Unfortunate If you haven't read the books, they are marvelous. If you think Tyrion is awesome in the show...
I don't consider this a spoiler, but knowing how some are super sensitive, I'll spoiler it anyway. But I'll say that if someone had only read the first books (the 5th wasn't released yet when the series started), they wouldn't have expected to see Theon after Season 2. Spoiler Theon doesn't actually appear in Books 3 or 4 and is presumed dead by his father and sister after they're sent some of his flayed flesh (which we saw last season). What we're seeing now with Theon all happens "off screen". Remember that the books are told from the POV of a small group of characters. In books 3 and 4, there are no POV characters with Ramsay or Theon/Reek to tell the reader what is going on. So the reader is in the dark and probably presume him to be dead though there is no confirmation of that. What we saw last season and this season doesn't get relayed to the reader (I won't say how or by whom) until Book 5. But actors have good reasons for not reading the books. Peter Dinklage has said he didn't read the books because Tyrion doesn't know what's going to happen in the future so he doesn't want to know either. I respect that choice.
You're right. Spoiler I totally forgot that the last book hadn't been released yet. To be honest, I'm re-reading a lot of it now as it's easy to forget some of the subplots and smaller details.
I don't want any spoilers because I don't want anything ruined for myself or for others. I'm currently reading the books and it seems that a lot of people are saying to avoid A Feast for Crows. I just wanna know is it difficult to read or did GRRM just screw it up? Also, are there major story plots in it that might make me want to read? Thank you.
It's been long enough since I read the first four books that I don't really remember what happened in which book. I do remember not liking AFFC as much as the others, mainly being due to when GRRM split out the books AFFC seems to have been given the majority of the POV characters that I didn't really care about/for. There was a lot of "how many more chapters til an Arya chapter" while reading it. That said, I wouldn't just skip the book.
They're all good in my opinion. I read the last few in a single sitting, so didn't really think about them as separate if that makes sense. I think some people were just annoyed they had to wait for their fav POV characters - of course, they'd been waiting for YEARS. I just had to wait till the next book, which was there ready to go. So I didn't feel that frustration others felt. Definitely read it - can't just skip a book!
Don't skip AFFC. It's a really important book going forward. The main issue with AAFC was that it was almost like a different story because so many of the POVs were not in the book and it introduced so many other new characters and POVs. I think it's on par with the first book but not as good as the 2nd or 3rd books. A Clash of Kings and A Storm of Swords may have been the two best books I have ever read in that genre of book so I'm not sure how realistic it was for AFFC to keep pace regardless.
If you are reading them consecutively it's not too bad, but 3 extremely important characters are entirely absent from the book. The missing charcters are Spoiler Daenerys Targaryen, Tyrion Lannister and Jon Snow Instead it focuses on characters that I just didn't care about. You get a lot of Samwell and Cersei and you feel like you are reading because you have to, not because you want too, at least that was my experience.
i really liked a feast for crows, i think because a storm of swords was so good people came down off there high and were disappointed
Yeah feast was mainly disappointing at release because 1) it was delayed 2) months before it was released, he decided to split the material by character and location, resulting in "two novels taking place simultaneously" with different casts of characters when combined with book 5. Some fan favorites were left out. 3) At the release of Feast in 2005, Martin said book 5 was projected to be ~ a year away, but it didn't end up getting released til July 2011. 4) It was following one of the best fantasy books ever. Going back and re-reading Feast, there is still alot of great material there, but other readers have suggested that perhaps he should have held some of the action from book 3 for Feast and introduced some of the new characters in storm of swords for better pacing.
As mentioned, I think a lot of people had a problem with AFFC because of the way the books were split and they weren't able to find out about certain characters for maybe up to 11 years (the time between when "Swords" and "Dragons" were published) because of it. By the time I read it, A Dance With Dragons had come out so I was able to read it immediately afterwards. I didn't have a problem with it.
I agree the split isn't so problematic anymore from a timing perspective -- and you can't just skip it or you won't know what the hell is going on -- but it's definitely a big publishing flub. He's obviously been having a lot of trouble with the scope he's set for himself and meeting publishing deadlines. He probably invested a lot more time than he had budgeted for in fleshing out these new characters. The scope of what he wanted to do kept getting bigger. And, he probably had a lot of pressure piling up on him from the publishing company, so he packaged up what he had even though it wasn't very tight. I imagine when the whole series is done, Martin or others will publish a recut version to put it all together in the right order.
Just wait till the Dragon Balls bring back Joffrey, probably the biggest spoiler of all tbh!!! Spoiler
Seconding everything that everyone has already said. A Feast for Crows is by no means an enthralling read, but its story lines are essential the series' plot. There are definitely parts that are enjoyable and entertaining to read, though there are definitely some boring POVs mixed in. Definitely read it, especially since you won't be forced to wait to read Dance of Dragons like so many others.
Thanks everyone for the feedback! I definitely wasn't planning to skip the book but I will lower my expectations for the book once I start reading it.
Here's what I'll say about Feast for Crows. When I first read it, it was a big let down. I stopped about half way through and then had to come back to it, to finish it. I love the series so I knew I would have to read it, but it wasn't easy. Recently before the fifth book came out, I went back and listened to all of the books on audio. When I listened to it, I found things that I'd missed before when I was reading it, and actually enjoyed much more than when I read it myself the first time through.
