Kevin's Watch

Is it just me, or is this book moving incredibly slow? I'm somewhere around page 240, and the only thing keeping me going is that I know Martin can write good fantasy - right now I'm thinking that he's falling into a Jordan-esque rut.

Its not just you. I've read the first 100 pages of Feast, before stopping (for a few reasons). Martin is much more detailed and descriptive in this book than in the others - try reading a few pages from any of the other ASOIAF books then go back to Feast, and you'll see what I mean.

Whereas I thought Martin was a little too quick with developing the plot in the first 3 books, from what I've read of Feast I think he's now a little too slow.

I know exactly what you mean. ASoS and AGoT were two of the best fantasy books I've ever read. I don't know what in the world is going on. I'm not crazy about his character selection (so far), with regard to point-of-view, simply because other than Sam, Cersei, and Jaimie, I really don't care much about the others. And unless Sam fleshes out a bit (no pun intended), I'm not going to care much about him either.

I was VERY happy to see Jaimie introduced, but it doesn't look as if we are going to see Tyrion. That's a dissapointment for me, because he's my favorite, albeit unscrupulous if not evil, character.

Hey guys, drop by the Martin thread in the Library - there's some A Feast for Crows talk happening in there.

Hey mods, could you please move this thread there? Ta.

Well, certainly, I wasn't aware.

I assume that the pace is slower and the writing is more detailed due to the amount of time Martin has spent on the chapters. Maybe when authors (like Martin) are forced to write faster they get the core or essence of the story down, but the embellishments are significantly reduced.

As to the character choices, I didnt read far enough into Feast to decide whether they were good ones or not. That's the risk of a multi POV story - that some characters just arent very interesting, but the plot dictates that they get their 'screen time'.

Because ASOIAF is going to be so bloody (pun intended!) long I've decided to wait until Martin's finished it, then I'll read through all the books in one big .. um, feast.

Due to various issues, Martin had to cut this book in half. The other half of the book will be out in about a year, and will include the POV chapters from Jon, Dany, and Tyrion. I think that's discussed in a couple of threads down in the Martin forum.

variol son wrote:Hey mods, could you please move this thread there? Ta.

Done

i would rec you al lread the authors note in the back of the book. it *should* be in the front. imo most dissapointment can be avoided vby reading that note first

No spoilers in the note??

I'm not really seeing the writing being slower, or more descriptive (like Jordan writing five pages about a fly on the wall) - I'm just struggling to be interested. That's never happened. There isn't a chance I'll put the book down, but I sure hope he gets things moving. It's not the writing that's slow, it's the action, the events, the story.

no spoilers no,. just an explanation on the structure of the story.