Would you still hate AFFC if there was no five-year gap?

[The Crow]

Alot of people on here seem to hate AFFC, but would you still despise it if it came out MUCH earlier than it did?

[TalalOfDorne]

I actually really enjoy Feast. Its my second favorite.

I think a lot of peoples problem with the book is that there too many new POVs and not a lot of the old ones.

[TyrionsFlagon]

The first time I read it I thought it was reeeaaaalllllyyyy slow. The second time I read it I loved it because there was so much detail in it. Maybe could have done with a little less Iron Islands stuff, but I see the importance.

I think the worst part was the fact that all the characters I really cared about weren't in it.

[The Dornishman's Wife]

I love AFFC.

But for me it came out instantly after ASOS (because I only started the series when AFFC had already come out), so maybe OP is right and it gets more appreciated if read instantly after ASOS instead of after a long wait.

[Arya kiddin']

Cersei chapters made up for all other missing characters, for me atleast. I hate Jaime as a character, but his POV's are just as much fun. And I love Brienne. Athough Feast is my least fav book, it is by no means a dull book. The disappointment I had was concerning Dorne. It was not as interesting as I thought.

And damn. Too few Arya chapters in that book. :tantrum:

[Blueberry Stark]

I loved AFFC; ADwD is my least favorite of the series, but I still really enjoyed the book. I can't see HATING any of the first five books if one is a fan of the series, especially if one is enough of a fan to join a forum dedicated to discussing the series.

[The hairy bear]

Hate is a very strong word. Even if I consider AFFC and ADWD to be a notch below the previous three books, they are still two of the best books I've read in the last decade.

But to answer your questions, I don't think that the long wait has much to do with my evaluation. There are objective criticisms that have been directed to AFFC: slower tempo, more povs and less interaction between them, difusion of the plot among many locations, no imminent threats to the characters, most chapters devoted to percieved secondaty characters (no Dany, Jon, Tyrion or Bran), etc.

[Skeksi]

I wouldn't say I hated any of the books- maybe a little disappointed with ADwD, but I didn't hate it. I actually really liked AFFC- I enjoyed getting Cersei chapters for the first time, I enjoyed seeing Sansa's development and Littlefinger's plotting, I actually enjoyed the Kingsmoot, and it was interesting to finally get some insight into Dorne. Jon's probably my least favourite POV character, so I wasn't disappointed by the lack of him, and whilst I like Dany and Tyrion, it doesn't bother me too much that we didn't get to see them.

That said, I didn't have the gap between reading the books- the first 5 were all out by the time I started reading the series, and ADwD had been published by the time I finished AFFC. I think I would probably have been more disappointed with ADwD had I waited for it for so long, and it's possible I would have felt the same way about the "missing" storylines in AFFC.

[protar]

I started reading the series in 2008, so never had to wait for AFFC. I still found it to be the worst book of the series (though still good so far as books go.). I did have to wait 3 years for ADWD though, and enjoyed that a lot more so time clearly isn't an issue for me. It was more the lack of my favourite characters and the influx of new ones which got me. I mean despite having 12 (IIRC) POV's, only 4 are from previous books (Jaime, Sam, Arya and Sansa) and only the later 2 are original POV's.

[thecryptile]

I didn't hate AFFC, though I missed some of my favorite POV characters. For me, there was no gap. I'm a show-watching fl00b. I read all five books for the first time last February.

[Tyrion's Third Wife]

I love details, so it didn't bother me. Also, I only just discovered the books this year, so I found a reading guide that allowed me to read ADWD and AFFC at the same time, so maybe that helped. I didn't feel deprived of any one character or story line.

[Myrish Swamp Thing]

I got all five books on one go. Feast is by far the weakest of them.

[Twist]

AFFC is my favourite, but I'm very much a latecomer to asoiaf. I only heard of and watched the tv series this year (no I've not been living in a box....) and I read all the books in about 3 months (waiting for twow is going to be sooo hard!) and I've not yet done any rereads. I found the first few books slow I think because I was anticipating events from the show and just wanted to find out what happened next! I love cersei's, arya's, brienne's and sansa's povs in affc. Adwd was a bit disappointing, especially daenarys, the stuff at the wall was good though.

[Dicer]

Yes, I would still hate it. The chapters involving the Blackfish and Riverrun were good, but other than that I thought it was a pointless book which did nothing to move the plot forward.

I can't stand Cersei, Jaime and Sansa were boring, Brienne made me want to throw the book away, the Iron born chapters were deadly dull and I could not care less about Dorne. Least favourite settings combined with least favourite characters made it the worst book in the series for me. The handful of Arya chapters were not enough.

I still can't make myself reread AFfC. Reading it once will have to do and hopefully remember any important stuff from this book that happens to be relevant later on.

[ejhawman]

Hate is a very strong word. Even if I consider AFFC and ADWD to be a notch below the previous three books, they are still two of the best books I've read in the last decade.

But to answer your questions, I don't think that the long wait has much to do with my evaluation. There are objective criticisms that have been directed to AFFC: slower tempo, more povs and less interaction between them, difusion of the plot among many locations, no imminent threats to the characters, most chapters devoted to percieved secondaty characters (no Dany, Jon, Tyrion or Bran), etc.

This, pretty much. I couldn't read some of the chapters (Brienne's material had no traction for me, as had Bran's throughout the series). ADWD really grabbed me, but AFFC was a slog.

[locke and key]

I really enjoyed affc, and it may well be my favourite book in the series. I think, the people who dis-like it had problems more with the content and pace, than the release date, so had it been released earlier, they would've probably still found these problems with it and say that grrm got it out too fast and should've spent more time on it to fix them

[Knight Of Winter]

I don't think you'll find much hate for AFFC here. Sure, many people consider it to be their least favourite book, but few hate it / think it's poorly written. Personally, I love Feast, its world-building, its characters and the way Martin handled inevitably less action-packed "middle" book of the series.

Generally, AFFC is the book that very much grows on reader during re-reads.

[Morienthar]

I'd probably like ADWD more than I do now,AFFC is nice actually.

[Ser Greg of House House]

I don't hate AFFC. It's not my favorite, but I'm far from hating it.

[Bolivar]

Part of what makes these books so good is the Contrast between the northerners, the southerners and Dany and I can't believe Martin overlooked that. But it is different and I appreciate freshness in the series.

No gap for me, but it was hard to appreciate the new POVs and the intensity of what was going on around them when I already cared so much about Jon and Bran and Davos. On my re-read I got into it much more and I'm invested in these POVs now.

It's more cohesive than the poorly-arranged ADWD but neither of them have a climax, which stops then from standing on their own as satisfactorily as the first 3 books.