A Feast for Crows

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This article is about the George R. R. Martin fantasy novel. For the Corpus Christi album, see A Feast for Crows (album).

A Feast for Crows
LC Class
PS3563.A7239 F39 2005
Preceded byA Storm of Swords 
Followed byA Dance with Dragons 

A Feast for Crows is the fourth of seven planned novels in the

epic fantasy series A Song of Ice and Fire by American author George R. R. Martin. The novel was first published on October 17, 2005, in the United Kingdom,[1] with a United States edition following on November 8, 2005.[2]

Because of its size, Martin and his publishers split the narrative of the still-unfinished manuscript for A Feast for Crows into two books.

Essos, was advertised for the following year, but was eventually released six years later in 2011.[4] Martin noted that the A Song of Ice and Fire series would now likely total seven novels.[3]

A Feast for Crows was the first novel in the series to debut at number one on

fifth season of Game of Thrones
, though elements of the novel appeared in the series' fourth and sixth seasons.

Plot summary

The

Robert Arryn
.

Prologue

Pate is a young apprentice at the Citadel in

Oldtown, training to become a member of the ancient order of scholar-healers known as maesters. At the request of a stranger, he has stolen an important key to a depository of books and records. After turning over the stolen key and receiving the reward of a gold coin, he bites the coin
and dies abruptly from poisoning.

King's Landing

Following the death of

Tyrells, whose alliance is essential to the stability of the Lannister regime — particularly King Tommen's fiancée Margaery
, whom Cersei believes to be the subject of a prophecy about a "younger, more beautiful queen" who will take away all that Cersei holds dear.

Her reckless management raises the kingdom's debts to the Iron Bank of Braavos and the

military order, the Faith Militant, ignoring the danger of a re-armed Faith. A scheme to falsely have the Faith put Margaery on trial for adultery
backfires when the religious leadership imprisons Cersei herself on similar (correct) charges.

Riverlands

Cersei dispatches Jaime to the

Edmure's life, but then convinces Edmure to surrender to save the lives of his men and his unborn child. Though the siege ends bloodlessly, Brynden escapes. Jaime then receives word that Cersei, who has been arrested by the Faith, wants him to defend her in a trial by combat
, but Jaime burns her letter and abandons her to her fate.

Brienne's quest leads her all over the Riverlands, where she witnesses the devastation caused by the war. She acquires Podrick Payne, the former squire of Jaime's brother

Lannisters
, but offers to spare her and her companions if she agrees to kill Jaime.

The Vale

In the remote castle of

Winterfell
in her name.

Iron Islands

On the

Asha, eventually Euron is chosen as king for his promise to conquer Westeros and control Daenerys Targaryen's dragons with an enchanted horn he possesses. Under Euron's leadership, the Iron Fleet attacks the Reach, threatening House Tyrell's seat at Highgarden. Euron sends Victarion east to propose marriage to Daenerys on his behalf, to thus gain a claim to the Iron Throne
; but Victarion secretly decides to woo her for himself instead.

Dorne

In the southern region of

Areo Hotah
arrest and imprison them in the palace.

A bold attempt by Doran's daughter

Quentyn
has gone east to bring back "Fire and Blood" through an alliance with Daenerys.

Braavos

Arriving in the foreign city of Braavos, Arya Stark finds her way to the cult of face-changing assassins known as the Faceless Men. Accepted as a novice, Arya is taught to abandon her previous identity, but her true identity asserts itself in the form of wolf dreams.

Meanwhile, the Night's Watch lord commander Jon Snow has ordered

Mance Rayder, swapped with Gilly's real son. The party becomes temporarily stranded in Braavos when Aemon becomes sick, and Dareon absconds with their money. After learning that Daenerys possesses dragons
, Aemon concludes that she is destined to fulfill a prophecy, and he needs to go assist her; but shortly after the party finally leaves Braavos, Aemon dies at the age of 102.

After Sam's party leaves, Arya chances upon Dareon and murders him for deserting the Night's Watch. As punishment for the unauthorized killing, the Faceless Men then feed her a potion that causes blindness.

Oldtown

At the end of the novel, Sam arrives at the Citadel and is introduced to Archmaester Marwyn. After learning about Aemon's death and the dragon prophecy about Daenerys, Marwyn leaves to find Daenerys himself. Samwell also encounters a fellow apprentice who introduces himself as Pate.

Characters

The story is

point of view
of 12 characters and a one-off prologue point of view. Unlike its predecessors, the fourth novel follows numerous minor characters as well.

  • Prologue: Pate, a novice of the Citadel in
    Oldtown
  • Cersei Lannister, The Queen Regent
  • Ser Jaime Lannister, Lord Commander of the Kingsguard
  • Brienne, Maid of Tarth, a young warrior woman searching for Sansa and Arya Stark
  • Sansa Stark, pretending to be Petyr Baelish's daughter "Alayne Stone" (her later chapters are titled as such)
  • Arya Stark, later referred to as "Cat of the Canals", beginning her training at The House of Black and White in the free city of Braavos
  • Night's Watch
  • In the Iron Islands:
    • The Prophet, The Drowned Man:
      Aeron "Damphair" Greyjoy
      , Self-proclaimed servant of the Drowned god, youngest of Late King Balon's three surviving brothers
    • The Kraken's Daughter: Princess
      Iron Islands
    • The Iron Captain, The Reaver: Prince
      Victarion Greyjoy
      , Captain of the Iron Fleet, one of Late King Balon's three surviving brothers
  • In Dorne:
    • The Captain of Guards:
      Dorne
    • The Soiled Knight: Ser
      Arys Oakheart
      of the Kingsguard
    • The Queenmaker, The Princess in the Tower: Arianne Martell, daughter of Prince Doran and heir to Dorne

Editions

Foreign-language editions

  • Bulgarian: Бард: "Пир за Врани"
  • Catalan: Alfaguara: "Festí de corbs" ("Feast of crows")
  • Chinese (Simplified): 重庆出版社(2008): "群鸦的盛宴" ("Feast for Crows").
  • Chinese (Traditional): 高寶國際(2006): "群鴉盛宴" ("Feast for Crows").
  • Croatian: "Gozba vrana" ("Crows' Feast")
  • Czech: Talpress; "Hostina pro vrány" ("Feast for Crows")
  • Danish: Kragernes rige ("The Kingdom of the Crows")
  • Dutch: Luitingh-Sijthoff: "Een feestmaal voor kraaien" ("A Feast for Crows")
  • Estonian: Two volumes, hardcover : Varrak "Vareste pidusöök" ("Feast of Crows") book 1 & book 2
  • Finnish: "Korppien kestit" ("Feast of Crows")
  • French: Three Volumes, Hardcover: Pygmalion (2006–...): "Le chaos", "Les sables de Dorne", "Un Festin pour les Corbeaux" ("Chaos", "The Sands of Dorne", "A Feast For Crows").
  • German: Single volume, Fantasy Productions (2006): "Krähenfest" ("Crow's Feast", to be released). Two volumes, Blanvalet (2006): "Zeit der Krähen", "Die dunkle Königin" ("Time of the Crows", "The Dark Queen").
  • Greek: Anubis: "Βορά Ορνίων" ("Prey of Vultures")
  • Hebrew: "משתה לעורבים א\ב" ("Feast for Crows pts. A/B")
  • Hungarian: Alexandra Könyvkiadó: "Varjak lakomája" ("Feast of Crows")
  • Italian: Two volumes, Arnoldo Mondadori Editore (Hardcover 2006, 2007 – Paperback 2007, 2008): "Il dominio della regina", "L'ombra della profezia" ("The Rule of the Queen", "The Shadow of the Prophecy").
  • Japanese: Two volumes, hardcover : Hayakawa (2008), paperback : Hayakawa (2013): "乱鴉の饗宴" ("Feast of the War Crows") I and II
  • Korean: Eun Haeng Namu Publishing Co. :"까마귀의 향연" ("Feast for Crows")
  • Lithuanian: Alma Littera "Varnų puota" ("Crows' Feast")
  • Norwegian: Two volumes, "Kråkenes gilde" (The Crows' Feast), "Jern og sand" (Iron and Sand)
  • Polish: Two volumes, Zysk i S-ka: "Uczta dla wron: Cienie Śmierci", "Uczta dla wron: Sieć Spisków" ("A Feast for Crows: Shadows of Death", "A Feast for Crows: Web of Intrigues")
  • Brazilian Portuguese: Leya: "O Festim dos Corvos" ("The Crows Feast")
  • European Portuguese: Two volumes, Saída de Emergência: "O Festim de Corvos" ("A Feast of Crows"), "O Mar de Ferro" ("The Iron Sea")
  • Romanian: Paperback 2009, Hardcover 2011: "Festinul ciorilor" ("The Crows' Feast")
  • Russian: AST: "Пир стервятников" ("Vultures' Feast").
  • Serbian: Two Volumes, Лагуна: "Гозба за вране Део први", "Гозба за вране Део други" ("A Feast for Crows")
  • Slovakia: Tatran: "Hostina pre vrany" ("Feast for Crows")[13]
  • Slovenian: Vranja gostija ("A Feast for Crows")
  • Spanish: Gigamesh (2007): "Festín de Cuervos" ("Feast of Crows")
  • Swedish: Forum bokförlag: "Kråkornas fest" ("The Crows' Feast")
  • Turkish: Two volumes, Epsilon Yayınevi: "Buz ve Ateşin Şarkısı IV: Kargaların Ziyafeti – Kısım I & Kargaların Ziyafeti – Kısım II" ("A Feast for Crows")
  • Ukrainian: KM Publishing (2016): "Бенкет круків" ("The Feast of Crows")
  • Vietnamese: Two Volumes: "Trò Chơi Vương Quyền 4A: Tiệc Quạ đen", "Trò Chơi Vương Quyền 4B: Lời Tiền tri". ("Game of Thrones 4A: A Feast of Crows", "Game of Thrones 4B: The Prophecy")
  • Mongolian: Хэрээний найр ("Feast of Crow")

Publication

Martin released the first four "Iron Islands" chapters of A Feast for Crows as a novella called Arms of the Kraken, published in the 305th edition of Dragon magazine, published in May 2003.[14] Another chapbook featuring three Daenerys chapters was published for BookExpo 2005 although, following the geographical division of the book, these chapters were subsequently moved into the fifth volume in the series, A Dance with Dragons.

Martin originally planned for the fourth book to be called A Dance with Dragons with the story picking up five years after the events of A Storm of Swords (primarily to advance the ages of the younger characters). However, during the writing process, it was discovered that this was leading to an overreliance on flashbacks to fill in the gap. After twelve months or so of working on the book, Martin decided to abandon much of what had previously been written and start again, this time picking up immediately after the end of A Storm of Swords. He announced this decision, along with the new title A Feast for Crows, at Worldcon in Philadelphia on September 1, 2001. He also announced that A Dance with Dragons would now be the fifth book in the sequence.[15]

In May 2005, Martin announced that his manuscript for A Feast for Crows had hit 1527 completed pages but still remained unfinished, with "another hundred or so pages of roughs and incomplete chapters, as well as other chapters, sketched out but entirely unwritten."[3] As the size of the manuscript for the 2000s A Storm of Swords, his previous novel, had been a problem for publishers around the world at 1521 pages, Martin and his publishers had decided to split the narrative planned for A Feast for Crows into two books.[3] Rather than divide the text in half chronologically, Martin opted to instead split the material by character and location:

It was my feeling ... that we were better off telling all the story for half the characters, rather than half the story for all the characters. Cutting the novel in half would have produced two half-novels; our approach will produce two novels taking place simultaneously, but set hundreds or even thousands of miles apart, and involving different casts of characters (with some overlap).[3]

Martin noted that A Feast for Crows would focus on "Westeros, King's Landing, the riverlands, Dorne, and the Iron Islands," and that the next novel, A Dance with Dragons, would cover "events in the east and north."[3] Martin also added that the A Song of Ice and Fire series would now likely total seven novels.[3] A Feast for Crows was published months later on October 17, 2005,[1] over five years after the previous volume in the series, A Storm of Swords.[16] The parallel novel A Dance with Dragons was released on July 12, 2011.[4]

Release details

Reception

Though A Feast for Crows was the first novel in the sequence to debut at number one on

The Huffington Post noted in their 2011 A Dance with Dragons review that the fifth volume had to "repair some of the damage done by A Feast for Crows, which frankly felt as if it was written by a ghost writer at times." Both books had "the same structural problems", being "sprawling and incoherent", and in her opinion Feast has the less interesting characters.[19] The Atlantic's Rachael Brown said in their A Dance With Dragons review that Feast was "bleak and plodding" and "sorely missed" Daenerys Targaryen, Tyrion Lannister, and Jon Snow.[20]

Awards and nominations

References

  1. ^
    ISBN 0-00-224743-7
    .
  2. ISBN 0-553-80150-3. Archived
    from the original on February 21, 2019. Retrieved August 29, 2019.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h Martin, George R. R. (May 29, 2005). "Done". GeorgeRRMartin.com (Author's official website). Archived from the original on December 31, 2005. Retrieved March 6, 2010.
  4. ^ a b Hibberd, James (March 3, 2011). "Huge Game of Thrones news: Dance With Dragons publication date revealed! – EXCLUSIVE". Archived from the original on January 15, 2015. Retrieved March 3, 2011.
  5. ^ a b "Best-Seller Lists: Hardcover Fiction". The New York Times. November 27, 2005. Archived from the original on May 25, 2013. Retrieved March 5, 2010.
  6. ^ "The New York Times Best Seller list: November 8, 1998" (PDF). Hawes.com. Archived (PDF) from the original on November 21, 2008. Retrieved March 6, 2010.
  7. ^ "The New York Times Best Seller list: November 26, 2000" (PDF). Hawes.com. Archived (PDF) from the original on September 7, 2008. Retrieved March 6, 2010.
  8. ^ "The New York Times Best Seller list: January 26, 2003" (PDF). Hawes.com. Archived (PDF) from the original on August 23, 2011. Retrieved March 6, 2010.
  9. ^ "The New York Times Best Seller list: October 30, 2005" (PDF). Hawes.com. Archived (PDF) from the original on November 21, 2008. Retrieved March 6, 2010.
  10. ^ "The New York Times Best Seller list: November 15, 2009" (PDF). Hawes.com. Archived (PDF) from the original on November 22, 2009. Retrieved March 6, 2010.
  11. ^ "Best-Seller Lists: Hardcover Fiction". The New York Times. October 9, 2005. Archived from the original on October 27, 2013. Retrieved March 6, 2010.
  12. ^ a b c d "Science Fiction & Fantasy Books: 2006 Award Winners & Nominees". WorldsWithoutEnd.com. Archived from the original on July 4, 2019. Retrieved July 25, 2009.
  13. ^ "Hostina pre vrany".
  14. ^ "Dragon #305; Urban Adventures". rpg.net. Archived from the original on September 6, 2015. Retrieved August 10, 2015.
  15. ^ "The Citadel: So Spake Martin". Westeros.org. September 1, 2001. Archived from the original on January 18, 2013. Retrieved March 12, 2010.
  16. ^ Miller, Faren (November 2000). "Locu Online Reviews: A Storm of Swords (August 2000)". Locus. LocusMag.com. Archived from the original on November 9, 2013. Retrieved March 7, 2010.
  17. ^ "Fiction review: A Feast for Crows: Book Four of A Song of Ice and Fire". publishersweekly.com. October 3, 2005. Archived from the original on March 26, 2013. Retrieved February 13, 2012.
  18. ^ Leonard, Andrew (July 10, 2011). "Return of the new fantasy king: "A Dance With Dragons"". salon.com. Archived from the original on March 30, 2012. Retrieved February 2, 2012.
  19. ^ Verhoeve, Remy (July 7, 2011). "My Love/Hate Relationship with A Dance with Dragons". huffingtonpost.com. Archived from the original on August 3, 2011. Retrieved February 16, 2012.
  20. ^ Brown, Rachael (July 11, 2011). "George R.R. Martin on Sex, Fantasy, and A Dance With Dragons". theatlantic.com. Archived from the original on March 26, 2012. Retrieved February 2, 2012.
  • Zimmerman, W. Frederick (December 15, 2005). Unauthorized A Feast for Crows Analysis (Paperback). Nimble Books.
    ISBN 0-9765406-1-4
    .

External links
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