Can anyone talk me through A Feast for Crows?

I know I'm late to Game of Thrones but I really enjoyed the first three books. Read them in about five weeks I guess. Now I'm really getting stuck on this fourth book. I'm only halfway through and I've been reading it for three weeks! I just don't care for the characters most prominently featured in this installment. My daughter swears that it picks back up in the fifth book but I'm not sure I can get there. Any words of encouragement?

Feast of Crows sets up so much that will be going on in later books. I agree I missed my favorite characters throughout, particularly Jon, but to get the full picture of the plot and the ongoing action, its important. It's the first time we learn about the meisters, for instance, and a hint that they are up to something as well.

The beginning of the fifth book A Dance with Dragons in fact repeats some of the scenes from Feast, only from the viewpoints of different characters which give depth and skews the meanings of much that we read in Feast, showing us that often the things we see with our own eyes we misinterpret and completely misunderstand.

I confess I enjoyed Feast, although apparently many folks like you struggled with it.

I thought Feast for Crows showed the same talent as the prior books, it was the focus on non-central characters that made it slower. The Ironborn especially; I wondered why we needed three different viewpoints for a group of people I didn't particularly care about and who didn't ultimately seem to much matter in the big picture. They're better integrated and more important in the next book. Dorne was the other one that seemed a bit like a sideshow, although now I like the Martels and they too fit better into Book Five.

I guess the only way to slug through it is to put your trust in the author, that he's providing you with some necessary backstory for what lies ahead. Cersei is especially important and worth reading closely. I actually admire her chapters, because they're told from inside her head as she justifies to herself how she's calling the shots, but don't empathize with her too closely. Pay close attention to the results of what she's doing - she's an unrealiable narrator, which makes it fun. Jaime has a nice character arc in FfC. And at least there's still Arya!

I found A Dance With Dragons to be a little unbearable, but take this with a grain of salt since I am not the No. 1 fan or anything. Although I read a lot of fantasy, I don't read a lot of this particular kind of fantasy because it reads Historical to me (errrg) and I hate politics and intrigue so I seriously am rooting for the trees or for everyone to be dragon food. The side effects to that perspective is that I am most interested in chapters containing Bran and I also really like Davos & Brienne who everyone else seems to find boring. (I enjoy Tyrion, Jaime and Arya for their brains and spunk like everyone else, but that's about it.)

I read the first three in a row last year because they are my partner's favorites and this way we could discuss them. I was interested, but not enamored. Again, I'm of the "I hope the trees eat you all" mentality. I waited until July of this to read Book 4, which I thought was 'meh', and afterwards I found book 5 was really rather torturous and uneven. For every really great and fun or interesting sequence there were three times as many painful shoot-me-and-lets-be-done-with-it sequences. (I'm looking at you, Dany. Why, Dany, WHY?!)

I'd like to give you encouragement, but honestly I found it rough. I have faith that Martin knows where he's going, but that he just stumbled getting there.

Thanks all! I did finally finish the book. YAY! Then I had to cleanse my palate with a thriller before starting A Dance with Dragons last night. It took me as long to read Feast for Crows as it did the first three altogether :( I didn't mind the Brienne and Cersei chapters and I guess the Dorne chapters were pretty interesting too, but those Ironborn chapters nearly did me in.

Of course now I'm worried about what Dany has done! She's one of the few characters that I actually like. Mainly because she seems to be one of the only people in this particular world who places any value on human life. I think that's why I had such trouble with the fourth book, there weren't as many earth-shattering events so there was not much to distract from the overwhelming lack of respect toward the value of life. It was just making me feel really down and depressed and that's not why I read, you know?

Anyway, thanks again for the encouragement!

You will enjoy Dance more if only because Arys and Tyrion are pretty prominant throughout. I am eagerly awaiting the next installment and hope it will not be another 6-7 years!!!!!!