I love the Song of Fire & Ice series, but I hope to never again have to endure the staccato yet bland performance of Roy Dotrice

Similar in scope and imagination to the Wheel of Time series

Differentation of characters beyond a wierd cockney lilt, and pay attention to the grammar as written. It shouldn't be read: Pate tried to call for help. But his voice was failing too. His last thought. Was. Of Rosie.

Already has been

I'm only a few hours in, and this book completely lives up to my expectations (based on the previous 3)! Lots of clever humor so far too.

BUT has Roy Dotrice gone crazy? He's pronouncing the names of a few characters inconsistently! Within the span of 20 minutes, he's pronouncing Catelyn as cat-uh-lin (as in previous readings) and also as kate-lin. And how can he mispronounce Brienne, especially after reading her oft-repeated reply to Jamie "My name is Brienne!"

I wouldn't dream of listening to this series read by anyone else, but geez - what's going on here, Roy?

The audible quality is poor compared to the first three books of the series (which I loved). Even though this is read by the same narrator, it sounds like a different person due to the audio quality. The Narrator seems to have forgotten what voices he used for the first 3 books, all in all very frustrating, especially considering that the Price is more for this book than the previous 3 and the book is shorter.

The book itself starts you off a lot of side stories (Greyjoys and the Dutch) when I was very eager to get movement on the storyline from the 3rd book (which I will have to wait until the 5th book to get movement on some of it with the way the Author broke out the stories).

I really liked the first 3 books of the series that were read by Roy Dotrice but he seemed to drop the ball on this one, but not as much as the Producers who I feel should take the blame on this.

Really good series, and I highly recommend the first 3 books of the series, but for Feast of Crows, you are probably better served buying the written version of the book.

I read the first three and thought I'd try the 4th on audio book. I'm enjoying the story but the narration is grating - his women's voices sound like a joke and he makes characters I like sound like buffoons. Also, I get the idea of adding some sniffing for color but there have been passages with so much mucus I started to feel a little ill.

I enjoyed the first three books so much, I couldn't wait to get my hands on the fourth one. Sadly, it was a major disappointment.

I'm not sure what happened with Roy Dotrice but he ruined the previous main characters. the voices were off, he couldn't get the names right. All a sudden Kat-leen turns into Kate-len, Sansa turns into San-cer, Brienne turns into Bri-yan and so on... At one point Cercei's character sounded like Grand Maester Pycelle and then she sounded like Joffrey. It's all so confusing. He even got Arya to sound like Sameul Tarley.

I read the reviews for the fifth book, and from what I've seen I don't think I will be wasting two of my credits on the next one. It's such a shame because the first three books were superb.

Thanks for nothing Roy!

I would only recommend this book to a friend if they read the first 3 books, this is not a good stand alone novel

One thing that author followed suit with in this book is killing characters at unexpected times in unexpected ways. This author has a real knack for doing that, for better or worse. Personally, I like being kept on my toes....

He did ok with the first 3 books, then all of a sudden he started pronouncing characters names differently then he did in the previous 3, and gave them different voices as well (for no good reason that I could see). You would think if a narrator is going to narrate a series of books, they would go back and listen to the previous books to try and keep consistent. Very disappointed with his narration for this one, but the first 3 he did a good job

It soon will be. With the popularity of "Game of Thrones" on HBO, it should definitely make it past this book to finish the series

I was quite disappointed with this installment of the series. The author started story lines of characters that were not very interesting, and some characters for which I didn't see their relevance in the overall story. The story lines that were followed of characters who were in the previous books were of the more boring character. After reading this and "Dance With Dragons," it feels like they were written by the author simultaneously, and he decided to just talk about certain characters in each book. This was definitely the worse book of the series thus far. I was also very disappointed at the narrators lack of continuity for pronouncing the characters names and keeping their voices the same

The story is fine, but if you've been following the series on audiobook you'll notice that out of nowhere half the characters' voices change, as well as the way Roy pronounces names. It's very clear that almost no attention is paid to the story by the reader as internal references, quotes, and connections are completely missed. Arya inexplicably becomes some sort of Welsh peasant girl, which is unbelievably distracting. Luckily, Roy isn't paying attention and when Sam meets her in Bravos, he doesn't get that it's the same character and gives her a normal voice for one brief chapter.

I can't tell if Cersei's character is really as stupid and conceited as she seems, or if its just the clownishly mocking tone given her voice. Seeing as Cersei is the biggest part of this book, it kind of made the whole thing seem one long insufferable march through foolishness.

In every way possible. He clearly doesn't pay attention to the stories and can't even pronounce characters' names the same sentence to sentence. One second Cersei is recalling Joffrey, the next she's thinking of Jeffrey. Is it Bry-een, Bry-enne, or Bree-enne? Actually, it's all three. Also, Littlefinger now sounds like Balon Greyjoy, Arya is Welsh, and Cersei's voice seems to mock her character. She doesn't come off as powerful and dangerous, so much as stuck up, stupid, and completely inane; it makes the whole story seem like a farce, and not in a good way.

... only because I am an extremely slow reader, and have a high tolerance for pain.

Seriously, Roy, or whoever produced this, what the hell? Could you not be bothered to go back and listen to a few excerpts from your previous recordings to maintain some consistency? Could no one maybe point out which sentences are references to previous parts of the story or just Westeros lore? It's like everyone got together, got wasted the night before, then woke up and said, "Guess it's time to read this thing... oh great, one of these? ?#&! I hate fantasy..."

I liked this character-driven book a lot. Martin is skilled at making those characters you once detested into new favorites and shifting the sands of his rather complicated characters a chapter at a time. I'm not a big fantasy nut, but I've enjoyed 'Game of Thrones' so far. Here is hoping he can continue this course through to a logical conclusion. I think I've got an idea of where he is heading, but I guess we will all see.

I listened to the first 3 books of the series and had some serious doubts after the third book. Was the Red Wedding and the harshness/despair...was it art? Showing the brutality of humans and not following the fairy-tale plot of typical literature? Or was it just mediocre storytelling that wasn't going anywhere? Then I read the reviews if this one (Feast for Crows) and was further discouraged.

After saying no to the series for a few weeks I was missing the world RR has built and some of the remaining characters. I was optimistic that he would rebuild the cast and crew and narration was not as bad as it sounded.

The narration is truly mystifying. There was a huge turnover and I am sure that Roy can only do so many voices, even as talented as he is. There are plenty of new characters and some of the voices are going to be changed or modified (it also sounds like he has aged in the break between productions). For my money, he took one of the few interesting main characters remaining (Aria) and completely changed the character. The first voice and tone used to match the rest of the family and now it is something completely different. She has gone through a lot of changes, but there is no reason to think that her inner voice would be that different. It would be like a person moving from Montana to England and sounding cockney in a few months.

As for the story. Much of the story-type is the same as before. If you like the first three, I think you will like (and be able to look past the narration) the fourth. I think that the characters he has brought up to replace the old set is not as strong - they don't have my interest for personal storylines or internal conflict. The ones that do have these qualities have been put into minor parts - some have barely been heard from. RR seems to have an affliction that will not let him use any of his strengths and try to get by with his weakest players. Putting just enough on the field to keep stringing us along.

I keep hoping that the potentially interesting storylines and characters that he keeps holding in reserve will be brought out for some amazing end game. I wouldn't bet on it....but I probably will wind up buying the next book just because I have already gone this far.

There is a lot of moving characters around in this book and precious little payoff. We spent a lot of time with the Iron Born to find out that they're all equally uninteresting. The decision to move most of the interesting characters to the next novel didn't pay off. But the real weakness of this audiobook is the narration. Roy Dotrice has made some strange changes to a number of character voices and can't seem to keep them straight all the time. And name pronunciations vary from chapter to chapter. After pretty strong performances in the first three novels, this is a major letdown.