A Feast for Crows by George R R Martin

A Feast for Crows (A Song of Ice and Fire, #4)

by George R.R. Martin

The fourth instalment of George R R Martin’s classic A Song of Ice and Fire, continuing the most ambitious and imaginative epic fantasy since The Lord of the Rings.

A Feast for Crows brings to life dark magic, intrigue and terrible bloodshed as the war-torn landscape of the Seven Kingdoms is threatened by destruction as vast as any in its violent past. The War of the Five Kings has ripped Westeros apart. The bloodthirsty, treacherous and cunning Lannisters occupy the Iron Throne, with allies as ruthless as themselves. Lord Frey was host at the Red Wedding, so called for the massacre of the guests, their screams unheard above the music of the feast. Euron Crow’s Eye is as black a pirate as ever raised a sail, sworn to deliver the whole of Westeros to the ironborn.

No less to be feared are their enemies. The Starks of Winterfell and the Martells of Dorne seek vengeance for their dead. And the last of the Targaryens, Daenerys Stormborn, will bring fire and blood to King’s Landing when her young dragons reach their terrifying maturity. The last war fought with dragons was a cataclysm powerful enough to shatter the Valyrian peninsula, now a smoking, demon-haunted ruin half drowned by the sea.

Against a backdrop of alchemy and murder, victory may go to the men and women possessed of the coldest steel … and the coldest hearts.

Reviewed by layawaydragon on

5 of 5 stars

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Warnings: Trigger Warning for rape threats and rapes, which are common among the series.Very common, and it gets a bit more disturbing in this book as point of view character is threatened and almost raped half a dozen times (if not more).

The series is long and often long winded with facts repeated. But considering the scale of the story and the length between publishing, it's understandable and I would think helpful for those reading this as it came out. Hell, I'm reading it straight through one after the other and find it helpful to keep everyone and their great-great-grand mother straight. It does get difficult to remember. I'm sure I will go to read the wiki on this book to find a hundred little things I missed or forgotten, even though I just put the book down.


This book does not feel like a complete book. A very WTF moment when it ended. Not surprising since Martin had to chop it in half due to the complete book being too long. It does help that Martin explains this in the afterword.

The scale and cast of point of view characters is growing. I hope Martin can keep it all together in the next books as well as he has. It does get frustrating wondering what the hell as been happening with some characters. I can't even imagine how it must have felt for people waiting for these books to be published.

I couldn't put this book down. I was more engaged in some passages than other due to not liking the POV character. However, it wasn't unpleasant and wanted to know them more, or at least what's going on.
I eagerly devoured this entire series. I went in looking for answers to some questions but only found more questions. It's like wanting desert after the main course only to have more horse put in front of you. I want the sweet ending. Give me the lemon cakes already Martin you greedy fuck. I want to know what happens to my people!
{sigh}

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  • Started reading
  • 30 June, 2012: Finished reading
  • 30 June, 2012: Reviewed