A Feast for Crows

[sawyl]

Having made it all the way through A Feast for Crows, I'm now up to date with A Song of Ice and Fire and ready for A Dance with Dragons when it comes out next month.

With Tywin dead and Tyrion gone, Cersei Lannister finds herself struggling to cement her power as King Tommen's regent. Being arrogant and not very bright Cersei is painfully unaware of her own limitations, believing herself to be a schemer to equal her father at his best, whereas in reality her short-sightedness causes her to make a mess of almost every decision she takes. Jaime, still moping over his injury, finds himself dispatched by his sweet sister to sort out the Siege of Riverrun, pausing en route to take in his cousin Lancel's newly found religious fanaticism. Alayne, meanwhile, finds herself caught up in Petyr Baelish's plans to take control of the Eyrie. Of the other established characters Samwell Tarly takes the slow boat to Oldtown at Jon Snow's behest, Arya joins a cult, and Brienne combs the countryside for Sansa. Jon appears in a brief cameo, while Bran and Daenerys don't appear at all.

I have to admit that I didn't really enjoy Cersei's chapters. I can understand her necessity as a plot device, but I couldn't muster up much in the way of either enthusiasm or dislike: she was just too limited. At least in the previous novels, with no access to her internal thoughts, it was possible to believe that her apparently stupid decisions were part of some subtle master plan. But sadly, here, with access to her internal narrative, all that is lost and it becomes painfully clear that not only is she incompetent but she's so incompetent that she doesn't realise that she's incompetent. However, on the plus side, I liked Alayne and found her much more interesting — and gothic! — than Sansa. Deprived of support from everyone but her dubious and duplicitous father, Littlefinger, compelled to support the sickly Lord Robert and, for the most part, stuck in the isolation of the Eyrie, she felt far more imperiled than Sansa ever did at King's Landing. There's a lot to be said for the appeal of the brooding, not-quite present threat over on-going physical violence.

Despite its length, not a lot seems to happen in A Feast for Crows. Lacking a big centre piece like the Red Wedding of A Storm of Swords, Martin shows the characters going about their usual business as the tension gradually ratchets up as Cersei's poor decisions — including, rather topically, a decision to default on some of the kingdom's loans — start to bite. Eventually, everything builds up into a rather satisfactory climax, leaving everything open for the next book...