A Feast for Crows
Few books have captivated the imagination and won the devotion and praise of readers and critics everywhere as has George R. R. Martin’s monumental epic cycle of high fantasy. Now, in A Feast for Crows, Martin delivers the long-awaited fourth book of his landmark series, as a kingdom torn asunder finds itself at last on the brink of peace... only to be launched on an even more terrifying course of destruction.
Stats for nerds
0recommend
7mentions
7people
2011–2025years
86% neutral14% critical
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- I don't know that A Game of Thrones is a good example, at all.
The series was already remarkable commercial success before the TV adaptation. A Feast for Crows debuted at #1 on the NYT list in 2005.
The series sold millions of copies prior to the TV series. That's more successful than the average successful Fantasy novel by orders of magnitude.
If the books sold even more copies after being adapted, that's because HBO put the story on TV, not because of anything the author did.
And, of course, even if the first book in the series lost it's copyright after 28 years (nearly three decades!), the all the rest of books in the series would still under copyright, and the HBO wouldn't be able to access the ending without the authors help, as it hasn't even been published yet. The most HBO could have done without Martin's involvement would have been to create glorified fan fiction, while leaving themselves open to lawsuits about any similarities to any later books in the series under copyright.
Almost all the money almost any artist makes comes in the first 28 years. It is hard to see why we should deprive all of society from benefiting from using, building on, or remixing culture, to slightly increase the leverage that a handful of exceptionally rare winners get.
An of course, there is a huge gap between 14+14 and today's maximalist copyright regime.
- Reading: A Feast for Crows
Learning: NandToTetris
Working on: Kagi chrome extension
- Roy Dotrice did, for the most part, a superb job of narrating the Song of Ice and Fire series (Game of Thrones). So much so that when he wasn't available to narrate A Feast for Crows, the publisher replaced him with John Lee who was so completely the wrong choice that the publisher relented to fan requests and had Roy Dotrice re-record the book.
It's a shame he won't be around to finish narrating the series. Then again, at the rate George R. R. Martin is going, neither will he be around to finish writing them.
- I think HBO just made it way easier. Once I heard the series would be a show, I knew we'd never get any more books because the lull between A Feast for Crows and Dance with Dragons was something like 5 years. At that rate, he'd need another 15 to be done while gallivanting on other fantasy titles/collections/anthologies/wtf and endorsing everything under the sun once the first three books gave him clout.
I'm definitely a little bitter about it, but I've accepted it. Parris needs the royalties.
/salt: Somehow, within that time, Robin Hobb managed to spit out a trilogy seemingly once a quarter. Thankfully, Steven Erikson came along and wrote The Malazan Book of the Fallen, which, if you like books, honestly puts ASoIaF to shame on numerous levels (and has the benefit of being done).
- > At least he managed to publish a few books.
Beyond that he released a number of them in rapid succession. For a while there the ideas must have just been coming as quickly as he could jot them down. Then, for those who are in the know, he quickly ran into an issue where continuing the plot threads he had setup all came to a confluence point where decisions needed to be made before he was prepared to do so.
From what I understand extensive revisionary work was done. Entire sections and chapters of the story were rewritten to accommodate for the new trajectory for the adjusted plot lines of various involved characters. And, this is my least positive memory of all of this, he actually brought in some outside help to ensure he was capable of undoing what has been dubbed as the "Meereenese_Knot":
https://gameofthrones.fandom.com/wiki/Meereenese_Knot
For a less "as far as my terrible memory can remember" version of what I explained above here is a quote:
> "The first three novels each came out within two years of each other, in 1996, 1998, and 2000 respectively. However, it took another eleven years for Martin to write the fourth and fifth books, A Feast for Crows (2005) and A Dance with Dragons (2011). Partially, this was because A Feast for Crows and A Dance with Dragons were originally one novel, which grew so long that author George R.R. Martin later decided to split it up into two books (the events in both happen concurrently but follow separate characters)."
Three novels from 1996 to 2000. Another 11 years for the next two. Here we are, patiently waiting, for the 6th book of the series, "A Dream of Spring".
Of course the majority of people loudly banging their shields complaining about Martin's lack of shipping have probably never undertaken the task of writing a feature-length novel before. I'm sure an even more comical percentage of those have actually released a multi-art series with anywhere near the outrageous amount of characters, named placed, and other in-world lore or detail that make G.R.R.M.'s work feel so "real" and "lived-in".
I know I've never sat there while reading only to think, "Oh, there's this many more pages before it's done? This is such a boring slog." Entertainment is a word that I feel falls short of describing the type of enjoyment I get out of the Game of Thrones series.
- Here are all the ones I read this year
My 5 favorite ones from that list areA Dance with Dragons (A Song of Ice and Fire) by George R. R. Martin A Feast for Crows: A Song of Ice and Fire (Game of Thrones) by George R.R. Martin The Confident Speaker: Beat Your Nerves and Communicate at Your Best in Any Situation by Harrison Monarth House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewsk To the Last Man: A Novel of the First World War by Jeff Shaara Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania by Erik Larson Becoming Steve Jobs: The Evolution of a Reckless Upstart into a Visionary Leader by Brent Schlender George Washington's Secret Six: The Spy Ring That Saved the American Revolution by Brian Kilmeade Think Like a Freak: The Authors of Freakonomics Offer to Retrain Your Brain by Steven D. Levitt Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future by Ashlee Vance Finders Keepers: A Novel by Stephen King The Guns of August: The Pulitzer Prize-Winning Classic About the Outbreak of World War I by Barbara W. Tuchman The Wright Brothers by David McCullough Seveneves: A Novel by Neal Stephenson The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America by Erik Larson Hitler's Last Day: Minute by Minute by Emma Craigie The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins Robopocalypse: A Novel (Vintage Contemporaries) by Daniel H. Wilson Robogenesis by Daniel H. Wilson In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex by Nathaniel PhilbrickIn the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex by Nathaniel Philbrick Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future by Ashlee Vance To the Last Man: A Novel of the First World War by Jeff Shaara Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania by Erik Larson The Wright Brothers by David McCullough
