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George Martin is one of the few authors for whom I’ll buy new releases the first day they’re available and dive right in. His “Song of Ice and Fire” series is regularly cited as one of the few examples of fantasy that isn’t awful. And for good reason, because the previous three books have been awesome. I was, unfortunately, kind of disappointed by the latest, A Feast for Crows.
The mechanics are all fine (minus a couple of lesbian sex scenes that had me rolling my eyes so hard I almost lost my balance), and Martin continues to deliver characters that are drawn with fine lines with motivations that can be understood if not agreed with. For example, I hated the Cersei chapters because talking heads discussing overly complicated political intrigue is NEVER interesting. But at the same time it was great to see Martin dive into her character and show us how someone can utterly screw up a realm through ineptitude, arrogance, and short-sightedness, yet have some good intentions at heart, like protecting her son. (Bush analogy, anyone?) And I like that Jaime guy.
Still, a whole lot of nothing happens in this book and it seems that many chapters are completely extraneous, confusing and distracting us with new characters to an already too-huge cast. And it really suffers from the lack of the most interesting characters like Tyrion, Danerys, and Jon Snow. Thankfully, the next book will supposedly focus nearly entirely on them.
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