Done with ASOS should I just read the wiki for AFFC?

[NorthernBird]

Really? Why? Couldn't stand the suspense eh?

Well, I knew it would be a big time commitment (and that there would be a certain amount of frustration what with the series not being finished), just wanted to know if it was worth it! Also with various characters being killed off I wondered how long some others might survive so wanted to see if I should become attached, or not!

[Vandalism]

I liked AFFC the least of all the books, but you cannot skip it. It is like that less entertaining but equally important book every long series needs. It has a huge amount of character development in it, and you will never fully understand the characters if you do not read it.

That being said, a few Theon chapters would not have hurt at all =| It would be extremely feasible to write about the hunting game Ramsay played with him and Kyra.

[Ser Dermett Corbray]

Siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiggggggggghhhh...

Who reads the plot of a film before going to see it? Who wants to know all the twists and turns before they've even started the journey? That's kinda the whole point of reading.

I loved AFFC. Sure, it didn't have many book-defining moments from characters we've been reading about from earlier books but it is the continuation of the story. In ASOS I came to love Jaime and Brienne and them two are integral parts of the AFFC story. Why would you not want to carry on reading the story you've been reading for 3 books? Just because it's a little different?

[Mormont'sRaven]

Just got finished with the chapter:

SPOILERS:

where Euron says he has that magic horn that can control dragons.

Dorn isn't bad.

Greyjoys aren't terrible but I'm worried.

I don't like how he has these new 1-shot perspective characters. What was he thinking? Has he said anything about this?

I like Sam's chapters.

But the Cercei and Jamie chapters steal the show.

[Ser Dermett Corbray]

I don't like how he has these new 1-shot perspective characters. What was he thinking? Has he said anything about this?

Yeah I found them pretty frustrating too. It's hard to have a connection with these characters we see very infrequently or only once. But I think it's a method here to stay and you do occasionally get some gems that leave you wanting more.

[FacelessDude]

I found the Dorne chapters the most boring, except for like one or two. But I would never consider skipping Feast. I can't believe some people have skipped Feast and just read the wikis, then they complain that they don't understand why certain characters from Feast do what they do. I'm currently a quarter way through aDwD and once I'm finished I may re-read aFfC.

I don't even know why people even consider skipping Feast, just because others say it's boring and drawn out, to each his own I say. The power of suggestion is a powerful thing.

[LampreyPie]

I actually kind of like the one-shot (or two or three shot?) POVs. I don't think you're meant to get invested in the particular character you're getting the POV for, I think you're just supposed to get a bit of a taste of what's going on in all these different places, probably to prepare you for the next books, then return to the characters who are going through major arcs in Feast--Jaime, Cersei, and Brienne.

In fact, I think the other books were great as is, but maybe it would have been cool to have a couple more of these one-shots outside the prologue/epilogue. Not that I'm upset it wasn't there, it just would have been cool to maybe get the POV of a wildling, or a slave in the Free Cities, or something.

I'm only 200 pages into Feast, so maybe my opinion will change.

[SummerGhostofNymeria]

It was slow for me to start off with, but about halfway through-ish it got really interesting to me, and the end of the book was good, in my opinion. I was glad that I stuck it out and kept reading. Granted, it took me a long time to actually get it done because I had a hard time sticking with the story in the beginning. I don't enjoy the Dorne chapters like most people do, but it's okay, it definitely got better at the end to me.

I think it just gets a lot of criticism because the pace isn't as fast as the books before it, and honestly? After all of the large events of the third book it's nearly impossible, technically, to keep something going at that pace. There needed to be a period of setup for the next events that are to come. In the end, I appreciated it for the story development. Stick with it! :thumbsup:

[Pope Killdragon]

Yeah, you might as skip it as clearly there's no need to introduce yourself with some of the serie's most captivating and interesting characters like Victarion, Darkstar, Euron or Qyburn. There's no need to read about whats happening in the Vale with Sansa or figure out Petyr's motives. Obviously Dorne's chapters aren't important. They're little more than the key to victory depending who they decide to support on the throne. Theres no point in reading Cersei's well written and harrowing chapters or Jaime's for that matter. Brienne? Who cares about that? She's only searching for lost Starks and fighting the Kingswood brotherhood, filling out those loose ends...

You get my point?

[TyrionFan82]

What is it with so many people wanting to skip books? I'm shocked.

In case that wasn't clear - no, don't skip the book. Don't skip any books. I had to read them all twice to get everything, plus come on here and check things out on the wiki. But if you're not as obsessive as I am, I guess you can skip a book. You're missing out, though.

I agree. I don't know why people want to skip AFFC & ADWD. I'm going to finish ADWD tomorrow and have loved it. I think if you skip books 4 && 5 you miss a TON and if you intend on reading TWOW you'll be totally out of the loop so much happens. I couldn't imagine skipping those books.

[LuisDantas]

AFFC may be the best of the five books when it comes to character development. I liked it a lot.

It helps that, unlike the early readers, neither me nor you will be coming from a five-year wait nor having to endure another until reading ADWD.

So no, I personally would not advise skipping AFFC. It is a great read, IMO better than Clash and Dance both, and it has some engaging POVs and plots. I struggled with the Brienne chapters, but they are still worth reading.

[ckal]

Title says it all.

My friends say AFFC is drawn out and horribly boring; it's only decent when you skip the Dorne chapters.

Are they right?

I'm tempted to just read the wiki pages for those books and save myself so many hours of reading and get back to being productive LOL.

NO! Read AFFC. It is a very good book. I think it is possibly better than ACOK. A lot of people seem to be jumping on this bandwagon that AFFC is shit. It seems like many people are going in with a preconceived notion, and aren't allowing themselves to enjoy it. The pacing is slower than ASOS clearly, and while there are some slow parts (mainly the beginning), it is more like AGOT in its style, based more on political intrigue. The Dorne chapters are some of the best and most important chapters in the book. I have no idea what your friends are talking about, their comments make no sense. By the end of the book you will be cheering.

[Crown]

Seriously, read it. It's a great book, politically it's a master piece (in my opinion) and it gives a lot of life to the already vivid world.

[Robb_]

I've got a couple of hundred pages left to go and I'm really enjoying it. Characters like Jamie, Sansa, Arya, Sam and Brienne have really progressed a lot as characters and have interesting things going on - Especially Arya. The Dorne and Greyjoy chapters aren't the best but they're worth going through for the characters we already know and love.

[SummerGhostofNymeria]

AFFC may be the best of the five books when it comes to character development. I liked it a lot.

It helps that, unlike the early readers, neither me nor you will be coming from a five-year wait nor having to endure another until reading ADWD.

So no, I personally would not advise skipping AFFC. It is a great read, IMO better than Clash and Dance both, and it has some engaging POVs and plots. I struggled with the Brienne chapters, but they are still worth reading.

I completely agree with the part that I have in bold. As for better than Clash? I'd have to go back and reread Clash, I know that I read it quickly, and I know I didn't like it quite as much as AGoT... and I'm reading Dance now, which I happen to like a lot so far. In AFFC I had trouble getting through Sam's chapters, and the Ironmen chapters, but the rest I enjoyed!

[ckal]

I completely agree with the part that I have in bold. As for better than Clash? I'd have to go back and reread Clash, I know that I read it quickly, and I know I didn't like it quite as much as AGoT... and I'm reading Dance now, which I happen to like a lot so far. In AFFC I had trouble getting through Sam's chapters, and the Ironmen chapters, but the rest I enjoyed!

I say possibly better than ACOK because I feel I would have to read it again to truly formulate an opinion on the matter. But like you said, I think AGOT is the better book.

For AFFC, some chapters were a little harder to get through, but those were almost all in the beginning.

I'd say I'm 60% through ADWD, and I really like this book a lot. More than AFFC at this point.

[SummerGhostofNymeria]

I say possibly better than ACOK because I feel I would have to read it again to truly formulate an opinion on the matter. But like you said, I think AGOT is the better book.

For AFFC, some chapters were a little harder to get through, but those were almost all in the beginning.

I'd say I'm 60% through ADWD, and I really like this book a lot. More than AFFC at this point.

You're absolutely right about that. Once you reach the halfway point of AFFC all of the harder chapters are out of the way, and the rest of it was extremely interesting for me. I loved it. Especially the end of it.

As for ADWD, I'm maybe... 15% into the book, and already I love it. So, I'm taking this as a promising sign! However, now that I've gotten this far, I'm beginning to think that I want to go back and reread everything because I've gone through the books so quickly that I feel like I've missed so many things... ESPECIALLY when I come on the boards and read some of the threads and I'm going "I don't remember that happening... huh..."

All the same, AFFC was absolutely worth reading.

[ckal]

I can't speak high enough about the end of AFFC. The last 5 or 6 chapters were pure brilliance, some of (IMO) the best chapters of the entire series. I was literally cheering. AFFC is definitely a good read.

ADWD is great. The book is actually incorporating chapters from basically every part of Westeros and Essos already, and I'm about 60% of the way through like I said. It's not nearly as split demographically as AFFC, and almost every main character has made an appearance already, expect for one main area.

I'll go through and do a re-read as well, although I'll probably take a year or more off before I do. At least before TWOW is released. AFFC was probably my fastest read tbh, and ADWD is coming along slower. I've just been burnt out from so much constant reading, but I'm still plugging away at a decent pace.

[Half man! Half man!]

I've got about 4 chapters left, and I'm enjoying this book a ton. It doesn't match up to storm of swords, which is perhaps why people were disappointed, but storm of swords was the best book I've ever read so that's really not a fair comparison.

It does focus a little more on some of the more minor characters, but as others have mentioned, it does a great job building their characters. Especially enjoy the Brienne, Arya, and Jaime chapters

[SerMilady]

Well, I can only speak for myself, but I really enjoyed this book. Contrary to many, especially the Brienne chapters and those especially in the latter half, when Podrick tags along and we get Ser Hyle and Septon Meribald and whatnot. There's a particular scene in one of Brienne's chapters that probably stands as one of the more beautiful in the entire series (again, for me, at least) where she regrets not trusting a certain person. Then there's also a fantastic fight scene at an inn.

And Cersei's chapters are wonderfully insane and filled with buckets of fun.

Like people say, ASOS was such a ginormously amazing and packed book that it's really unfair to compare AFFC to it. I love and remember AFFC for what it is: a nice, quiet, cozy follow-up detailing the aftermath of all the batshit craziness from the previous volume and the careful setting up of new plots.

Read AFFC.