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)

Howdy y'all. Everything' s great! Thanks a ton!

I can't wait for the next one! Then, I'll need a new series. Any suggestions?

Great books if you can survive the narrator.

I cannot understand why Dotrice changes up his pronunciations of names and places, nor why he makes half the characters sound like carnival workers. He’s fine at the “acting” part of his narrating, but irritating there at times as well. So it’s a good thing the books are so great or I’d have stopped five minutes into the first.

a lot of filler, but not bad

there's a lot of content in this book that goes nowhere, if ya have to skip one of the books this is it.

Oh Roy

My least favorite book of the series (still a 5 star story) made even more frustrating by Roy Dotrice phoning it in on this one. Although I never warmed to the cartoonish voice characterization in this series (I think it’s more suited to Harry Potter & GRRM’s lighter fare) & prefer a more subtle & nuanced reading, it’s even more distracting when the character’s voice changes so radically from the previous books. Someone should have made him listen & refresh his memory which character he inflected Irish, Scottish, decrepit, or Charles Laughton. Some of the teens sound like they could be part of an aging Cockney mob. And his toolbox of voice characters seems to have whittled down to Idiot, Crone, London Cabbie, & English Aristocracy- unfortunately applied at random.

A bit of a letdown from the previous book.

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

So far it is my least favorite out of the series. I'm hoping that the next book doesn't feel as rushed.

If you’ve listened to books by George R. R. Martin before, how does this one compare?

Again, it feels rushed. Many of my favorite characters aren't in this book. Overall, it is my least favorite.

What three words best describe Roy Dotrice’s performance?

Was he high? Many of the main characters drastically change voices in this book. Sometimes it is so different, its comical. Example: Stannis-Baelish. Petyr always had this snide voice that went great with his character. Now he sounds much like Stannis Baratheon. It's all very jarring.

not a waist of your time!

loved the book and was a easy listen. I do recommend this as a follow-up from book 3

Seriously who produced the performance

So we all know GRRM is a genius and these books are incredible. Roy Dotrice does a pretty good job in books 1–3, even if most of his female voice performances leave a lot to be desired, but it is truly inexcusable of random house audio to allow him/lazy on his part to throw his prior performances out the window and change up the voices of characters. Sure it could be appropriate to subtly mature some of the child characters' voices to reflect aging, but that's not at all what's happening here—the changes are dramatic, complete abandonment of prior developed character voice, and regardless, these changes are not contained to child characters. Most of the POV characters just have new voices. The worst is how he in multiple cases simply starts employing a voice for a character that he previously used for another! The changes in the pronunciation of names and places are off putting as well, though I'll give them the benefit of the doubt and assume that GRRM corrected prior pronunciations (though honestly I doubt it). Anyway it's just a shame that cohesion through the series is not maintained despite the same narrator.

Different voices

Fantastic story lines, but several of the voices were different from previous versions. Made it difficult to follow at times.

As always, very good!

Very good reading as always. Yes, there is the issue of a few mispronounced names, but it’s not so bad. My other complaint with this one would be that a few characters voices change. It does make a few scenes rather confusing. Overall though, highly recommend.

Entertaining.

Nicely done. Have enjoyed all the books so far. looking forward for the rest of the series.