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)

Voices and name pronunciation, PLEASE!

The story itself is top notch as is the recording quality...but I find it inexcusable that Mr. Dotrice and the project manager utterly FAILED to review the previous books in order to keep the voices and names consistent. Very disappointed.

Least favorite of the series, still can't not read

Overall: Incredible.

Performance: You begin to hear differences in the way Roy Dotrice pronounces names and places, he changes voices for people and is generally weaker than the first 3 books. Is still powerful.

Story: This entire book is building anticipation for a climax that happens in the next book. But DO NOT SKIP. It's still good.

Mostly well done, but...

Amazing storyline as always, and voice acting done well with a very tolerable voice. But all of a sudden names are getting mispronounced, Little Finger's voice drastically changed from the last book, and Arya gets some random accent when she previously spoke normal? Throws me off, but other than that nothing annoying.

Things change

Is there anything you would change about this book?

I have very much enjoyed this series of books, and would not change anything about it. Martin paints a very vivid world with his words and it is difficult NOT to become completely immersed within his written world.

What other book might you compare A Feast for Crows to and why?

The only other author within Martin's realm of writing and description is Tolkien.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

Sadly, while I have enjoyed all of the myriad voices that the narrator has created for the previous books; those same voices have changed. Suddenly, voices like Lord Balish have gone from the silky smooth voice of a middle aged man to that of an older man with a much different texture and pacing. His name was also changed to Peter by the narrator. These represent two such changes that were made.

Do you think A Feast for Crows needs a follow-up book? Why or why not?

As richly as Martin has painted this world, I crave for other books. Perhaps a book out of the history of this world. I would love to hear the story of how a "King" with a small host and a few dragons conquered the seven kingdoms.

Changed character voices

I love this narrator, but in this book he changed everything a voice. At one point he was doing Eddard (in memory) like he was an old man. And all of a sudden arya has a voice like a mance rader.
I think it would serve to review the voices he did for each character before starting the fourth book with all new voices. Love him though otherwise!!

a terrific audio experience

i thoroughly enjoyed the story and loved how roy dotrice interprets all the different characters.

Great story, poor production quality

Roy Dotrice was a master actor and his performance is, as always, unmatched. However, the producers should have take the time to make sure things like turning pages and Mr. Dotrice apparently fiddling with the paper couldn’t be heard.

Is Dotrice okay?

What did you love best about A Feast for Crows?

Great continuation of the GoT story line.

What aspect of Roy Dotrice’s performance would you have changed?

I understand that it was nearly a decade between his reading of AFFC and ASoS, but you would think he'd at least go back and listen to how he read the last book and pronounced certain names to stay consistent. Like Arya's voice entirely changed, he made character's accents thicker and mispronounces common names. All of this led to a very distracting listen and was rather frustrating all in all.

Roy's Performance

I read a few reviews before I started listening myself, and I was dreading to changes to Roy's performance. But honestly, they weren't nearly as bad as I thought they would be. Yes, he changes the way he says some names. Yes, he changes the way a few beloved characters sound. But it doesn't detract from the experience. I should mention, however, that in the first few chapters in which Sam is the main character, I cringed each and every time he said "jill-y" as opposed to "gill-y." But that's the only thing that jarred me out of westeros and back to real life, and even then, I got used to it by the end.

Not my favorite

This book so far is my least favorite in the series. The story seems to move slowly at times, but some very important things happen in this book that are key to the plot line. The narration is fine if you like Roy Dotrice, I don't though and this wasn't his best work in my opinion.