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)

love it

this is such a great series of books and the narrator is awesome. he has so many voices

What happened Mr. Dotrice?

I've loved all of Mr. Dotrice's performances so far in this series but something changed. In this book some of the names are pronounced differently (e.g.: Brienne, Gilly, Catelyn) and the accents are all wrong. Sam's voice literally changed accent in the middle of a dialogue in one chapter. I don't know who edited these and gave the okay but clearly the person did not listen to the previous performances beforehand. It's quite disconcerting. I hope the remainder of the books are better.

Roy Dotrice is a delight

Different voices, every one distinct. Even women had distinct tones and voices, leading to full immersion in the story. Kudos

Poor Performance

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

An epic masterpiece.

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

I have no choice as I intend on finishing the series.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes

Any additional comments?

As other people have mentioned Dotrice apparently did not go back and review his earlier work so that he could use the same pronunciations and character voices. It would almost be ok except that many of the voices now sound like the Lucky Charms Leprechaun. It is still an excellent book however and its worth dealing with the bad performance.

Weak link

Of the five books so far in the series this is the weakest so far. Whether it's because Martin was feeling pressure to publish something or a desire to please his fans it's hard to say. He did apologize for it in book 5. That been said I enjoyed some of the new characters he introduced. They brought new insight to ideas and perspective to belief of old characters. There were a few chapters that were longer then necessary but if you have made it to a Feast for Crows then you have come to expect it. I read the book then before this review listened to it. I do greatly enjoy the series and am waiting, very patiently, for the 6th book

Not a fan of narrator

Love these books but not a fan of the narrator. Some of the voices he does makes me want to turn it off sometimes. But I got through it!

Spare me the spittle, the toothless old men..

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

Ok great fantasy series, complex characters but this one did bog down a bit

Would you recommend A Feast for Crows to your friends? Why or why not?

Yes, with caveats

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

I'd rather not. The major character's voices are fine but the minor characters (and there are a lot and what they have to say is frequently important to the story so you can't just fast forward)...the minor characters sound like toothless old men, there is a lot of saliva, they have the voices of 90 or 100 year old men not that are just hard to listen to for any length of time; it is literally PAINFUL. The hand of the queen coughs up blood which he spits into a red silk square...folks, it is really gross. Not only do you get the words, you get the coughing, the liquid, phlegm producing cough. It is simply painful. God help you if you miss something and have to listen to that bit again. I found myself cringing. I was annoyed as Cercie. I wanted a print version or a reader who would read the words which tells us about the red sputum and the red square of silk which is bad enough without the sound effects.

Any additional comments?

Just read the book. Leave out the sound effects. Its okay to distinguish between characters especially when there are so many but the lower class wench, the cockney, the little bit scottish, the lower class accent and the pompous class conscious englishman was not always well chosen and it distracted from the story

A puzzling change in performance from Roy Dotrice

I love these books, as well as hearing them brought to life by Roy Dotrice. However, having listened to the three previous Game of Thrones audiobooks, I noticed a great number of changes in already-established pronunciations, as well as voices used for major characters. While this may seem like a minor detail, I found it very distracting and kept me from being as immersed as I would have liked at times.

Somewhat Disappointing

A tougher read than the first three books, but still good. Very disappointed with the performance - a lot of mispronounciations, some rough cut editing, etc.

Worth It!

Narrator does a great job! Long book but so good! Game of Thrones is such a great story worth every dollar.