A Feast for Crows

A Song of Ice and Fire, Book 4

By: George R.R. Martin

Narrated by: Roy Dotrice

Length: 33 hrs and 51 mins

Publisher's summary

GAME OF THRONES: A NEW ORIGINAL SERIES, NOW ON HBO.

Few books have captivated the imagination and won the devotion and praise of readers and critics everywhere as has George R. R. Martin’s monumental epic cycle of high fantasy that began with A Game of Thrones. Now, in A Feast for Crows, Martin delivers the long-awaited fourth book of his landmark series, as a kingdom torn asunder finds itself at last on the brink of peace . . . only to be launched on an even more terrifying course of destruction.

A Feast for Crows

It seems too good to be true. After centuries of bitter strife and fatal treachery, the seven powers dividing the land have decimated one another into an uneasy truce. Or so it appears. . . . With the death of the monstrous King Joffrey, Cersei is ruling as regent in King’s Landing. Robb Stark’s demise has broken the back of the Northern rebels, and his siblings are scattered throughout the kingdom like seeds on barren soil. Few legitimate claims to the once desperately sought Iron Throne still exist—or they are held in hands too weak or too distant to wield them effectively. The war, which raged out of control for so long, has burned itself out.

But as in the aftermath of any climactic struggle, it is not long before the survivors, outlaws, renegades, and carrion eaters start to gather, picking over the bones of the dead and fighting for the spoils of the soon-to-be dead. Now in the Seven Kingdoms, as the human crows assemble over a banquet of ashes, daring new plots and dangerous new alliances are formed, while surprising faces—some familiar, others only just appearing—are seen emerging from an ominous twilight of past struggles and chaos to take up the challenges ahead.

©2007 George R.R. Martin (P)2011 Random House

Critic reviews

"Of those who work in the grand epic-fantasy tradition, Martin is by far the best.... [He] is a tense, surging, insomnia-inflicting plotter and a deft and inexhaustible sketcher of personalities.... This is as good a time as any to proclaim him the American Tolkien." ( Time)

"The only fantast series I'd put on a level with J.R.R. Tolkein's The Lord of the Rings…. It's a fantasy series for hip, smart people, even those who don't read fantasy…. If you're new to the series, you must begin with Book 1, A Game of Thrones. Once you're hooked…. you'll be like the rest of us fans, gnawing your knuckles until book 5” (Marta Salij, Detroit Free Press)

“THE MOST impressive modern fantasy, both in terms of conception and execution, is George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire.… A masterpiece that will be mentioned with the great works of fantasy.” ( Contra Costa Times)

great book butt

great book love story but the narrator needs to enunciate better and make it easy to understand

Pronunciation

Great book and I love Roy Dotrice. However, it did annoy me that certain names were pronounced differently than he had done in earlier books. For example, Catelyn is pronounced Kate Lynn instead of the Cat-lynn.

weakest of the bunch but I can't stop now

What did you love best about A Feast for Crows?

I certainly enjoyed the continuing character development from the ongoing series

What was the most interesting aspect of this story? The least interesting?

I can't spoil anything so for anyone that has read the first three, you'll clearly want to read the next. I have to be honest though, I am starting to get a little tired of the considerable effort Martin takes in describing every stitch of clothing that a character is wearing. I know it paints a beautiful image but these books could be shortenend by 200 pages each if we left Cerci's wardrobe out of every chapter.
I'd also add that I'm a bit of a history buff but I never realized that the middle-ages were quite so rapey....I know this is a work of fiction but it's based on those times so unless Martin is taking creative liberties with that aspect....I get the distinct impression that every woman in Martin's books is raped at least once in their lifetimes. Just pointing out the brutality of the social message...not condemning him for putting it on paper..

What does Roy Dotrice bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

I do enjoy Doltrice though I feel like he's changed his accent/inflection for some of the main characters from one book to another which is a little discordant. Otherwise he does a nice job...he doesn't go over the top with most of the character impressions which is good. I think some of the impressions are too close to each other but with the sheer volume of characters in this series I can't imagine how you couldn't get repetitive.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

I think Martin's goal is to take every character you love and reduce them (and by extension you) to ruins. No spoilers as this has been evidenced since the first book in the series but suffice it to say that life continues to hand your favorite characters a never ending supply of poop sandwiches.

Any additional comments?

Nothing with respect to this book but I went through the first 4 in rapid succession but now find myself putting down the series to get some different reading done. I'm not sure if this is a result of a bit of a lull with respect to A Feast for Crows or if it's the knowledge that Martin takes a loooooong time to complete each book so there's little compelling reason to hurry through them if I'll ultimately have to wait another decade or so before the series concludes.

Narrator phoned it in

What did you love best about A Feast for Crows?

Roy Dotrice managed to get some of the voices correct and consistent. Maybe by accident?

Would you be willing to try another one of Roy Dotrice’s performances?

No

The story continues

Where does A Feast for Crows rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

Roy Dotrice does a good job of continuing his excellent narrating. However, he changed up the pronunciation of some of the character names, which was confusing at first. Otherwise, excellent performance.

What about Roy Dotrice’s performance did you like?

He has a different voice for each character with accents and speech patterns to match.

Roy, are you on drugs when you read this book?

If you could sum up A Feast for Crows in three words, what would they be?

Roy, did you have a memory lapse that you forgot each the characters of books? After great performance from the first 3 books, this was so annoying.. And who the hell is Bernie, Peter and Katelyn? FFS!!!!!

Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Roy Dotrice?

No one else, as long as he kept his consistency with the characters.

Good, but not as good as the last three.

If you could sum up A Feast for Crows in three words, what would they be?

Interesting, Entertaining, and Slow

Who was your favorite character and why?

All of the characters from Dorne because they had an interesting and entertaining perspective.

Have you listened to any of Roy Dotrice’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

The performance was good, however some characters sounded different than the previous books.

Pronunciations!

I really enjoy Roy Dotrice's narrations of the GoT series. BUT some names were pronounced differently in this book than in the previous three in the series. This drove me crazy!

Fantastic

need I say more than the title? one of the best book series anywhere period

Poor pronunciation

I have enjoyed all of the books in the series so far. However, the narrator's repeated mispronunciation of names that he has read countless hundreds of times in the previous books is almost too much to deal with. Very disappointed in that but it's relatively minor.