Least favourite ASOIAF book and why?

[alienarea]

ADwD

I have come to the conclusion that most of the mysteries we invest our time in originate from GRRM getting lost in details and having a sloppy editor.

Davos got lost, the decisive battles are moved to the next book, and we have another main character cliffhanger. It feels like Pirates of the Carribean, part 2.

[Ramsay B.]

While AFFC is better on a re-read(besides the Cersei chapters), it still was the worst of the bunch. Just dragged too much for my taste even though there was a lot of info. ADWD was very enjoyable on a re-read besides Tyrion's middle chapters, I had to skip those. Just awful.

[Nimm]

ADwD. Feast for Crows was far more interesting - even when the individual story arcs were meandering (Brienne) they still provided a new perspective on the entire post-war kingdom. In that way, Feast was "about" more than just the individuals - we saw what was happening to Westeros itself. And we didn't see much of that in DwD until the end....the geopolitics was reserved for Meereen, and who really cares about that? Gimme Westeros.

DwD is the easy choice for me here.

Meereen: Where Plot Goes to Die.

[SnowyJon]

Either AFfC or ADwD*. AFfC was good as well but as others said I didn't really care about all these new characters. That being said I really liked the Kingsmoot and the last few Dorne chapters. May not have cared at the beginning but by the end I was invested in these characters.

I should mention that I think the last third of ADwD was great and that has elevated my hopes for TWoW. ADwD had some amazing PoV's (Theon, Davos, Jon, Barristan, Asha) but it was brought down by some relatively boring ones (Tyrion, Dany, Quentyn (oh god Quentyn)).

[Korgon The Reaver]

How do you people not consider the Euron Greyjoy character to be one of the most interesting and mysterious, and the dynamic between him and Victarion facinating, and the Ironborn's major re-emergence as a military force to be totally fucking awesome?

[James Sucellus]

The first 3 books of ASOIAF are flawless masterpieces and the series looked set to top Lord of the Rings as the definitive fantasy epic. They were structural heavyweights and the narrative was a perfectly played, intricate chess game. Not a chapter seemed wasted, not a plotline seemed uninteresting. Intrigue was around every corner and A Storm of Swords climaxed with promise that the best was yet to come...

..then we got the next two books. I still like them, but... what the fuck happened? The pacing is seemingly random, pointless filler plots are stretched out to excruciating length before fizzling out without consequence. Plots seeming to be going nowhere yet were described in laborious detail (Brienne in AFFC, Tyrion in ADWD), characters act atrociously out of character (Cersei in AFFC, Dany in ADWD), and no major plot developments occur over an insane page length.

Oh, and the whole reason for these books was to bridge a five year gap we didn't even get.So the entire exercise was for nothing, and GRRM has ruined his potential legacy for no reason.

[Jamie Lannister]

I wouldn't go quite that far. Sure, four and five aren't as explosive as one, two and three, but they've set the groundwork for some pretty epic happenings to come in six and seven.

[James Sucellus]

I actually still really like AFFC and ADWD. I consider them to be great books. I just think they're a very notable step down from the first three books in every regard, and have taken the story in unnecessary directions.

A Feast For Crows has its moments and I actually rate it higher than most fans as I think it's a great book and everybody I meet thinks it's shit. I loved the later Brienne chapters and enjoyed ALL the Ironborn/Dorne plots which everybody shits on. It was the padded as hell earlier Brienne chapters and RIDICULOUSLY over the top Cersei characterisation which bothered me more. She's a cackling 2-dimensional supervillain, I can't believe GRRM even wrote those chapters.

[Frey Pie]

The last two are definitely the worst IMO, but still enjoyable enough

Much of the talk on the boards are still about what happened in Storm or Game, more than Feast or Dance

[James Sucellus]

I rate the books like this:

aSoS (10/10

aGoT (10/10

aFfC (9/10

aCoK (8/10

aDwD (7/10)

I'd rank 'em from best to weakest:

ASoS: 10/10

ACoK: 10/10

AGoT: 10/10

AFFC: 8/10

ADWD: 8/10

So for all my bitching, I'd still argue the last 2 books have been very well written. It's mainly the bizarre lack of structure that pisses me off.

How do you people not consider the Euron Greyjoy character to be one of the most interesting and mysterious, and the dynamic between him and Victarion facinating, and the Ironborn's major re-emergence as a military force to be totally fucking awesome?

Totally, man. The kingsmoot was a fucking great chapter, Euron is a superb creation, and I really felt for Victarion.

The dull as hell Brienne chapters in the first half and lame Cersei characterisation are AFFC's biggest problems. The Ironborn chapters were good, and the final Dorne chapter is one of the most memorable in the series.

[Amy Walker Gore]

I would have to say the fourth book for me was my least favorite. After 3 books , it was kinda late to introduce the Ironborn and Dornish plots for me to really care about them that much. I do plan to go back and re-read the book, I skimmed through a lot of it just so I could get to the 5th book.

I liked the 5th book, but I agree with some about not really caring about Dany's travels and petty problems ruling cities that she is planning on just picking up and leaving soon to get to her iron throne. Up until the 5th book, all the people that she had collected were interesting and added to her story, but her conquering cities, and then leaving and loosing control of them, is kinda pointless to me. If she does end up staying in the east, then all of this will be worth while. But if she moves on to the west like she has been planning, she has done nothing but wasted a lot of lives and a lot of time getting there. I think people are just ready for her to move on and let all the real battles for the iron throne to begin and for the white walkers to rise up.

[Howling Mad]

The final one of course because then there will be no more. :bawl:

[Broken Fox]

An Intermission Feast for Crows.

[Ramsay B.]

...and RIDICULOUSLY over the top Cersei characterisation which bothered me more. She's a cackling 2-dimensional supervillain

I concur. The Cersei chapters were absolutely brutal.

Euron was one of the best things about AFFC but it still dragged.

[Jabronius Maximus]

Definitely AFFC. After the whirlwind of moving pieces that I saw in the first 3 books, the 4th was a big drop-off in pace. ADWD wasn't much better for me either. Jon and Bran's chapters kept getting better, while characters like Jaime, Arya and Davos had good to great chapters as well. Aside from that, I really didn't like anything about the latter two books.

Edit: Totally forgot about Barristan's chapters, which I also really liked. But again, for the most part the last two books form the bottom tier of the series for me. Mid tier would be ACOK and AGOT, and of course top tier is ASOS.

[Slayer Sam]

To be honest, if it wasn't for this forum, I'd never have looked at AFFC again or cared for its contents.

I'd imagine most other casual readers would agree, those of us who don't quite recognise, understand or appreciate writing styles etc... to us it just seemed boring.

What made it worse was the fact that it followed ASOS, which was action-packed and fast moving - in my opinion the best of the five - and lacked many of the more popular characters.

On reflection, and with the aid of some of the wonderful explanations and insights offered on this forum, I appreciate a little more the beauty of AFFC - some of the best written passages of the series are undoubtedly contained within.

However, I'm not ashamed to say that it was the action and original characters that drew me to these books. AFFC lacks both of these for the most part, and for that reason, it is my least favourite (which is indeed more accurate than 'most disliked') of the five.

1. A Storm of Swords

2. A Clash of Kings

3. A Game of Thrones

4. A Dance With Dragons

5. A Feast For Crows

[James Sucellus]

ADWD wasn't much better for me either. Jon and Bran's chapters kept getting better, while characters like Jaime, Arya and Davos had good to great chapters as well. Aside from that, I really didn't like anything about the latter two books.

I think the Theon stuff in ADWD is some of the best stuff in all of ASOIAF.

[Jabronius Maximus]

I think the Theon stuff in ADWD is some of the best stuff in all of ASOIAF.

Sorry, forgot to mention Theon too. Actually aside from Catelyn's chapters, I thought his are the best in the series.

[hollowcrown]

ADWD.

The book was frankly a literary disaster. Whilst the other books have clear character arcs and stories for each character, Dance just built up to absolutely nothing. The only plot with a proper arc was Jon's, but even the North has so much crap unresolved.

We're left on giant cliffhanger after giant cliffhanger with no climax like in Game, Clash or Storm. Clash had a climax with the Blackwater for most of the characters.

Dance will ruin the structure of the next book because everything was left unresolved and the entire Essos arc sucked.

[Ramsay B.]

Dance will ruin the structure of the next book because everything was left unresolved and the entire Essos arc sucked.

Or make TWOW an epic masterpiece...