could not put ASoFaI down until I had devoured them all. Now I am eagerly and impatiently awaiting TWoW. Come on GRRM lets get some more of this story out.

[The Faceless One]

X

[The Faceless One]

Whereas, it's not the best book for me, that goes to ASoS, I still think it's a very, very good book. I think a great deal of the negativity stems from people, years ago, waiting so long for it only to find it lacks half the characters, including the very popular Tyrion and Jon, and lacks the balls-to-the-wall action of ACoK and ASoS. I like the character building, the perspective of the other competing houses, and I think there is still a fair amount of action. I like the Brienne chapters so far and the chapter with Euron and his Valyrian horn was spine-tingling, at the end at least. I echo the sentiments of others that say they find the Dany chapters painful to read, but I kept reading and paying attention to her chapters because I am intrigued with her dragons. At least Tyrion and Jon are in ADwD. I should be cracking it's spine next week sometime.

[Dolorous Edd Tollett]

I really loved this book too. ASOIAF has always been praised for being a fantasy for adults, and this book is really that, fantasy for adults. I loved how Martin didn't mind taking slow with his story. All those chapters that seems hard at first, about Dorne and Ironborn, you slowly start to get used to them and in the end you know why he was telling us about them. He just doesn't choose the easy way out of many writers (books or for tv series) do: establish a world, write some characters people love and exploit them all the way till the end. He dares to introduce whole new storylines and characters and manages to make us care about their fate eventually. I know it's almost a cliche now but, really this is so much like The Wire kind of mature storytelling, hats off!

I'm glad all those nagative reviews I read before about AFFC wasn't doing it justice as I feared, and now I hope those negative stuff about ADWD are false too. Just people who think the story should be quick because they had to wait for years and they imagined a lot of things..and some avarage people who are not patient can only appreciate full speed action / adventure that came into the series because it is the flavor of 2011 :P

Let me end this quoting David Simon, creator of The Wire, I feel it somehow connects ;)

"My standard for verisimilitude is simple and I came to it when I started to write prose narrative: f* the average reader. I was always told to write for the average reader in my newspaper life. The average reader, as they meant it, was some suburban white subscriber with two-point-whatever kids and three-point-whatever cars and a dog and a cat and lawn furniture. He knows nothing and he needs everything explained to him right away, so that exposition becomes this incredible, story-killing burden. F* him. F* him to hell."

I was obsessed with Feast when I read it. It was definitely my favorite so far. Then I loved Dance even more.