I have to say this book was a disappointment. The first three books in this series were unquestionably 5-star reading.
A Feast for Crows, however, truly was -- as one reviewer described it -- a chore to get through. I wondered often as I read it whether Martin would have fared better to collapse this book and the sequel, A Dance with Dragons, into one volume after all. The argument that the book would have then been too long doesn't wash with me since many of the chapters here -- far too many -- felt like "packing material", the popcorn and bubblewrap that you have to dig through to get to the good stuff that you really wanted and paid for. A Feast for Crows would have been a far better book if the dross chapters had been eliminated and the pure gold chapters from the next book added in. Ah, well. Too late for that now.
Sadly, in this book, I just got bored. Not only once, but again and again. And I am astounded to say that because Martin is a magnificent writer and storyteller. But I was seriously bored with much of this book.
I did not like Martin's departure from the style of previous books of adding so many nameless ("The Prophet", "The Kraken's Daughter", etc.) point-of-view (POV) chapters. Sheesh. Why not just say their names? "Aeron" ... "Asha" ... Worse still, most of these "secondary" POV chapters were quite dull. I did not like these characters and I did not want to invest my time in them because it is not THEIR story I am interested in in this series. Many of these secondary characters are repellent, dull, and/or unpleasant, and each new character's chapter(s) carried the baggage of (seemingly) 50 to 60 new names and characters apiece.
Even the primary POVs in this volume, including Brienne, Jaime, and Cersei, are not particularly likable or interesting. That leaves about 20% of the book that really held my interest. Only the Samwell, Arya, and Sansa chapters held my attention here, and the latter two characters appear very little in this particular volume. The one good thing about this overall structure was that at least I knew before reading a chapter that I probably wasn't going to enjoy it: "Brienne", "Cersei", "Jaime", "Unnamed" = Not Terribly Interesting. Best not be sleepy if you want to get through any of these chapters in one sitting.
To the author's credit, the pace of Feast for Crows does pick up toward the end of the book, which, alas, once again leaves us hanging for heaven knows how long until the next book is published -- longer still if these particular "King's Landing" POV plot threads are not to be picked back up until Book 6. Patience, more than any other quality, is required of readers of this series.
Even so, I am committed to this series for the long haul. Martin at his worst is better than most writers in this genre at their very best. He is a most gifted and talented writer, and I trust he can get back on course for the next book in this series. I am keeping my fingers crossed that there is someone in this process that can effectively tell Martin, for future volumes in this series, "Yo, dude. This chapter is well written, surely, but it really ought to be cut..."
EDIT, June 10, 2011--
In anticipation of the publication of Book 5, A Dance with Dragons, next month, I have been rereading this series. The first three books were a joy (yet again), but this one, not so much. If you are tackling Book 4, A Feast for Crows, either for the first time or if you're rereading the series, and you find yourself struggling with this particular volume, I recommend the following:
(1) Read the Prologue.
(2) Then skip to chapter 5, the first Samwell chapter, and read it.
(3) Thereafter, read ONLY the Jaime, Sansa/"Alayne", Arya/"Cat of the Canals", and Samwell chapters. Skip all of the Cersei, Brienne, and remaining "Unnamed" chapters -- all of them.
(4) Finally, after that, check the A Feast for Crows Wikipedia entry for brief plot synopses of the portions you skipped past.
This cuts the book by more than half, I know, but trust me. It's better this way.
The Prologue and final Samwell chapter give the book a satisfying sense of completion and closure, and the story overall moves along at a much brisker clip. Of the two Lannisters represented here (how I missed Tyrion in this book!), Jaime is definitely more interesting than Cersei, and he lets you know all you really need to know about Cersei (and Brienne, too) from his point of view.
And, of course, the skipped chapters will always be there, waiting for you, just like the La Brea Tar Pits, should you ever feel inclined to wade through them.
