A Feast for Crows: A Song of Ice and Fire: Book Four: 04 - Softcover

Martin, George R. R.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 055358202X ISBN 13: 9780553582024

Publisher: Bantam USA, 2006

Synopsis

THE BOOK BEHIND THE FOURTH SEASON OF THE ACCLAIMED HBO SERIES GAME OF THRONES

Few books have captivated the imagination and won the devotion and praise of readers and critics everywhere as has George R. R. Martin's monumental epic cycle of high fantasy. Now, in A Feast for Crows, Martin delivers the long-awaited fourth book of his landmark series, as a kingdom torn asunder finds itself at last on the brink of peace . . . only to be launched on an even more terrifying course of destruction.

A FEAST FOR CROWS

It seems too good to be true. After centuries of bitter strife and fatal treachery, the seven powers dividing the land have decimated one another into an uneasy truce. Or so it appears. . . . With the death of the monstrous King Joffrey, Cersei is ruling as regent in King's Landing. Robb Stark's demise has broken the back of the Northern rebels, and his siblings are scattered throughout the kingdom like seeds on barren soil. Few legitimate claims to the once desperately sought Iron Throne still exist--or they are held in hands too weak or too distant to wield them effectively. The war, which raged out of control for so long, has burned itself out.

But as in the aftermath of any climactic struggle, it is not long before the survivors, outlaws, renegades, and carrion eaters start to gather, picking over the bones of the dead and fighting for the spoils of the soon-to-be dead. Now in the Seven Kingdoms, 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--are seen emerging from an ominous twilight of past struggles and chaos to take up the challenges ahead.

It is a time when the wise and the ambitious, the deceitful and the strong will acquire the skills, the power, and the magic to survive the stark and terrible times that lie before them. It is a time for nobles and commoners, soldiers and sorcerers, assassins and sages to come together and stake their fortunes . . . and their lives. For at a feast for crows, many are the guests--but only a few are the survivors.

About this title

Review:

"Of those who work in the grand epic-fantasy tradition, Martin is by far the best.... [He] is a tense, surging, insomnia-inflicting plotter and a deft and inexhaustible sketcher of personalities.... This is as good a time as any to proclaim him the American Tolkien."--Time Magazine

"The only fantast series I'd put on a level with J.R.R. Tolkein's The Lord of the Rings.... It's a fantasy series for hip, smart people, even those who don't read fantasy.... If you're new to the series, you must begin with Book 1, A Game of Thrones. Once you're hooked.... you'll be like the rest of us fans, gnawing your knuckles until book 5"--Marta Salij, Detroit Free Press

"THE MOST impressive modern fantasy, both in terms of conception and execution, is George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire.... A masterpiece that will be mentioned with the great works of fantasy."--Contra Costa Times

"Long-awaited doesn't begin to describe this fourth installment in bestseller Martin's staggeringly epic Song of Ice and Fire."--Publishers Weekly

"Grabs hold and won't let go. It's brilliant."--Robert Jordan

"Such a splendid tale and such a fantistorical! I read my eyes out."--Anne McCaffrey

"Fantasy fans will feast!"--Associated Press

From the Back Cover:

'Crows will fight over a dead man's flesh, and kill each other for his eyes.'

Bloodthirsty, treacherous and cunning, the Lannisters are in power on the Iron Throne in the name of the boy-king Tommen. But fear and deceit are in the air: their enemies are poised to strike.

The Martells of Dorne seek vengeance for their dead, and the heir of King Balon of the Iron Isles, Euron Crow's Eye, is as black a pirate as ever raised a sail.

Across the war-torn landscape of the Seven Kingdoms, Brienne the Beauty (thus named in mockery of her great size and strength) seeks for Sansa Stark, having vowed to protect Sansa from the wrath of Queen Cersei, Tommen's power-hungry mother.

Meanwhile apprentice Maester Samwell Tarly brings a mysterious babe in arms south to the Citadel from the cruel frozen north where the sinister Others threaten the Wall...

A Feast for Crows brings to life dark magic, complex political intrigue and horrific bloodshed. Against a backdrop of incest and fratricide, alchemy and murder, victory may go to the men and women possessed of the coldest steel ... and the coldest hearts.

About this edition

• Publisher: Bantam USA
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 055358202X
• ISBN 13: 9780553582024
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• Number of pages: 1048