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)

Reading is not consistent

I’ve listened to all 4 GoT books so far. Roy Dotrice left much to be desired in previous books as far as name pronunciations not carrying through and pronouncing them differently within the same paragraph. Also his voices would not match the character’s profile (someone who’s highborn sounds like a peasant or members of the same family having different dialects etc. )

But just as I’m getting used to all of that throw it out the window. This is his worst performance of the 4. Characters voices have changed entirely from previous books. Namely Arya. In books 1-3 dotrice used almost his normal speaking book for Arya. Now she’s a low born old lady in book 4!!! Many of his voices are rough on the ears like nails on a chalkboard. His reading voice is fine and it would have been better if he used that throughout.

Pronunciations are completely different as well. There may have been skip ups in previous books. But now he’s reverted back. He called lady stark CATlyn through previous books with an occasional KATElyn. Well now she’s katelyn full time. Brienne of Tarth is pronounced differently just about every time he says it.

I will continue to listen as I love the stories. But it’s a rough going because of the performer. I know they were recorded before the series aired. But I do wish they would spend the time and money to have them re-done and done well.

Would give 5 but...

Roy Dotrice continued the series and I am loving it. Until he started to change the pronunciations of some of the names. It makes me cringe everytime he pronounces the names differently. Gilly is now Jilly, Crastor is now Craystor, and Catelyn Stark is now Kaitlin Stark. That's the ones I've heard so far...I'm only on the 6th chapter. It's the little details that make the difference.

The entire book is about cersei and it gets old

If you’re looking for storm of swords type storytelling, I hate to say it’s not here. A good fantasy read with important plot follow ups and continuations no less, it just gets old being about the most boring characters the entire book.

for some unknown reason

for reasons unknown the narrator does a great job through books one through three I mean it's amazing how many characters he can do books for and five or some have recorded with the same narrator using different voices for the characters I don't understand this is senseless and confusing.

Feast of Dragons

The story is only a 3 star for this book as it needs the chapters from dance with dragons to truly make it complete. Series story is epic I hope George completes it soon!

Good book! A very chapters dragged though

Overall this was a great book. Not as exciting as the others but still great!

A lot to follow.

the reader is beyond excellent. I found myself getting lost every once in a while with all the characters. I sort of expected that based on the other books. I love the link!

roy Dotrice dropped the ball with character voices

roy Dotrice failed on the characters voices. totally inconsistent. disappointing. he did a great job the first 3 books but foolishly butchered this book. amazing story tho

ANNOYING

OMG I have listened to books 1-4 and by far this is the most annoying readingi have Ever listened to. I literally want to cut my ears off and I have 28 hours left of this book. The first 3 books were good not great but good but this is terrible. If you have the time then get the Kindle version and read it yourself. Otherwise I warn you now your ears may start bleeding. I already found blood in my ears

Awesome Narration if You Love Hobbits, Leprechauns

Look. I love these books. They are simply the best. This reading was terrible, however, and it was hard to enjoy the material with Mr. Dotrice throwing a set of voices out there that can hardly be imagined with the characters as constructed by GRR Martin.

I'll save you some trouble. Here are the only options you'll hear on this recording: narrator (pretty decent, actually...also close enough to the voices for Jaime and Sansa to make them tolerable), leprechaun and/or hobbit (Arya, Brienne aka "Brain", Tyrion, Victarion [of all people!], Prince Doran, some of the Kettleblacks but only some of the time, Tommen, Robert Arryn, Arys Oakheart, and a bunch of minor characters), seductress (Cersei and her Myrish friend, Arianne Martell...again, not bad); Scottish Highlander (virtually any of the small folk with words, even if they're not northerners), and blustery old man (literally, everyone else including Littlefinger, for god's sake).

That's it, and that's all, folks...an agonizingly limited range for such a rich set of characters. To add salt to the wound, Dotrice didn't even keep all the voices same throughout the book, and managed to pronounce Raff the Sweetling's name as, by turns, "Rayf", "Raff", and "Reef", perhaps depending on his mood that day. Please, please, please re-do this recording with more than one person at the wheel...we need a full set of voices to do these texts justice, and much, much more range from the people who do the work.