Feast of Crows

So I just finished George RR Martin's Feast of Crows, and let me say this: its good.

But... it wasn't done.

Now, Martin himself says as much, he had written so much that he had to break the book off into 2 parts. And he had a choice, tell half the story for all of the characters or tell the whole story half the characters. He chose the latter.

I'll admit, this is a lose-lose situation.

Now, that being said, the book is awesome. It's well written, it's interesting and its nice a long (I need large books or I get through them too fast).

Martin is one of the only writers I know who takes a character you've followed for a few chapters, seen their point of view, and then you have their point of view of death. It is really a different experience. For most stories I've read and movies I've seen, I always know the good guy wins. That some how, someone will make it out, that they'll escape. Maybe not unharmed or without losses, but they escape the hangman's noose. But not Martin.

Another refreshing part of Martin's writing is the vulgarness. Now that may seem crude or childish of me, but hear me out. In most fantasy I (at least what I've read), the swearing is tame (or made up) and the sex is glossed over. Marin's characters are real, they're dirty, they're human.

I'll admit, it took me a little while to get into Feast of Crows; I had forgotten most of characters and was too lazy to start the series over. But I caught up pretty quickly. Characters I hated at first (mostly Jaime) I now like, and characters I've loved to hate (Cersi) I still hate. I love reading about the Starks and I could've used more, however, what was there was awesome.

Finally, this is 'fantasy' series, I guess. There isn't a whole lot of 'action' persay. There's not quests, no mythical beasts and no magic. The series is mostly grounded in realism, there are some fantastic things here or there, but they really aren't that magical or glorified.

Anyways, the book is awesome though it felt half complete, I'll basically this book and the next (Dance of Dragons) as one big book.