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)

great book

good story. very detailed. great voice actor. the story and details really makes you feel like your in the story.

Tough

I love this series, and Roy Dotrice I just couldn’t get past the way he changed the pronunciation on some of the names

Could have been better, but better than it was

Did Roy Dotrice do a good job differentiating all the characters? How?

Roy is obviously a great voice actor, so what happened with this book? If you've listened to the first three installments you know how we'll the voices are done. from what I understand, the original recording of the book was done by someone else, then Roy came back and did a recording due to all the complaints about the original reading. The problem here is that Roy seems to have forgotten which character was which and what voice went with them! I mean, some of the girls sound like guys and the guys sound like their former enemies. The one thing you can count on is all the lanisters now sound like Tyrian (they didn't before). I never heard the first recording so I don't know how bad it was and if you haven't listened to the first three books you'll never notice, and to you, Roy will have done a superb job. I'd love to listen to this book again after Roy finds his old voices and puts them back with the right characters!

Others said it before, the voices are not right

Okay, I waited until this volume was available with the correct reader, but I don't know what to say, he seems to have forgotten which voices go with which characters. How disappointing.

great, except character voice changes

Great book, great narrator. One irritating thing though if that the narrator changed voices for several of the characters in this book compared to the previous ones. For example, Arya Stark (a ten year old) in this book has the voice the narrator uses for old women. It makes Arya sound like an old witch...

Roy Dotrice get it together

What made the experience of listening to A Feast for Crows the most enjoyable?

The story is amazing I can't wait to see what happens next.

Who was your favorite character and why?

He keeps killing off my favorite characters

Would you listen to another book narrated by Roy Dotrice?

NO. Unless if course it's the next game if thrones and I have no choice. Roy completely forgot how to say half the names in this book, names he has been saying right for the first three books its very irritating.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

Both.

Any additional comments?

If you have a choice I say read this one and save yourself the frustration of listening to Roy read it poorly

Yeah, but

It was distracting that after three books the narrator would choose the 4th to change the accents and pronunciations of the characters and their names.

Will ruin every book from here on out

This is the best story I've ever read. I'm reading it for a third time now, and I cannot find any other story that compares. It is so well written, there are so many intricate details that you can't possibly catch them all the first time, or even the second time. The Song of Ice and Fire is truly a one of a kind, and trust me when I say that the show does it no justice at all. Don't bother with the HBO series... read it. Although, it may ruin you for finding enjoyable reading afterward.

A very looong tale.

This book ties in with the rest of the story, but it seems to be a transitional piece only. I kept wondering when it would start focusing on the Starks ( who, to me, are the real stars of this series). The voices that Roy gives the characters are totally different from those he used in the first 3 books, and this was a major distraction. However, the book was well written and I guess it was needed to move the series along (slooowly). For the most part, this series is awesome and I am looking forward to listening to Book 5.

Chill out Dotrice-haters.

I almost didn't buy this because of the string of Dotrice-slamming reviews that top the "most helpful" list. The haters are wrong.

I've listened to the previous three books and many, many other audio books and Dotrice is an absolute treasure throughout. His emotion, articulation, timing, myriad character voices, etc. bring these books to life unlike any narrator I've listened to before.

True, this book is not as perfect as ASOS, which stands out as one of the truly great fantasy books of all time. There certainly should have been some fat trimming in Feast to speed things up, but at the sentence-level, Martin's writing is still spectacular even if the narrative is slow-moving and sometimes tangential. Plus we miss Dany, Tyrion, and others in this book.

It is also true that Dotrice makes a few errors that I consider quite minor in the overall evaluation of his performance. Yes, he changes his pronunciation of Petyr and, most jarringly, Petryr's voice, for example. I wish he hadn't. But how strange is this collective freak-out about Dotrice given that this is otherwise an energetic and captivating 34-or-so-hour performance that moves between literally hundreds of characters and their voices.

In the end I suppose I'm happy to have had the lowered expectations going into Feast. It's simply not as good as the remarkable books that preceded it. But these histrionic reviews are bizarre overreactions of people that are, perhaps, too invested in Martin's wonderful but -- sorry for the spoiler -- fictional world. Get out more, people! For the rest of you, listen, be patient with the meandering, and enjoy!