A Feast For Crows-review

Just like the Clash of the Kings,A Feast For Crows is the aftermath of the surprising events  A Storm Of Swords.Just as the previous book I'll break the  plot through characters.

Samwell Tarly
Fearing for the safety of  Master Aemon and Wildling prince,Jon Snow who is now the commander of the Night Watch  ordered Samwell,Gilly and Maester Aemon to  travel to Citadel.During their voyage,Maester Aemon's health got worsen and after learning about Danaerys,the last known living of his kin,he ordered Sam to inform the Maesters in Citadel about Danaerys and that she should return Westeros to claim her Throne.Later ,he died and  Sam out of grief and love broke his vow and had sex with Gilly.At Citadel,Sam informed Maester Marwin what Aemon instructed  and the Maester decides to go and get Danaerys back to her land.

Ser Jaime Lannister
After knowing Cercei affairs through his brother,Jaime starts to distant himself from his sister and plans to  ensure Tommen is separated for his mother so that he will not be like his older brother Jofferey who is cruel and unkind.Jaime suggested Cercei to agree on Tommen's marriage with Magaery Tyrell in order to gain the alliance of the Tyrells.Jime realise his Cercei never really loves him and will never acknowledge him as her husband as she  wants the throne more.He also realises that Cercei used him just like King Robert uses Cercei to overcome his grief for Lyanna.Cercei being paranoid that everyone is against her,sends Jaime away to go and claim Riverrun.Having taken an oath to Catelyn Stark that he would not go against the Starks and Tully,Jaime was reluctant and finally manages to get Riverrun without a battle or spill of blood.He saved Edmure Tully from being hanged and eventually convinces Edmure to yield.Jaime realises winter has arrived.

Lady Brienne Of Tarth
Lady Brienne continues he search for Sansa Stark as Jaime had commanded her.On her way she is joined by Podrick Payne ,Tyrion Lannister's squire.During her quest she learns The Hound was seen with a Stark girl.Assuming that it would be Sansa since both of them  flee from King's Landing ,she decides to search for the Hound who is said to join the Brotherhood Without Banners(BWB) which has a new leader called Lady Stoneheart.However through the elder brother,she learns that it was Arya Stark  with the Hound and the Hound is already dead.Realising Arya is also alive,Brienne and her companions decides to stay in a Inn since it was getting dark.She found Gendry who looks so much like King Renly and realise Gendry is a possible King Robert's bastard.Before she could tell Gendry she is interrupted by Bitter,an outlaw and was injured by him.When she wakes up,she realise Gendry along with the BWB managed to kill Bitter and his followers and she is to see Lady Stoneheart.As she saw Lady Stoneheart,she realises it is Catelyn Stark who is decides to hang Brienne thinking Brienne had betrayed her.When she is hanged,she screams a word and it is unclear whether she dies or not.

Sansa Stark
Still posing  as Petyr daughter Alayane Stone,Sansa remains in Vale until her "father" decides to move them to the Gates Of The Moon(which is at the base of the Eyrie) as the weather is getting cold and worse.She befriends Mya Stone(King Robert's bastard)  and look after the sickly cousin,the Lord of Eyrie.Petyr Baelish informs her  whether she likes it or not Sansa is a player of the games of thrones and he is planning for her to get marry to Lord Harry,the heir of Eyrie and through the marriage she would get back Winterfell and the Northman loyalty.

Arya Stark
Arya reaches Braavosi and  the House of Black And White,a temple worshipping the  Many Face God.She becomes a novice and learns their tradition,language and realise that the Faceless Men killing is sacred .She is asked to wipe away her identity and until she becomes no one ,then only she would  be accepted fully as a Faceless Men.To learn the Braavosi language,the priest asks her to work selling clams and when she found a deserter of the Night Watch and kills him.She returns to the temple  and told the Priest about the deserter.Realising she had become Arya again,the priest gave her milk to drink.The next morning Arya realises she is blind.

Iron Islands
After the death of King Balon,a Kingsmoot is carried out to choose the king.At the Kingsmoot,Euron Greyjoy is selected as the king as he promises the audience that they will have Westeros as he had a horn that could command Dragons and he had heard of the this Dragon Queen(Danaerys) .

Cercei Lannister
Cercei becomes paranoid that everyone is against her she appoints whom she believes as the council which includes Qyburn who learns the human body by dissecting victims while they are alive.She kills the High Septon as she realises he knew her relationship with Jaime.She is continuously troubled by an event which happened while she was still a  maid that a Maegi informed her that she will be Queen of Westeros one day and after the dead of three kings,a younger and beautiful Queen will be the end of her ruling and when she is drowned by grief  she will be killed by the hands of her younger brother.Cercei assumes this young Queen is the young bride of King Tommen and it would be Tyrion who would end her.So she decides to frame Margaery by accusing Margaery and her cousins to be be no longer maiden(virgin) and are having an affair with the knights as she realise the maidenhead of highborn ladies are broken by horse ridding which Margaery is fond of.She sets up Osney Kettleback to take the blame to have an affair with the young Queen by seducing him.Margaery  is imprisoned at the temple to be brought for a trial.While visiting Margaery,Cercei found out that the new High Septon by whipping Osney managed to extract the truth about Cercei and imprisoned Cercei under the chargers of murder and fraught.Through Qyburn,Cercei sends a letter to Jaime ,begging for help and that she loved him.

Jaime Lannister
Jaime receives the letter from his sister.Instead  of answering it,he burned the letter as though he never received the letter.

Dorne
Ariane Martell,the daughter of the Prince Doran wants to make  Princess Myrcella as the Queen and fight against Cercei and King Tommen as a revenge for the death of her uncle and Elia(the wife of Rhaegar,Danaerys and Viserys brother) who had been killed by Lannisters men and realising and wanting a women to rule(Myrcella is sent  to Dorne to marry Prince Tristane by Cercei and Tyrion when he was the Kings Hand in order to win the Dornish alliance to King Tommen).Her plan comes to  a end when her father finds out the plan and caught them red handed.She opens up to her father that she knew her father wants his son Prince Quentyn to be his heir  and she is sick of treated or loved less just because she is woman and tired of being idle when they should be avenging for their death ones.Prince Doran reveals that he had always loved her and he wanted his son to be Prince of Dorne because he wants her to become the Queen of Westeros by marrying the Viserys the dragon.He also reveals that Quentyn is going to bring dragon back to Westeros and the House of Dorne will have its revenge.

Review
In A Feast For Crows,lots of secret is revealed and the fantasy element in the books gets more heavy with prophecies. George R.R.Martin manages to introduce new characters like Ariane  with ease into the complex plot and make it memorable in a short time.In this novel we do get to see Cercei's cunning nature.While it is only implied that Cercei is cunning and cold in the first  three books as we only got to see her having affair and trying to hide the nature of  her children.However in this book,Cercei true colours are shown as the reader realises she is longing for power, the Throne and finally some respect and acceptance .We get to see why she is so mean to Tyrion and her insecurities makes her more human.I'm very impressed with the character of Jaime Lannister again in this  novel.The readers manages to learn more about him especially that he wants his children and not the throne.We get to see more actions that shows Jaime is a man with honor.He is probably one of my favourite character in the series right now.It's a women world in this particular novel.We get to see more of the women players of game of thrones through the character Ariane,Cercei and Asha Greyjoy.These three women knew their hindrance being a woman in Westeros but care less and decides to set their own fate.Like all brilliant authors,George R.R.Martin manages to create subtle moment that means a lot to the fans such as Sansa   thinking of her brother Jon and Jaime defending Brienne.The novel raises many questions such as  Sandor Clegane's death(which I hope that Sandor is not dead ) and the possibility of Jeyne is actually pregnant and is switched by her family(I hope this to be true) but most likely not as Robb having a son doesnt affect battle of the iron throne or at least until the baby grows up .Another great thing about the series,no one seems to be the person they claim to be.
I'm looking forward to see Sansa finally playing the games of thrones.Her character is beautifully developed in the span of three chapters.We get to see her changing into a women,getting brave  and even to flirt for her own advantage and her final chapter surely will make the reader yearning more,even the Sansa haters out there.She had been using a courtesy as her armour and that is why she manages to survive even after being so close to the enemies.I want her to get aggressive in the future books and finishes Petyr who is probably the most cunning character in the book.I do feel that Sansa would be one of the character with the best character development at the end as she is with Petyr now,either she would be brainwashed by him and becomes manipulative or gain the wits to finish him by playing his own game.I'm also looking forward for Daenery's chapters and Tyrion whereabouts.It would be great if George R.R. Martin writes a POV of Gendry and Jeyne Stark.Overall I enjoyed the books just as I enjoyed the previous books.

A-