A Feast for Crows/ George R.R. Martin/ 684 p.

(Note: this is the 4th book in A Song of Ice and Fire, so if you don’t want the plot spoiled, I highly recommend you not read any more of this post, but instead go out and read A Game of Thrones.)

Martin’s sprawling epic has grown so long that he couldn’t even fit all the events and characters that were supposed to take place in this book into a volume that was capable of being published, so he took the controversial move to split the story in two, and only follow half of the characters. This book covers the main continent of Westeros, minus the North. The next book, which will come out this July, A Dance with Dragons, was delayed five years, and will follow our friends across the sea and at the Wall. This means that those who read A Storm of Swords when it was originally published have been waiting ten years for those characters to return!

Feast for Crows is the weakest in the series so far, due in part to the absence of our most interesting characters—Jon Snow, Tyrion, and Daenerys. Instead, we keep following Arya and Sansa, Jaime, and Samwell, but most of the chapters are told from new perspectives, some of characters we’ve met before, some new. The biggest shift is the focus on the houses of Greyjoy and Martell. The men of the Iron islands are choosing a new king after Balon Greyjoy’s death, and his daughter and two of his brothers are claiming the kingship. In the south, Doran Martell is hedging his bets carefully, but the Sand Snakes and his daughter Arianne are plotting a more aggressive course.

Unlike the other books, which start each chapter with the name of the character whose perspective we are following, here for some reason we get titles for some characters, like “The Soiled Knight,” but names for others. Even more confusing, the titles are not consistent for characters, so Victarion Greyjoy is “The Iron Commander” in one chapter, and “The Reaver” in the next. We also follow characters whose perspective only appears once, another new development. Traditionally Martin reserves the prologue for a one-shot character perspective (so, far, because that character dies each time).

Still, Feast for Crows is not a waste of time. It’s prone to some of the faults of middle books in a detailed and epic series, but we can see the threads and prophecies and tension continuing to build, which should make the payoff later worth it.

A Storm of Swords / George R.R. Martin / 960 p.

(Note: this is the 3^rd book in the series, so if you don’t want the plot spoiled, I highly recommend you not read any more of this post, but instead go out and read A Game of Thrones.)

 At the end of A Clash of Kings, the number of claimants for the throne of Westeros has been whittled down, with Renly’s death and Stannis’ defeat at the Blackwater. Things look bright for the Lannisters; the Highgarden alliance will be cemented with the marriage of Joffrey to Margaery Tyrell, and the chance of a strong alliance with the Martells becomes a possibility. In the Riverlands, the “Young Wolf” Robb Stark has won every battle but damages his cause when he chooses love over honor. 

   

But don’t forget that this series is called A Song of Ice and Fire, and some of the most interesting events happen in the far north and south of the world.  Beyond the Wall, Mance Rayder’s forces are advancing, and Jon Snow is torn between his duties as a spy for the Night’s Watch and his attraction to the Wildling Ygritte. But in the dark worse things are gaining power, as Samwell Tarly finds out to his terror.  In the Eastern cities, Daenerys Targaryen begins to solidify her position of power, using her dragons and wits to launch a campaign of conquest.

As always, Martin keeps the reader hooked with blindsiding plot twists and shifts in character POVs that keep your sympathies changing. The most interesting new addition are the chapters narrated by Jaime Lannister, a character we’ve seem everyone else’s opinions of but whose true nature remained elusive. In all, Storm of Swords provides what we’ve come to expect from Martin, a mix of haunting history and thrilling political backstabbing, where no one is safe, for “when you play the Game of Thrones you win or you die.  There is no middle ground.”          

A Clash of Kings / George R.R. Martin / 728 p.

Since I hate spoiling information about the second book in a series when most readers of this blog haven’t read the first, see below for my review of the first book in the series, A Game of Thrones (which is going to be a series on HBO in April!); my thoughts on the second book are listed after it.

***

Don't mistake the two 'R.R.'s in this author's name for someone similar to Tolkien. While Tolkien's fantasy is about beauty and yearning and the desire for the restoration of a broken world, Martin's is about exploring the depths of (in)humanity. Don't expect the beautifully bittersweet Lorien, prepare for the gutters and sewers of King's Landing. This book is very gritty and dark.

Martin creates a host of realistic characters, warts and all. (Literally. You'll find boils, and open sores, and all other kinds of nastiness.)There are certainly characters who live by honor, or duty, or family, but they are just as likely to come to a bad end as those who are petty, selfish, or cruel. The world is brutal, justice is unfair, and prophecies exist but are just as likely to fail as come true. . .

And yet, this world is so compelling that it's impossible to look away. The characters defy categorization; you have many of the typical characters of fantasy: the noble lord who seeks justice, the bastard with no place, exiled royalty, the plucky tomboy, the cunning dwarf, the sinister queen, but if you think that means you can predict what will happen, think again.

And while nobles play their game of thrones, darkness creeps back at the edges of the world. . .

****Spoilers****

                At the end of A Game of Thrones, surprising deaths and political backstabbing has left Westeros with a power vacuum that many noble houses are anxious to fill. The Lannisters control the Iron Throne, but Robb Stark has sworn vengeance for his father’s death and rides as King in the North.  Both of King Robert’s brothers have claimed the right to rule, and raised armies to back them. The sea raiders of Pyke have decided to use this opportunity to carve out a kingdom for themselves.  But the series is not called A Song of Ice and Fire for nothing; two of the characters we care about the most are Jon Snow, whose duties take him beyond the Wall, as more disturbing truths about the undead wights glimmer at the edge of knowledge, and Daenerys Targaryen, the queen in exile who has awoken the first dragons to appear in hundreds of years.  

                With the addition of two new points of view, Davos Seaworth and Theon Greyjoy, the number of different characters we follow hovers at just below ten, with chapters alternating between their stories.  Sometimes it feels like characters are moved around just so we can get live journalists, as it were, on the scene to let us see all the events that are taking place, but as always, Martin’s masterful storytelling ability makes all the plot lines compelling.  The series is truly epic in scope, but the characters are flawed and fallible people with a depth of character development not often found in fantasy.  Your sympathies might be with the Starks and you might hate the Lannisters, but Tyrion Lannister remains one of the most interesting and sympathetic characters in the series.  Martin refuses to let you take sides completely, always shading the characters or the situation so that there is no obvious way out. This is one fantasy series that you won’t be able to put down with an “eh” after the first book, and the second leaves you desperate to start the third.