Most Helpful Customer Reviews
|
|
157 of 168 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
The song is becoming a noodling free-jam, November 15, 2005
It's doubtful that any sort of review will stop someone who has read the first three books from reading this long-awaited and justly anticipated instalment. Nevertheless, I'd like to voice an opinion which falls between the extremes which seem to be the most prevalent sort of reponses to this book.
Mr Martin is a great fantasy writer, and I don't think that has changed. However, A Feast For Crows is not up to the standard of this first three in the series. What I suspect HAS changed is the commercial pressure that has been placed on Mr Martin, combined with (I hate to say it) a growing over-indulgence which has been allowed him. When George Martin defends the delays, longer-than-expected lengths, and the seemingly extraneous side-stories, he is fond of referring to Tolkien by saying that "the story writes itself" (or something like that). I don't doubt that Martin experiences this "divine inspiration" like many other great artists, but this time around he seems to have been unable (or more likely, unwilling) to step away from that feeling to undergo the painful process of editing. When the pressure to make a release led to a cutting in half of the anticipated book, thus allowing two books of about 700 pages rather than one of about, say, 1000, it seems that Martin took it as a cue to go easy on the editing. The splitting of the book is itself substantially detrimental, but Martins lack of self-criticism is the real reason why this book is somewhat disappointing. Not everything created by the divine inspiration of great artists is great art.
People who are claiming that there is no plot development, either within the book or for the series, are of course exaggerating. There are certain interesting revelations and developments that will no doubt play a role in the eventual (and I say that optimistically) resolution of the series. Take for (spoiler-free) example the potential rise of the Church of the 7 gods as a major political player, the implied motivations of the masters in Oldtown, the (loss of) direction that Berric Dondarions outlaws have taken, the grand plans of the new king of the Iron Islands etc. However, these sort of developments are only seen accidentally through the characters, who have become the real focus of this book.
This is where Martin seems to have gone astray. The chapters of the three characters who by far dominate this book in terms of length (Cersei, Jaime, and Brienne) are all in turn overly-dominated by a personal theme. Cersei has become paranoid to the point of insanity, particularly with regards to a prophesy she was given as a girl (which, by the way, felt like a new idea of Martins specifically for this book, but doesn't seem to fit entirely comfortably with Cersei's character from the previous books). Jaime is torn between love/trust and hate/mistrust of his sister. Brienne struggles with doubt about her worth in playing the role of a knight as opposed to an ordinary, though ugly, high-born maiden. The problem is that not only are the bigger events of the "game of thrones" made subordinate to these longwinded inner struggles and dialogues, but that they tend not to go anywhere. Admittedly Cersei's paranoia has important ramifications in her final 2 chapters, but is it really necessary to spend her first 8 chapters or so just to give the sense of her paranoia? I feel it could have been done in 3 or 4 chapters, and thereby made more engaging rather than tiresome. The same applies at least as much for Jaime and Brienne.
Speaking of Brienne, I think that Martin has blatently sacrificed the flow of the story within and between books in favour of setting up a "cliffhanger" ending. In the previous books, anticipation for the following book has been achieved by a partial resolution of the characters (Jon Snowe becomes Lord Commander and refuses Stannis' offer, Tyrion kills Tywin and leaves Westeros, etc) and leaves you able to intelligently speculate about their future. Brienne's predicament at the end of her final chapter is a matter that would be resolved in a matter of seconds in real-time, but unfortunately Martin has opted to finish it like a lame soap opera full of cheap tricks to make me watch the next episode, or a typical horror movie setting itself up for a money-making sequel. I dare say she will survive, but I am still left feeling a little more cautious of Martins artistic credibility.
When I say that those three characters dominate the length of the novel, I am not exaggerating. The rest of the POVS are a mixed bag. I thought that the ones covering Dorne and the Iron Islands contained some interesting developments, although they are yet to take on their full significance, which makes them less engaging. I felt Arya had potential to become one of the more interesting characters at the end of the previous novel, but so far (in her 3 chapters) has failed to deliver. Her primary role here seems to be to describe life in the city of Braavos. Sansa's chapters are somewhat interesting but still contain a lot of filler (especially her last one, which I barely skim read up to the last page, something I never felt inclined to do in any of the prevous books). The same goes for Samwell.
Essentially, AFFC contains writing that is as good as any of the previous books, but it is hidden and scattered between too many words, which costs us readers more of our time and money. Martin just seems to do a little too much taking and not enough giving in this instalment, and if things continue like this in the next instalment, he will lose my interest. I'm sure he is aware of the dangers of prolonging a story to the point of tedium. Let's hope that feedback to this book will make him raise his editing game, and get this song back into a refined composition rather than a noodling free-jam.
|
|
|
88 of 96 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
A Song of Walking and Walking Some More, December 6, 2006
Yikes.
I've enjoyed this series, honestly I have, but the latest entry--A Feast for Crows--has forced me to seriously reconsider whether it has been worth it.
In the first place, frankly, this is no longer the series I'd signed on for. The first novel introduced a group of characters, the Starks, and led us to believe that they would be central to the narrative. Now with most of them dead or scattered, they're almost incidental to it. Since this volume only deals with half of the current "main cast," some of my personal favorites completely disappear (like Tyrion and Daenerys). In short, when I decided to continue on after A Game of Thrones, I didn't know I'd be reading 1000 pages of Brienne and the Iron Born.
Aside from this literary 'bait and switch,' there's also the fact that... well... nothing really happens in this book. Okay, maybe "nothing" is harsh, but it certainly feels like it. *Lots of things* should happen in a 1000 page book, but Martin strives to put all of the relevant happenings at the very end. Before that, characters spend an endless amount of time wandering from place to place. We readers get to meet all sorts of new and extraneous characters, instead of spending time with the countless we've met before. (Though in fairness, given the time between publishings, it's unlikely we'd remember all of those older characters. I can't keep straight who's died anymore... I forget, is Theon dead?) Incredibly, most of the exciting action (battles and the like) take place between chapters, and we only learn about it through conversation after the fact.
Many of the new characters introduced here get their own POV chapter, sometimes one to a character. The series is becoming increasingly disjointed, and there's certainly no kind of resolution for anything in sight. The one real thru-line is Cersei's story. She probably gets the most chapters, and something like an actual plot. Of course, I can sum up all of those chapters to you here with: Cersei hates and is suspicious of/jealous of everyone and everything. Cersei sits around and snapes at everything, over and over again, and lord but it doesn't get much more exciting than that until page 900.
The series is, at least, consistent in that the worst things always happen to the best characters and things can always be counted on to go wrong (unless you're a villain). While it was once possible to say that Martin was being "realistic" in showing that, sometimes, bad things happen to the heroes... well, it's almost ridiculous now, in how nothing good ever seems to happen to anyone who could be described as "virtuous." Though, of course, very few of the remaining characters could so be described. Most have been decapitated well before this novel. There is a line between "realism" and "sadism," and it isn't all that "fine." Martin has crossed it some time ago.
Man, I was looking forward to this book. But really what I was looking forward to was a sequel to the novels that had come before it. Instead, this book (and, increasingly, the series) abandons the characters who have come before and, rather than offer any resolution, creates new conflicts spiraling off into the aether. It doesn't deal with any of those conflicts, either. Instead, it contents itself with having all of its main characters walk from locale to locale, talking, thinking and dreaming but never doing.
George R.R. Martin has taken up close to 4000 pages now, more than three times what Tolkien used in The Lord of the Rings and more than twice War and Peace. He has accomplished very little for all that, and given us little hope that there's any relief in sight. His preferred method of resolving conflicts seems to be having his characters abruptly die, and so that's how I figure he'll tie the loose ends here. It's all rather depressing, if like me you feel you have to finish what you start. Martin is capable of good, snappy storytelling--his graphic novel which takes place in the same world, The Hedge Knight, was really quite good. But it has one large advantage over A Song of Ice and Fire in that it has a beginning, middle and end. A Song of Ice and Fire, on the other hand, seems to be nothing but an endless middle. (The fact that it's a series doesn't mean it can't have both rising and falling action and resolutions to conflicts sprinkled along the way. Examine almost any other series, ever, for examples.)
Not all of these flaws are new to the series--in fact, they've been there since almost the start--but over time they're becoming more and more inescapable and damaging to the overall experience. Two stars for this novel. If things don't rapidly improve, and there's no reason to expect them to, we'll quickly find ourselves at a solitary star. A shame.
|
|
|
38 of 39 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Well, OK..., November 29, 2006
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", popcorn and bubblewrap that you have to get 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. Geeze. I imagine that Martin used this device so that readers would know these were not primary characters, but the problem is that these secondary POV characters are just ... second-rate and dull. If the story of the Ironborn was really worth telling, for example, then I'd rather the author had created a "real" POV character to tell it.
Even the primary POVs in this volume, including Brienne, Jaime, and Cersei, are not particularly likable or interesting, so you don't much care what happens to them either. 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.
The sharp, knucklebiting, fascinating suspense so ably maintained from chapter to chapter in the first three books is diluted and lame here. I more often than not fell asleep reading these chapters. Yes, FELL ASLEEP. That never happened in the first three books. Never.
In Feast for Crows, Martin greatly presumes upon the residual interest and good will of his readers from the first three books in this series, serving here a pretty skimpy "feast" indeed. Readers are left to root among the piles of bone and gristle and ash for a savory tidbit here and there, some small shred of news regarding a character we actually care about in Westeros or beyond from the first three books. To the author's credit, the pace of Feast for Crows does picks up considerably 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..."
|
|
|
Most Recent Customer Reviews
|
Listen to our
exclusive interview with George R.R. Martin.
by George R.R. Martin
by George R.R. Martin
by George R.R. Martin
by Robin Hobb
by Patrick Rothfuss
See all Editorial Reviews
