Backlist Briefs – Mini Reviews for A FEAST FOR CROWS & RUIN AND RISING
A Feast for Crows by George R.R. Martin Also by this author: A Storm of Swords (A Song of Ice and Fire, #3)
Series: A Song of Ice and Fire,
Published by Bantam Books on October 17, 2011
Genres: Fantasy, Fiction
Pages: 1061
Source: Purchased
Amazon
Goodreads
GOODREADS SYNOPSIS:
With A Feast for Crows, Martin delivers the long-awaited fourth volume of the landmark series that has redefined imaginative fiction and stands as a modern masterpiece in the making.
After centuries of bitter strife, the seven powers dividing the land have beaten one another into an uneasy truce. But it's not long before the survivors, outlaws, renegades, and carrion eaters of the Seven Kingdoms gather. Now, as the human crows assemble over a banquet of ashes, daring new plots and dangerous new alliances are formed while surprising faces—some familiar, others only just appearing—emerge from an ominous twilight of past struggles and chaos to take up the challenges of the terrible times ahead. Nobles and commoners, soldiers and sorcerers, assassins and sages, are coming together to stake their fortunes...and their lives. For at a feast for crows, many are the guests—but only a few are the survivors.
Review:
I always feel like I have accomplished something monumental every time I finish one of George R.R. Martin’s books and A Feast for Crows, the fourth book in the A Song of Ice and Fire series, is no exception. Every book in the series is challenging and a major time investment because of the intricate plots, detailed worldbuilding, and all of the machinations of those who are jockeying for position to seize control of the Iron Throne. These are not light reads by any stretch of the imagination.
What makes A Feast for Crows so much more of a challenging read, however, is that several of the major players from the first three books are suddenly missing and their absence, at least for me anyway, poses a huge distraction. With each chapter that I finished, I kept turning the page expecting to see a chapter from Tyrion Lannister, Jon Snow, and Daenerys Targaryen. I found their absence incredibly frustrating, especially since they are three of my favorite characters. It was also frustrating because not only was I not getting three of my favorites, but now all of the sudden, four books into the series, I’m suddenly getting a whole slew of new narrators. While these new players are no doubt important to the overall series plot, they just weren’t who I wanted to read about, especially after the events of the third book.
A Feast for Crows also has a slightly different feel from the others in that there was a lot less action (i.e. favorite characters dying) and a lot more character development. Brienne of Tarth’s chapters were probably my favorite because I’m just such a huge fan of her absolute determination to keep her oath to Catelyn Stark, even as her journey continues to take more and more dangerous turns and trying to fulfill that oath may end up costing Brienne her own life. After Brienne, I’d have to say that Cersei Lannister’s chapters are a close second favorite. Even though she probably has the most uphill battle of all of those vying for the Iron Throne, she will stop at absolutely nothing to try to take it. Cersei possesses this unique combination where she comes across as utterly ruthless yet somehow still a bit vulnerable. I love to hate her, but at the same time, I find myself cheering her on even as I ultimately want her to fail. Other favorites who appear in this book are Jaime Lannister, whose journey toward redemption continues, as well as the Stark sisters, Arya and Sansa, who each appear to be on journeys where they must give up their own identities, at least temporarily, in order to survive.
Even though A Feast for Crows is not my favorite book in the series, it’s still overall a solid read. The brilliant character arcs of each of the characters I mentioned really does help to offset the frustration that the absence of Jon, Tyrion, and Daenerys creates. They better be in the next book though, and the dragons too! 3.5 STARS
Ruin and Rising by Leigh Bardugo Also by this author: Six of Crows (Six of Crows, #1), Crooked Kingdom
Series: Shadow and Bone,
Published by Indigo on June 19, 2014
Genres: Fantasy, Fiction
Pages: 350
Source: Purchased
Amazon
Goodreads
GOODREADS SYNOPSIS: The capital has fallen.
The Darkling rules Ravka from his shadow throne.
Now the nation's fate rests with a broken Sun Summoner, a disgraced tracker, and the shattered remnants of a once-great magical army.
Deep in an ancient network of tunnels and caverns, a weakened Alina must submit to the dubious protection of the Apparat and the zealots who worship her as a Saint. Yet her plans lie elsewhere, with the hunt for the elusive firebird and the hope that an outlaw prince still survives.
Alina will have to forge new alliances and put aside old rivalries as she and Mal race to find the last of Morozova's amplifiers. But as she begins to unravel the Darkling's secrets, she reveals a past that will forever alter her understanding of the bond they share and the power she wields. The firebird is the one thing that stands between Ravka and destruction—and claiming it could cost Alina the very future she’s fighting for.
Review:
I’m so excited to be able to say that, with my reading of Ruin and Rising, I have finally finished Leigh Bardugo’s Grisha Trilogy! The one thing I hate about trying to review series books is that it’s so hard to talk about the final book in a series without spoiling the entire rest of the series. Because I really don’t want to spoil anything for those who have yet to visit the Grishaverse, I’m going to be both vague and brief in my remarks.
First and foremost, let me say that overall I found Ruin and Rising to be a very satisfying ending to the Grisha trilogy. Did I get everything I wanted? No, not entirely, but I did get enough that I was content when I reached the last page and closed the book. I think much of my contentment has to do with the fact that I was solely invested in Alina finding that third amplifier and defeating the Darkling to save Ravka. I was not at all invested in any of the three romantic possibilities that presented themselves to her. Since I usually loathe love triangles in any form, I actually consider it quite a testament to Bardugo’s storytelling abilities that I was able to fully enjoy the overall storyline without getting super annoyed by Alina’s attraction to Mal, the Darkling, and to Nikolai. Normally something that like would have me wanting to fling the book across the room, lol.
I do have to admit that my love of the Darkling was completely obliterated in this final book. He crossed enough lines this time around that there was just no redeeming himself in my mind. The biggest draw for me in this third book, instead, was actually watching Alina, forever the underdog whether she’s a saint or not, regroup and come up with a new plan to take down the Darkling. I loved watching her move so naturally into that leadership role, just as I also loved watching Alina and her team in their pursuit of that third amplifier, which was so desperately needed if she was going to have a chance of overpowering the Darkling. And don’t even get me started on the huge plot twist involving the third amplifier. That totally blew my mind!
While I do wish that a few characters had gotten better endings (I’m looking at you, poor Nikolai), overall, I thought everything about the ending was quite fitting and I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend the series to anyone who enjoys reading fantasies and is looking for a quick and addictive read. 4 STARS
About George R.R. Martin
George R.R. Martin was born September 20, 1948, in Bayonne, New Jersey. His father was Raymond Collins Martin, a longshoreman, and his mother was Margaret Brady Martin. He has two sisters, Darleen Martin Lapinski and Janet Martin Patten.
Martin attended Mary Jane Donohoe School and Marist High School. He began writing very young, selling monster stories to other neighborhood children for pennies, dramatic readings included. Later he became a comic book fan and collector in high school, and began to write fiction for comic fanzines (amateur fan magazines). Martin’s first professional sale was made in 1970 at age 21: “The Hero,” sold to Galaxy, published in February, 1971 issue. Other sales followed.
In 1970 Martin received a B.S. in Journalism from Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, graduating summa cum laude. He went on to complete a M.S. in Journalism in 1971, also from Northwestern.
As a conscientious objector, Martin did alternative service 1972-1974 with VISTA, attached to Cook County Legal Assistance Foundation. He also directed chess tournaments for the Continental Chess Association from 1973-1976, and was a Journalism instructor at Clarke College, Dubuque, Iowa, from 1976-1978. He wrote part-time throughout the 1970s while working as a VISTA Volunteer, chess director, and teacher.
In 1975 he married Gale Burnick. They divorced in 1979, with no children. Martin became a full-time writer in 1979. He was writer-in-residence at Clarke College from 1978-79.
Moving on to Hollywood, Martin signed on as a story editor for Twilight Zone at CBS Television in 1986. In 1987 Martin became an Executive Story Consultant for Beauty and the Beast at CBS. In 1988 he became a Producer for Beauty and the Beast, then in 1989 moved up to Co-Supervising Producer. He was Executive Producer for Doorways, a pilot which he wrote for Columbia Pictures Television, which was filmed during 1992-93.
Martin’s present home is Santa Fe, New Mexico. He is a member of Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America (he was South-Central Regional Director 1977-1979, and Vice President 1996-1998), and of Writers’ Guild of America, West.
About Leigh Bardugo
Leigh Bardugo is the #1 New York Times bestselling and USA Today bestselling author of the Six of Crows Duology and the Grisha Trilogy (Shadow and Bone, Siege and Storm, and Ruin and Rising), as well as the upcoming Wonder Woman: Warbringer (Aug 2017) and The Language of Thorns (Sept 2017).
She was born in Jerusalem, grew up in Los Angeles, and graduated from Yale University. These days, she lives and writes in Hollywood where she can occasionally be heard singing with her band.
She would be delighted if you followed her on Twitter, elated if you visited her web site, and fairly giddy if you liked her selfies on Instagram.
Discussion: How My Reading Tastes Have Changed Over the Years
If you follow my blog, you’ve probably noticed that I have pretty eclectic tastes when it comes to the books I read. A quick scan of my review archives will show that I’m a big fan of fantasies, science fiction, mysteries and thrillers, historical fiction, and retellings, just to name a few. I haven’t always had such varied tastes in books, however, which got me thinking about just how much my taste in books has changed over the years.
I think my taste in books really started to evolve and grow once I started buying my own books. When I was a kid, my parents bought my books so they decided what I read and when I was in high school and college, my reading choices were mostly determined by what was on the course syllabus. Needless to say, I was fully immersed in classics during most of those years. Don’t get me wrong though. I adored most of the classics I read and when it was time for me to take control of my book buying and actually read for pleasure rather than required reading, I still stuck with the classics for a number of years. I fell in love with Pride and Prejudice when I studied it in college, so I felt compelled to then go on to read all of the rest of Austen’s novels on my own. I did the same with countless other classic authors – Dickens, Hawthorne, the Bronte sisters, Hardy, Shakespeare…you get the idea.
After a while though, I started to get a little bored with the classics. They started to feel so dated and I really wanted something more modern. That was when I entered my Chick Lit phase. For a few months, I couldn’t get enough of books like The Devil Wears Prada, The Nanny Diaries, and Bridget Jones’s Diary. I think that phase directly coincided with me moving out of my mom’s house and getting an apartment of my own. I identified with the characters in those books so much at first, but I got burned out on that kind of Chick Lit pretty quickly. Maybe they started to remind me too much of my real life, I don’t know lol, but I bailed and moved on to Fantasy novels.
Fantasy and science fiction novels were the ultimate escape from reality for me and unlike the Chick Lit, which I maintain was just a phase, fantasy and sci fi remain some of my favorite types of reads today. I actually started my fantasy reading by re-reading a favorite childhood series of mine, the Chronicles of Narnia, and then I moved on to The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings trilogy, and eventually to Harry Potter. The Martian was probably the first book that really made me interested in sci fi.
I have to admit that I mainly picked up Harry Potter to see what all of the fuss was about. I was teaching high school English at the time and many of my students were walking around with Harry Potter books in their backpacks. Getting students excited about reading is always so challenging so I just had to know what it was about those books that had them all so captivated. Like my students, I immediately became hooked on the series and then began to explore more YA books because I realized that I was missing out on some pretty amazing reads. Before becoming hooked on Harry Potter, I had lived with this notion that I was too old to read books like that. Once I entered the “Screw it, I’m a grown ass woman and I’m going to read whatever the hell I want to read” phase, however, it felt like a whole new world was opened up to me. Again, a quick glance through my review archives will show that not only do I read a lot of YA books now, but they are often some of my highest rated reviews.
Novels like The Nightingale and The Light Between Oceans introduced me to historical fiction, which quickly became another love of mine. I was initially drawn to novels set around WWII, but now I find myself looking for novels that focus on periods in history that I’m less familiar with. In some ways the historical fiction calls to me because I find it similar in style and theme to some of my favorite classics but yet most of what I read focuses on 20th century historical events so they don’t feel quite as dated as the classics do.
I then felt the need for a little excitement and mystery in my life, so I delved into the world of mysteries and psychological thrillers. Oh yeah, as much as I complain about them now, I was totally on board with the Gone Girl/The Girl on the Train trend. Even though I grew tired of the unreliable/unlikeable narrator trend that those books ushered in, I remain a huge fan of psychological thrillers in general. Ruth Ware is a new favorite of mine, and I also love Meg Gardiner’s UNSUB series.
Spring boarding off those thrillers, I have also most recently started to get into what I would call domestic dramas. Books like Big Little Lies have been grabbing my attention, the ones that focus on neighborhoods and the idea that everyone is hiding something and no one’s lives are as perfect as they would have you believe. This type of story seems to be the latest trend in fiction, and I’m hoping it sticks around for a while because I truly can’t get enough of books like this.
Another trend that I fell in love with and can’t get enough of are retellings. My love for retellings started with Marissa Meyer. I adored The Lunar Chronicles and her Queen of Hearts retelling, Heartless.
I try to imagine what it would have been like to run into me at a bookstore 20 years ago versus today. In both scenarios, my arms would have been loaded down with books. The main difference is that while back then, my book haul would have been classics, classics, and more classics. Today, anything is fair game to end up in that book haul.
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How have your reading tastes changed over the years?
Summer TBR Wipeout 2018: Update #1
I can’t believe we’ve already made it to the first update post of the Summer TBR Wipeout Challenge hosted by The Candid Cover, but here we are! I don’t know if I’ll get through all 15 books that were on my tentative TBR for this challenge, but I’m pretty pleased with my progress so far. I’m especially thrilled to have finished another George R.R. Martin book as well as the final book in the Grishaverse trilogy. Overall, I managed to 6 books for this first update (5 from my original TBR + 1 library book that became available sooner that I expected it to) and I also made a good start on a 7th book, In a Dark, Dark Wood by Ruth Ware. Go me! LOL! Anyway, here are all of the books I’ve read so far and what books I’m hoping to get to next. 4 of those are from my original TBR and then I added Not the Girls You’re Looking For, another library book that became available sooner than anticipated. Wish me luck!
COMPLETED BOOKS
WHAT I PLAN TO READ NEXT
