Did anyone find A Feast For Crows difficult to start?

Mr.Prodston · 05-08-2013 02:36AM

TimeToShine wrote: »

AFFC is a particularly hard slog especially after reading the second half of ASOS which is probably the best book in the series for me. More happened in that half the book that in AFFC and ADWD combined.

I do think that AFFC will prove to be an important book in hindsight. The Iron Islands are clearly going to prove very important in the last two books, particularly Euron and Victarion. Dorne has some pretty great characters as well like Hotah and Darkstar who i'm also sure will feature heavily in the last two books. Some of these characters desperately needed fleshing out and I suppose AFFC did this, albeit in a very dull manner. I almost wonder sometimes if a ghost writer wrote this considering it was released only two years after ASOS.

The worst chapters for me were Brienne and Sansa. Brienne in particular was horrible, her meandering around on what we already know was a wild goose chase was painful to read about and although I've read the book three times I am probably guilty of skipping a paragraph here and there due to sheer boredom. ADWD wasn't much better with
Dany sitting on her arse doing absolutely nothing and Jon's quite obviously fake death
but I suppose it sets it up quite nicely for the last two books. All I can say is if they're even half as good as ASOS part II then I'll be absolutely delighted.

Well firstly there was 5 years between the books and Martin has described the whole thing as the "Meereenese knot", I'm on the iPod and its late do I won't go into details now.

I'm also surprised at the lack of love for for Brienne and Sam in general by posters here. I also enjoyed Sansa's story more than before although that could be the largest criticism of the book when that happens :pac:

I was extremely guilty of skipping dorne first time around so I'm looking forward to actually consuming the events of this book soon.

TimeToShine · 05-08-2013 03:13AM

Mr.Prodston wrote: »

Well firstly there was 5 years between the books and Martin has described the whole thing as the "Meereenese knot", I'm on the iPod and its late do I won't go into details now.

I'm also surprised at the lack of love for for Brienne and Sam in general by posters here. I also enjoyed Sansa's story more than before although that could be the largest criticism of the book when that happens :pac:

I was extremely guilty of skipping dorne first time around so I'm looking forward to actually consuming the events of this book soon.

My mistake it was indeed 5 years between ASOS and AFFC which just irritates me more considering he's had twice as much time on each of the last two books and they don't compare to the first three.

05-08-2013 04:38AM

TimeToShine wrote: »

My mistake it was indeed 5 years between ASOS and AFFC which just irritates me more considering he's had twice as much time on each of the last two books and they don't compare to the first three.

Just because they're different doesn't mean they don't compare. He expanded the universe, just because some didn't like it doesn't mean they are bad books. If they were so bad then I'm sure nobody who criticises them will be reading on? Thought so.

Also, I really liked the Alayne arc and what's gone on so far. People need to just not expect big events in every chapter.

05-08-2013 01:23PM

Liam O wrote: »

Just because they're different doesn't mean they don't compare. He expanded the universe, just because some didn't like it doesn't mean they are bad books. If they were so bad then I'm sure nobody who criticises them will be reading on? Thought so.

Also, I really liked the Alayne arc and what's gone on so far. People need to just not expect big events in every chapter.

For me they are average books, half the books I consider not worth reading and the other half is must read material. If the next one is similar then I won't be reading the book, I will be reading chapters from the book.

While fleshing out the universe isn't a bad thing, I think it was poorly done, some of the important characters from previous books who I really enjoyed reading about were relegated to almost minor characters in place of the new ones, there was only a handful of Davos and Sansa chapters. Why not send one of the established characters to Dorne or the Iron Islands as a way to introduce new characters? Instead Sam, Brienne, Davos and Arya do essentially nothing for 2 books.

Another thing I really dislike is how the focus has gone off the Stark children in the last two books.

TimeToShine · 05-08-2013 04:49PM

Liam O wrote: »

Just because they're different doesn't mean they don't compare. He expanded the universe, just because some didn't like it doesn't mean they are bad books. If they were so bad then I'm sure nobody who criticises them will be reading on? Thought so.

Also, I really liked the Alayne arc and what's gone on so far. People need to just not expect big events in every chapter.

I have to disagree. I just found the way he went about fleshing out these different areas to be sub-standard compared to the first three books. I find it very hard to enjoy Sansa's arc when I spent the first three books using her chapters as a cue to go to bed, and these new ones aren't faring much better in my mind.

Also when I say "bad" I mean they were bad relative to the other books. Taken on their own merits they are fine. What may obviously be the case is that the less that happens in these books the more likely we are to get two fantastic books to finish out the series. At least we can now say we have a good background on all of the major parties involved so there isn't much left except for stuff to actually happen.

ArmaniJeanss · 05-08-2013 11:01PM

TimeToShine wrote: »

The worst chapters for me were Brienne and Sansa.

Thought Sansa's chapters were fantastic, the Eyrie is one of GRRMs best written places. Theoretically a safe place of refuge, yet always an overriding sense of fear, foreboding and claustrophobia in every sentence he writes there. Sansa's realisation that she is surrounded by nutcases and physcopaths (Littlefinger, Sweetrobin) whilst a condemned man sings at her from his skycell. Wonderful.

I like AFfC lots, second best book behind ASoS imo.
Though it rewards careful reading - GRRM doesn't spoonfeed here but makes his audience figure out stuff themselves. Things like the Sandor moment on the Quiet Isle, or the 'Sansa-hunting' knight that Brienne meets on the road who ends up working at the Eyrie in the last chapter there.

jebus84 · 05-08-2013 11:09PM

ArmaniJeanss wrote: »

I like AFfC lots, second best book behind ASoS imo.Though it rewards careful reading - GRRM doesn't spoonfeed here but makes his audience figure out stuff themselves. Things like the Sandor moment on the Quiet Isle, or the 'Sansa-hunting' knight that Brienne meets on the road who ends up working at the Eyrie in the last chapter there.

fully agree,asos was never going to be topped,and expections were very high,and also all the books are alot better when read a second and third time but like you said aFfc is more rewarding when reading again,love briennes journey in this book

GhostInTheRuins · 07-08-2013 05:33PM

I'm just about to start reading AFFC. I suppose after the last book anything would be a let down, but I hope I don't find it as bad as people here are saying.

Professional Griefer · 08-08-2013 02:33AM

I don't think AFFC is that bad, I'm not too far into it though. Its nothing compared to aSOS, but it'd be hard for anything to live up to that.

08-08-2013 06:05AM

After pillaging through the first 3 books I ended up waiting 6 months before going into AFFC. This was in part due to some negative reviews I had read about it plus i wanted to wait closer until the release of ADWD so there wouldn't be as long a wait.

Have to say that after the first 150 pages or so I did find it easier and began to enjoy it progressively more. I am due a reread of the series soon and AFFC is the book i am most anticipating revisiting.

A Neurotic · 08-08-2013 08:41PM

Managed to finish it eventually. Thankfully the various threads picked up a bit towards the end, but I'm 40% into book 1 of ADWD and it's already so much more interesting.

In retrospect AFFC does set certain things up nicely in the larger scheme of things, but I don't think I'll ever read it again.

jebus84 · 08-08-2013 08:54PM

id read AFFC before ADWD maybe thats just me

hussey · 15-08-2013 07:12AM

I'm about 2/3 through my original reread and there is so much I am picking up, Sandor stuff is great, people talk about him being a monster who rapes and kills for fun. Whilst living on quiet isle.
Jamie and his redemption, Cersie .... I love her ability to screw everything up, and not being able to see the forest from the trees. Everything is a plot and a scheme, everyone can see her mistakes bar her.
Sansa is great, she can start to see how the game is played, and can see littlefingers plots before her.

Shout Dust · 20-08-2013 08:51PM

I found AFFC the most difficult to read, I liked ADWD for the most part. Found Dorne in particular a slog to get through, and Brienne. The Dorne stuff was slightly better in ADWD, it at least seemed to be going somewhere. Reading about Brienne and knowing she was going the wrong way was a slog too, and no payoff in the end. Everything she did could have been covered by one of the other characters hearing about her story. Cersei was ok, thought it got a bit too 1984-esque though.

Didn't like they way he got hung up on certain things and phrases either. A game of Cyvasse was shoehorned into every chapter possible, 'nuncle' was bad enough being used by the ironborn, then suddenly Jaime and Cersei started using it too, and other phrases were overused too.

I actually thought the stuff with Victarion and Euron was interesting, and Asha was ok. Could have done with naming the chapters after their characters names as he'd done in the previous books though.

It sets things up nicely for the next book though, a lot of stories coming to a head. Have to hope he writes it the same as SoS and not split it up again. If he does it could be an epic book

BadmanRiddim · 02-10-2013 05:26PM

Started it no bother, finishing it was the hard part.

Did anyone find A Feast For Crows difficult to start?

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