A Feast for Crows

A Feast For Crows requires a bit of a shift in expectations. The first three books largely focused on the Starks and Lannisters. Sure, there were Dany chapters that took us across the Narrow Sea and Jon Snow chapters on the Wall and north of it. We occasionally got to see what Stannis was up to in the second and third books; although the Baratheon family is pretty firmly entwined with both the Starks and the Lannisters via the late King Robert. The second book also shed a bit of light on Theon Greyjoy. But again, Theon was so tied to the Starks that this hardly seemed like a major departure.

This all changes in the fourth book, when the world doubles in size while simultaneously narrowing in scope. Over half of the book is dedicated to three characters: Cersei, Jaime, and Brienne. Arya, Sansa, and Sam each get a few chapters, but several key characters are missing (Tyrion, Bran, and Jon). Instead, GRRM introduces two new kingdoms with all new casts of characters and complicated politics that the reader is expected to grasp in the space of nine chapters.

I made pie charts to illustrate how drastically the perspective shifts in this book. I grouped members of each house by color, but didn't strictly stick with the house colors (there are only so many shades of grey)

GoT mostly focused on the Starks. We had a couple of other characters to us additional perspective

CoK added two minor characters. Ned has died, but the focus is still on the Starks

SoS adds two new characters, but the Starks still narrate half the book

The Starks are barely in this book. Instead we get Lannisters, Greyjoys, and Martells.

We go from a story that's mostly about the Starks to one in which they barely appear at all. And A Feast for Crows has more new characters than any of the other books.

Once you adjust to the shift in perspective, the rest of the book is mostly enjoyable. Everything happening in Dorne is really interesting and I wish the story had been given more than four chapters. On the other hand, I'm glad the Greyjoys only got five chapters, since I hate pretty much everyone from the Iron Islands.

Brienne spends most of her time wandering around a small section of Westeros looking for Sansa who is still hiding out in the Eyrie with Petyr under the assumed name Alayne. Brienne finds Zombie Catelyn instead of Sansa and dies much too soon. I was really hoping she'd find her way back to Jaime who seems almost ready to swear off Cersei. But things are looking up for Sansa, and I remain excited to see what's in store for her next. Though I'll probably have to wait until the sixth book comes out for that.

I still love Arya, but she's just sort of hanging out in Braavos. Her story has become as disconnected from the rest of the plot as Dany's and I really don't see how it's going to get integrated back in. I'm a little worried that she's going to get killed off just because she doesn't seem to have much to do anymore. But if she was going to die, I expect she would have in A Storm for Swords. I just don't know why GRRM is keeping her around at this point.

It was fun to see Arya run into Sam in Braavos, even if he didn't recognize her. He just keeps bumping into Starks wherever he goes. I can't wait to see Oldtown through his eyes. It seems like a really cool city and it will be nice to hang out there with a character I already love.

And then there's Cersei. Cersei gets almost a quarter of this book all to her self, and it definitely makes for good reading. She's paranoid and obsessed with a prophecy from her childhood. Reading her chapters is like watched a train crash in slow motion. I can see mistake after mistake in her actions, but she's so crippled by her conviction that everyone is out to get her that she just keeps making those mistakes. I think her biggest one was trusting Taena, just because that relationship seems too good to be true for Cersei. I have to say, I was expecting Jaime to kill her by the end of the book. She's concerned about a prophecy that her little brother will kill her and, of course, decides that must mean Tyrion. But that's too easy. I think the prophecy is about Jaime. I'll have to keep reading to see whether I'm right or not.

All in all, this book wasn't nearly as exciting as A Storm of Swords. Then again, I'm not sure any book could be as exciting as that one.