A Feast for Crows - Released today!

[Heretic Machine]

George R.R. Martin's fourth installment of the A Song of Ice and Fire series of low-fantasy novels has been released today. Here is the description from Publisher's Weekly:

Long-awaited doesn't begin to describe this fourth installment in bestseller Martin's staggeringly epic Song of Ice and Fire. Speculation has run rampant since the previous entry, A Storm of Swords, appeared in 2000, and Feast teases at the important questions but offers few solid answers. As the book begins, Brienne of Tarth is looking for Lady Catelyn's daughters, Queen Cersei is losing her mind and Arya Stark is training with the Faceless Men of Braavos; all three wind up in cliffhangers that would do justice to any soap opera. Meanwhile, other familiar faces—notably Jon Snow, Tyrion Lannister and Daenerys Targaryen—are glaringly absent though promised to return in book five. Martin's Web site explains that Feast and the forthcoming A Dance of Dragons were written as one book and split after they grew too big for one volume, and it shows. This is not Act I Scene 4 but Act II Scene 1, laying groundwork more than advancing the plot, and it sorely misses its other half. The slim pickings here are tasty, but in no way satisfying.
Amazon.com Link (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0553801503/qid=1131486352/sr=8-1/ref=pd_bbs_1/104-8004711-8095112?v=glance&s=books&n=507846)

I know this isn't gaming news, but we've had some HUGE A Song of Ice and Fire posts here on EvAv. I got my copy in the mail today from Amazon, can't wait to sit down and start reading again.

[Heretic Machine]

Oh, by the way, he's doing a US book tour for this. It started tonight in Tenesee, and tomarrow it's going to be here in Lexington, Kentucky. I'm going, probably gonna buy a second copy so I can have him sign both of my copies, and keep one for ebay :) His first installments all sell for quite a bit autographed, if they are first printings.

[PIPBoy3000]

Neat. I read the last one about a year ago, so hopefully it'll all come back to me. I'm enjoying the moral ambiguity of the series, as well as the complexity of the plot.

[Nesta]

It's sheer awesomeness so far. I've made it through the first 6 chapters and I'll really get into it once I get home from work.

[Sykus]

Got my copy sitting on an upstairs bookshelf. Wife gets to read it first.

Here's hoping the lack of Tyrion doesn't hurt the book too much...

[ColdForged]

Not coming anywhere near me, damn it all. Got my copy from the local b&m Borders. Now all I have to do is finish Peter F. Hamilton's "Pandora's Star" first.

[Nesta]

He's coming here to San Diego on the 20th. I've never really been star struck, though I've met several actors, musicians, and a lot of athletes...but I keep thinking about meeting Martin and just blubbering like an idiot.

"You, er, uhm, are, uh, like the, um best, you know, like, um, writer, like, um forever. And stuff. OK, bye."

[Echani]

I finished reading this a few days ago (European release must have been earlier). It's well worth the wait, but I did miss reading about some of my favourite characters ... and I'm also none too pleased with the fact that some of the ones that were focused on won't be encountered again until after ADWD. Still ... I need to stop writing before the spoilers start spluttering out.

all three wind up in cliffhangers that would do justice to any soap opera.
Yup. And I thought getting addicted to Lost was bad, gonna have to wait a year plus to resolve these ... :(

[Chiron]

Sweet, I'll have to pick this up after work tomorrow. But no Tyrion? Bah..

[BleedTheFreak]

Sweet, I'll have to pick this up after work tomorrow. But no Tyrion? Bah..

A Feast for Crows was broken into two volumes, with this volume focused on King's Landing and the events and areas south of the Wall. That's not a hard and fast rule though, as Arya chapters are in this volume. YAY! A Dance With Dragons will resume the stories of the other characters (chronilogical to the events in AFfC) and should be out as early as next year (it's mostly written already). He details all this in the last few pages of the AFfC UK edition, I'm sure it's in the US edition as well. Basically, he chose to tell all the stories of half the characters rather then half the stories of all the characters. I'm not sure I agree with the logic (it's not like the stories are over for those we get to read about in this volume) but it's really not a big deal.

I finished it a few weeks back and it's just as good as each book before it. Some of the chapters are brilliant, and the final pages are just incredible.

[Spigot]

I was just about to start up a thread about this but you beat me to it.

My copy was sitting there, unexpected, in my mailbox today when I got home. Of course I'm right in the middle of another interesting book and was actually hoping to have a bit more time so I could re-read all 3 of the previous books but I'm sure it'll all come back to me.

Sigh.

[Echani]

If you're feeling a bit rusty on the events of the last few books, but you don't have the time to read them (or if you really can't wait to read the new one), there's some rather concise summaries available here (http://members.aol.com/vbkorik27/main.html).

Now if I could find some for the Wheel of Time .. bought the Knife of Dreams the same day as AFfC. :rolleyes:

[51|RandoM]

Knife of Dreams at least started tying up some plotlines, unlike path of daggers.

[TrackZero]

I know this isn't gaming news, but we've had some HUGE A Song of Ice and Fire posts here on EvAv. I got my copy in the mail today from Amazon, can't wait to sit down and start reading again.

Oh great, now I've gotta fight the urge to buy a hardcopy, even though the first 3 I have in paperback.....

[Kelegacy]

My favorite characters are missing, but oh well. His writing is excellent and he is easily the best fantasy writer out there today. Hoo-rah for realistic fantasy.

And I stumbled upon the first book about 5 years ago. Just stumbled. I don't know how I could have missed something this earth-shattering in the genre.

[SlutiCus]

Sweet!! Someone dies in the first chapter,... the book is off to a good start!! :D :D

[Heretic Machine]

Oh great, now I've gotta fight the urge to buy a hardcopy, even though the first 3 I have in paperback.....

My collection is all fuggly... First two are TPB's, thirt is a mass market paper back, and the newest is hardback. Oh well, guess I'll just have to buy the ubarrr leather bound collection which will come out in like ten years. You know it's coming :p

[Kefkataran]

My ex loves this series. I'll have to pass on the info to her.

[Jekub]

I've been working my way through it for a couple of weeks now, my reading time has been severely limited of late. Still, totally enjoying it though there seems to be alot of new characters to keep up with.

He came to my town on his UK tour and I was lucky enought to get to sit in on his talk and Q&A session with about 40 other fans.

[Akeldama]

I love the series so far. But I'm a bit "Meh" about the way the book has been split into two. If he's not careful, Martin is set on a path to Robert Jordon style monotony with whole books where nothing happens.

Anyway I'm not going to read this first volume until the second one is released, then read them both together.

[Echani]

If I hadn't already been waiting years for this one, I might have done the same. It's true that Martin is falling into the Jordan 'plot more branched than the nervous system' trap, but he still manages to move the plot along somewhat more than Jordan did in book 10.

[Rifter]

So, how many books will this series have? I read the first one, after it first came out, but have not read any more, since I want to wait for the series to be finished.

[Librum]

I actually listened to the first three books on mp3 from Audible while working on a very long document review project (about 38 hours each, if I recall), and being new to the series, I hadn't expected much, but I was pleasantly surprised. Excellent narrator, as well, though it was rather amusing to listen to an old english voice actor read some of the choice parts. Now I have to decide if I want to get the book, or since I listened to the first three, try and listen to the fourth, though that's a heck of a lot slower than reading it. Looks like they already have the audio version available, too.

[Nesta]

So, how many books will this series have? I read the first one, after it first came out, but have not read any more, since I want to wait for the series to be finished.

Was going to be six, but now Martin says he wants it to wrap up in no more than seven books. Will the next one (hopefully) coming out next year, I would say you would probably be waiting about 2-4 years for the series to wrap up.

[Tohoya]

I finished reading this a few days ago (European release must have been earlier). It's well worth the wait, but I did miss reading about some of my favourite characters ... and I'm also none too pleased with the fact that some of the ones that were focused on won't be encountered again until after ADWD. Still ... I need to stop writing before the spoilers start spluttering out.


Yup. And I thought getting addicted to Lost was bad, gonna have to wait a year plus to resolve these ... :(

I agree. I was particularly mad about his decision to put off telling Dany's story until ADWD. After leaving us hanging about the Targaryen history in the last Dany chapter of the third book, the least he could have done was put in a chapter concerning that. And Tyrion, Jon, and Davos are some of my favorite characters in the book >.<. Oh well, at least we'll see them in ADWD (which will hopefully not take 4 years!), and it's been nice so far seeing more of the Greyjoys and Dorne.

[reimomo]

My favorite characters are missing, but oh well. His writing is excellent and he is easily the best fantasy writer out there today. Hoo-rah for realistic fantasy.

And I stumbled upon the first book about 5 years ago. Just stumbled. I don't know how I could have missed something this earth-shattering in the genre.

Yeah, same. I just ran across his first book, and was dumbfounded I hadn't heard about it from someone. Been making up for it by bugging my friends about how great he is.

It took me forever to realize he worked on that trashy dime-novel "Aces High" sorta-grungy-superhero-series that I liked so much as a juvenile in high school.

[Kelegacy]

Yeah, same. I just ran across his first book, and was dumbfounded I hadn't heard about it from someone. Been making up for it by bugging my friends about how great he is.

It took me forever to realize he worked on that trashy dime-novel "Aces High" sorta-grungy-superhero-series that I liked so much as a juvenile in high school.

He was only the editor on Wild Cards. Other people would alternate writing in the series. Also, he worked on the television show Beauty and the Beast, back in the early 90's...or was it late 80's?

I own another couple books of his, Windhaven (cowritten with a chick) and Fevre Dream. The second is about vampires on a pleasure riverboat I think. I didn't see the word cunt in the opening page so I set it aside until later.

[BleedTheFreak]

He was only the editor on Wild Cards. Other people would alternate writing in the series. Also, he worked on the television show Beauty and the Beast, back in the early 90's...or was it late 80's?

I own another couple books of his, Windhaven (cowritten with a chick) and Fevre Dream. The second is about vampires on a pleasure riverboat I think. I didn't see the word cunt in the opening page so I set it aside until later.

He actually did write several of the short stories in that anthology, for the record. His characters were always among the most interesting, natch.

I just ordered Fevre Dream and Tuf Voyaging from scifi, hopefully they'll be as interesting as his past work. I did read the RRetrospective, which contained a collection of short stories and scripts he's written over the years, and each of those stories was incredible on there own. Awesome book if anyone is interested, worth checking eBay out for, I'd think.

[Jekub]

This may be a spoiler, possibly not though doubtless you'd find it eventually. I'm not giving away any plot here just something some people might miss.

Anyway, for those missing Dany's story, dont worry, you are not completely forgotten, take a look at the end of the appendix. Hopefully the extra chapter is there in the US edition as well, though it may be the one that was posted as a teaser chapter on the net somewhere. I've not read either yet so I can't say.