Book 17: A Feast for Crows by George R. R. Martin

This is the fourth book of the Song of Fire and Ice series by George R.R. Martin.  It's also the last book for this mini-marathon as I don't yet own the fifth in the series.  As soon as I pick that one up I'll continue.  This one is a little smaller than the last, only 976 pages (!) so it should be slightly easier to finish, haha.

140 pages per day to finish this one in a week, but I've been going through the series at about 200 pages a day so I'll probably stick with that, it's a good rhythm.

REVIEW:  This book was my least favorite so far.  Apparently, Mr. Martin had too much material for one book so he split it into two volumes.  Instead of giving half the story for all the characters he decided to give the full story for half the characters.  The only problem with this is that few of the characters that I'm interested in are in this book.  Instead of Jon Snow, we get Samwell, instead of Tyrion we get Cersei, instead of Bran we get Sansa.  In addition, he decided to expand on the happenings in some of the more remote areas of his world.  Personally, I think that much of that action could have happened "off-screen" and been handled by references and allusions to the results.  Martin gives entirely too much information and it bogs down his narrative.  It's less like reading The Lord of the Rings and more like reading The Silmarillion.  Those that have read the two will know the difference.

In addition to slowing down the plot, his over detailed prose is starting to become a bit repetitive.  The terms "mummer's farce" and "useless as nipples on a breastplate" were used many times and his description of food and eating is still very repetitive.  Hot juices running down chins and into beards is a common occurrence as is tearing the wing from a plump, crisp capon.

Don't get me wrong, I still think that the story is great and the weaving together of the separate plot-lines is genius, but the writing is still pretty average.  I'm not sure what it is about most fantasy and sci-fi authors that makes them such mediocre writers... something about people with great ideas but little talent as a wordsmith.  I could name a dozen or more writers like that.

The same complaints from this book as the previous coupled with the absence of most of my favorite characters and locations makes this my least favorite so far.  By contrast, the next book, being focused on the characters that were left out of this one, should be one of the best.   5 out of 10 for this one.