A Feast for Crows

A Song of Ice and Fire, Book 4

By: George R. R. Martin

Narrated by: Roy Dotrice

THE BOOK BEHIND THE FOURTH SEASON OF GAME OF THRONES, AN ORIGINAL SERIES NOW ON HBO.
 
Here is the fourth book in the landmark series that has redefined imaginative fiction and become a modern masterpiece.

A FEAST FOR CROWS
 
After centuries of bitter strife, the seven powers dividing the land have beaten one another into an uneasy truce. But it’s not long before the survivors, outlaws, renegades, and carrion eaters of the Seven Kingdoms gather. Now, 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—emerge from an ominous twilight of past struggles and chaos to take up the challenges of the terrible times ahead. Nobles and commoners, soldiers and sorcerers, assassins and sages, are coming together to stake their fortunes . . . and their lives. For at a feast for crows, many are the guests—but only a few are the survivors.
 
A GAME OF THRONES • A CLASH OF KINGS • A STORM OF SWORDS • A FEAST FOR CROWS • A DANCE WITH DRAGONS

Critic reviews

“Of those who work in the grand epic-fantasy tradition, Martin is by far the best. . . . This is as good a time as any to proclaim him the American Tolkien.”—Time

“A fantasy series for hip, smart people, even those who don’t read fantasy.” —Detroit Free Press

“[A] once-in-a-generation work of fiction that manages to entertain readers while elevating an entire genre to fine literature.”—Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

“These are the best heroic fantasies I’ve ever read—layered, complex, true to the characters, real as the bloodiest of real life is, and stunningly, fascinatingly page-turning. . . . Amazing stuff.”—Jeff VanderMeer, The New Your Review of Science Fiction

“George R. R. Martin has created the unlikely genre of the realpolitik fantasy novel. Complete with warring kings, noble heroes and backroom dealings, it’s addictive reading and reflects our current world a lot better than The Lord of the Rings.”—Rolling Stone

“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

Roy, your killing me

How could the performance have been better?

I guess Roy Dotrice must have just completely forgotten how he pronounced half of the characters names in the last three books he read, it's seriously driving me crazy, He's pronouncing Catelyn: Katelyn, Brienne: Bernie, Petyr: Peter, and a whole slew of other inconsistent pronunciations. I literally cringe at every mispronunciation. But besides that the book is fine, I'm only a few hours in but i couldn't take the rampant mispronunciation anymore. I guess all we can do is stick it out and hope Dotrice remembers how to pronounce the names in the remaining books.

Perfection.

I don't like fantasy novels. I find the entire fantasy genre to be kind of annoying.

However, the Game of Thrones show on HBO got me hooked pretty fast, and I got impatient waiting for new episodes to trickle out once a week.

So, I started buying the Song of Ice and Fire audiobooks, and quickly found myself sucked into George R. R. Martin's world.

The series is amazing. The character development is outstanding. The writing is nuanced and mature. The plot is perhaps one of the greatest of all time.

The scope of the story is epic- with so many characters, I wonder how the author manages to keep them all straight in his head. I often have to follow along with the game of thrones wiki online. I would begrudge this, except that I have grown to really appreciate that exceptionally rich world the author has built.

This series makes most of the other novels I'm reading seem shallow and small by comparison. Martin has raised the bar on what I want out of a story.

Martin torments his characters mercilessly, or kills them off suddenly. He takes villains and turns them into heroes, and shows us in a thousand ways that there are no distinct boundaries between good and evil. In the end, you never know what will happen next in the story. The only certainty is that you will be entertained and delighted.

I must also say a word about Roy Dotrice's narration, which is hands down the best I've ever heard. It is hard to imagine being able to follow the story without his masterful vocal nuances reminding us which of Martin's hundreds of characters are doing the talking.

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I give this book, and this series my highest possible recommendation.

I don't care what they say ...

Any additional comments?

I don't care what the others say. I am glad Roy is back, even with the voice and some pronunciation changes it is still good to see that the publishers are listening and that Roy is still able to give his voice to the series.

What allot of people don't realize is that allot of time has passed between the 1st 3 books and the latter 2 books and also Roy is not a young whipper snapper anymore (he was borned 1923 ... so do the math); its just the way life is, I wouldn't expect Mr. Dotrice to be sitting around for all those years twiddling his thumbs and

What's going on with the narrator??

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Well, the book is as well plotted as ever, or rather, the characters are as perfectly drawn as in the previous books.

What did you like best about this story?

Complex motivations drive the characters. There's no good vs. bad, simply opposing agendas and goals. Just like it is in real life.

How could the performance have been better?

How could it be worse? I truly liked Roy Dotrice's narration in the first 3 books. But here, suddenly the voices not only change, but all women have ridiculously crone-like voices. They all sound like the ugly old witch, even the young ones. I can hardly hear a distinction between thought and speech. Different characters talking with each other are hard to tell apart.
Plus,

If you were to make a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

Eternal politics in a medieval realm

Thanks for bringing Roy back!

I do not care that many of the voices have changed slightly... or often completely.

After listening to the first couple hours of John Lee (a fantastic narrator for other works), I'm simply glad that someone listened and brought back our narrator for this installment.

Thank you.