Sam Strives For 55 - Week Ten

Here is week 10 of Sam's reading journey, the metrics and first week can be found here

A Feast for Crows (A Song of Ice and Fire #4 )by George R.R. Martin
 

1. Intrigue 
   1. This is from that  fantasy series. You know the one that spawned one of the biggest TV shows ever, made HBO a lot of money, and then suddenly disappeared from the cultural zeitgeist. The book is good, if you’re into heavy fantasy. The continuation of this lengthy series continues with characters that, if you start reading from the beginning, you learn to love. 
2. Writing style
   1. What’s great as the series goes on - as it does in every fantasy series - is that the author, Martin in this case, doesn’t have to rely on world building as much and the story can breathe and grow. What’s an absolute gem is that Martin’s characters continue to change and morph like real people. It’d be easy to have someone like Tyrion be a schtick. But no, he feels real and so the story is buoyed by great character writing. 
   2. At the sentence level though, there are times where it feels adjectives are overused, and specifically some adjectives are repeated enough that it feels frustrating. 
   3. Juicy quote: 
      1. “My old grandmother always used to say, Summer friends will melt away like summer snows, but winter friends are friends forever.”
3. Flow of storytelling 
   1. Even with what I’ve written so far, it is clear that world building continues to be a need in this novel. It helps to clarify the hard magic and political systems we learn about this universe. Unlike Dune, it’s not super dense and it’s very easy to understand, and yet it breaks the flow of storytelling occasionally. The multiple POV changes can also break the flow if you aren’t ready to leave the character before, or if you don’t like the character ahead. But that’s true of all the Fire and Ice novels. 
4. Re-readability 
   1. Yes, it’s re-readable because this whole series is re-readable. It’s enjoyable enough and dense enough that I know I’ll pick up new info whenever I choose to reread. 
5. TESS
   1. While this book qualifies, it barely does so. There are issues surrounding the flow of storytelling and writing style. The book falls prey to most high fantasy issues, which may not be an issue for you. The characters and real world consequences written into this series are wonderful and so this might just be a five star for you. 

Final Rating: ★★★★

J. Sam Williams is an illustrious black-tailed hawk, longing to eat as many vegan mice as possible. In his human form, he is a High School English Teacher in the San Francisco Bay Area, where he lives with his wife, one dog and two cats. A somewhat retired breakdancing teacher, he is now a co-host on the Alohomora Podcast! He has been published on Lunch Ticket, immix: a journal for justice, Mugglenet, and a slew of small sports journalism publications. You can find him on twitter @Jabbernator.