George R.R. Martin

I’m in the middle of reading the fourth instalment of the A Song of Ice and Fire series: A Feast for Crows.

This basically means that I am dead to the book world for at least another week. These books…Have you read them? Of course you have, the entire world is obsessed. You know what didn’t help? The amazing-ness of the HBO Series.

Before I started reading this one (having given myself a few weeks to rest and recuperate after the heart stopping, life over-taking conclusion of the third book) I had heard that this one wasn’t that good. That compared to the other books, this one you just kind of have to slog through to get to the reward that is the 5th book.

And I have to say that I disagree!

I was told that A Feast for Crows was filled with chapters of characters that were of no consequence to the overall story. That you would read a chapter about a character and then you would never see that character again. That the chapters are called things like The Butcher. And maybe they are. But having plowed through three books before this one, I kind of feel like Martin knows what he’s doing? And that there is no such thing as a chapter that doesn’t matter? You might not get the significance now, but I guarantee it comes back later.

The other thing that people seem to have an issue with is that (and this might constitute a SPOILER, I’m not sure…maybe don’t read this next part since I’m not sure if it will ruin it for you) there’s no Starks in this one. It’s all the Ironborn and the Lannisters. I will say that I’m missing some Bran and Arya chapters but we got some Jon Snow and the Lannisters are definitely just as interesting. I don’t know that Martin ever intended for this series to be all about the Starks.

And the Ironborn? Are awesome. Asha? Fantastic. She is so kick-ass! The whole kingsmoot thing is brilliant and I’m really looking forward to finding out how this all wraps up. I was told that around page 700 things really start to take off and Book 4 suddenly becomes exciting reading. But like I said, I already kind of like it!

OK the SPOILER section is over now.

So this was really just a note to say that George R.R. Martin has once again taken over my life and I have no time for anything else. He’s a tough master that way, Martin is. He takes over your life and you might not even see all your favourites make it through the whole book.

I guess that’s what makes them so great.