A Feast for Crows

A Song of Ice & Fire, Book 4
by George R.R. Martin
753 pages

This fourth book in the Game of Thrones series is a little thinner than previous volumes.  Many new perspectives appear in this volume, though many are only minor voices.  These voices cover what is happening on the Iron Islands and in Dorne.  I will say that I was intrigued by the Dornish characters and hope to see more of them.  Cersei's and Brienne's perspectives are also shown in this novel.  Cersei proves in this novel that she is not fit to rule because she is short-sighted, impulsive, and stupid.

Many old characters are included as well.  Arya becomes a novice in a Braavosi temple.  Sansa is still posing as Littlefinger's bastard daughter.  Samwell is on his way to Oldtown (with Maester Aemon and Gilly) to become a maester.  Jamie is finally realizing the truth about Cersei and is becoming a better man for it.  All in all, our old favorites are changing and developing.

However, some of our favorites are missing from this novel.  Jon, Bran, Tyrion, Davos, & Daenerys are absent from this novel.  (At the end of the book, Martin explains why they are absent.  However, trying to figure out why all these characters were missing put me through unnecessary stress.)  They will reappear in Book 5.  Apparently, events in Book 4 and Book 5 are happening concurrently because Martin decided to divide the story into two books by character instead of chronologically.

Angel Sanctuary: Book of the Material World: Volume 2

by Kaori Yuki, 185 pages

Teenager Setsuna already has problems--he gets into fights at school and has an unhealthy crush on his sister--but finding out he's the reincarnation of a beautiful (female) angel named Alexiel, whose evil brother Rosiel has come back and is possessing whatever body is at hand to reclaim her, sends him a little over the edge. As angels and devils from all sides of the long-standing, cosmic balance-endangering sibling conflict try to either kill or recruit him--and Alexiel keeps taking over his body whenever it suits her--Setsuna just wants to keep his loved ones safe. But what can he do when his own emotions are part of what's endangering them?

Gah. The first volume of this series made clear it would be complicated and gory and goofy and melodramatic, but I thought it wouldn't hurt to read one more if I saw it in the system. If I ever pick up another, it will only be out of curiosity about the outcome and not actual interest in the story or characters. I've tried a few of Yuki's other series and found them to have the same problems--they're narratively too complex and visually too busy, with stories that skip about too much to give me reasons to actually care about the characters involved in them. She's got some good ideas, and some enviable talent, but she goes overboard and doesn't take the time to let the reader get invested, possibly forgetting we're not mind-readers who can see into her imagination and learn what she's neglected to show us.

Game of Thrones

Volume 1 of A Song of Ice and Fire

by George R.R. Martin, 694 pages

I started this a while ago on a friend's recommendation, but got distracted. With Sean Bean starring in the debut of the HBO tv series, I had more incentive to finish it, and I am glad I did.

Martin has created vivid settings and varied cultures, and a byzantine plot line. The Tudors and Borgias don't have anything on the corrupt rulers of the Lannister family. Opposite them you have the flawed but compelling characters of the Stark family, Lords of Winterfell in the icy North. One of the Stark mottoes is Winter Is Coming, which doesn't quite evoke the dire warning it is. In the Seven Kingdoms, the seasons can last a dozen years or more. As the novel opens, summer is waning, and winter is coming.

Someone told me that Martin was inspired by the War of the Roses in Britain, and the houses names sound similar, Lannister for Lancaster and Stark for York. The armies clash, plots are hatched, rulers dispatched while up in the far north beyond The Wall, a malevolent force is on the move...south.

I enjoyed the complexity of the plot--you are never sure which characters will prove true-hearted or not. I am already into the next book, A Clash of Kings. One warning: the series isn't finished yet, and Martin is famed for keeping his fans waiting....and waiting.