4 stars for A Feast for Crows (A Song of Ice and Fire book 4) by George R. R. Martin.
It has been a long time coming since I get to enjoy a good fantasy series. This fourth book of A Song of Ice and Fire series, otherwise better known as The Game of Thrones series, is a good story even though it is my least favourite book to date.
I am rather surprised that the book takes a different turn from the telling. It is no longer coming only from a single appointed character, but rather, the author chooses to include the perspective of one from a given title or position. We have the Prophet, the Captain of Guards, the Kraken's daughter, the soiled knight, the Iron Captain, the Drowned Man, the Queenmaker, the Reaver, the Cat of the Canals, and the Princess in the Tower. We certainly have to guess who is telling the story though it is easy enough to confirm after a few pages. So, on top of these and those same pairs of eyes that tell the story previously, two new voices - Cersei, the twin sister of Jaime Lannister and Brienne of Tarth - are thrown in for good measure. I am not sure if it is a good or bad thing to have more viewpoints in this instalment. But I know for sure, I do not understand the reason and significance for some of them as they seems more of a filler to me than one of necessity.
In this book, nothing is what we do not know, yet everything is new. There is the rivermen and seamen, smiths and singers, priests and septons, spells and prayers, kings and princes, novices and acolytes of the Citadel, and the forging of chain by maesters. It is very much a story on King's Landing, Highgarden, The Arbor, Oldtown, the riverlands, the Reach, the kingswood, the rainwood, Dorne and the marches, the Mountains of the Moon and the Vale of Arryn, Tarth and the Stepstones.
Old powers waken and shadows stir. The story is still very much about the wonders and terrors upon Westeros and their gods and heroes. There is the old gods of the North, the godswood with a weirwood at its heart. And there is the new gods of the Seven as well as the Lord of Light, R'hllor, to save the people from the darkness. Signs, portents, visions continue to play a major role in the telling of the story.
At first, I thought the crows in the book title are referring to those who have taken the black on the Walls (figuratively speaking), but as I read on, I start to think that the feasts are referring to the dead bodies that the crows (literally speaking) feasted on. I'm not sure what the author has in mind when he writes this story but I sure hope it is not my latter guess.
As the author points out at the end of the book, this 4th instalment tells all the story for half the characters. Even as I am writing this review, I have already moved on to the next book, A Dance with Dragons, to unravel the story for the other half of the characters. Yea.
Publisher: Bantam; Media tie-in edition
Publication date: 1 Apr 2014
@}--->>--->>-----
Crows will fight over a dead man's flesh, and kill each other for his eyes.
Bloodthirsty, treacherous and cunning, the Lannisters are in power on the Iron Throne in the name of the boy-king Tommen. The war in the Seven Kingdoms has burned itself out, but in its bitter aftermath new conflicts spark to life.
The Martells of Dorne and the Starks of Winterfell seek vengeance for their dead. Euron Crow's Eye, as black a pirate as ever raised a sail, returns from the smoking ruins of Valyria to claim the Iron Isles. From the icy north, where Others threaten the Wall, apprentice Maester Samwell Tarly brings a mysterious babe in arms to the Citadel.
Against a backdrop of incest and fratricide, alchemy and murder, victory will go to the men and women possessed of the coldest steel and the coldest hearts.
*Blurb from Goodreads*
Add to:
Links to purchase:
No comments:
Post a Comment