A Feast for Crows (Part One): Book 4 of A Song of Ice and Fire

I'm really enjoying this series, but poor old Roy Dotrice is really losing track of all the accents. I know it's a cast of thousands and nobody expects him to find a completely different voice for each character, but when the apparent age and accent of a key individual changes not just between books, but between chapters, it's really quite distracting. Hate to say it, but I don't think it's good enough.

I cannot for the life of me give more than 3 stars because Dotrice makes a complete mess of the fourth volume: he's forgotten how he has pronounced the names in the previous books and manages within 10 minutes to say Brienne in 4 different ways. Was there ANY editing involved in recording of this book? And suddenly Arya sounds like a wildling. Unfortunately I do not have time for the paperbacks, so I will struggle through the fifth one as well, dreading what Dotrice does with that already beforehand.

As the other reviews have said, the characters accents are all over the place (I was always puzzelled as to why Tyrian and Jamie had Welsh accents and Cercie and Tywin didn't) and now alot of them seem to have changed voices completely, so it becomes hard to keep track of who you are listening to. I'm also getting really cross because in this books the prounciation of characters names have changed. I can't remember them all at the moment but two examples are that Gilly has now become Jilly, Petyr is suddenly Peter and so on. I can only imagine what a titanic task this would be for any actor, but someone should be keeping notes as to how each character speaks (I miss Dolores Ed's stumbling voice) and how their names are prounced, it really interupts the listeners enjoyment. Can I add a plea for them to use Rupert Degas for the next book, he is AMAZING, the best I've ever listened to. I love this story it's totally engrossing, but these issues are ruining it for me and I'm not sure I'll bother with the next one.

I'm a little bit disappointed with the narration of book four. After listening to book one, two and three, I eagerly awaited the release of book four, which seemed to be the only one, out of the five novels missing on Audible. Roy Dotrice brings the books to life, with brilliant narration, giving each character a different accent so that the listener can easily recognise them, however I think that Roy Dotrice had forgotten the accent he gave the characters in the first three books, because he's changed them completely in book four, for example, Arya Stark goes from sounding like a young girl in the first three books, to sounding like an Irish granny in book four, very off putting.

If they ever make an animated movie full of comedy carton Leprechauns, Roy Dotrice will be a shoo-in to voice the entire cast himself - Good for him. But please keep this dreadful old Ham away from popular series like this. Pleaty has been said about his misjudged and shoddy narration in books 1 to 3, which I suffered out of necessity (no time to read books but I can listen to audio when driving). But in book four he reaches new levels of incompetence. I never thought I would find myself missing Dotrice's previous narration - would it have killed him to go back and listen to half an hour of one of the books and see what he had previously done?? When he's not making everyone sound like a Leprechaun or a blustering toff in their dotage, he'll do a terrible impersonation - Remember how Tiewyn Lannister suddenly went from welsh to a bad Winston Churchill impression in the last book?? Get ready for Dotrice doing Euron Greyjoy as Michael Winner!!??

It's just not good enough. To all those people who defend this poor job by saying he can't be expected to keep track of a cast of thousands, nobody expects him to - JUST READ THE BLOODY BOOK - all of his characterizations are way off, I wouldn't miss a single one

I can only echo what many other reviewers have said - the narration of this book is a complete nightmare. Not only to character voices and name pronunciations changes compared to books 1-3, but they actually change chapter to chapter. It's a huge shame when the quality of the audio becomes the big issue rather than the quality of the text itself.



Not good enough Audible.

Well, i have listened all the previous books in the series and i didnt have a major issue with the narration of Roy Dotrice....until now! He Seems to have completely forgotten everything he did previous. Well established characters now have completely different voices (no argument can be made for 'some years have passed' as the book continues immediately from the last)

I could perhaps suffer this and continue through if it wasnt for the inconsistent pronunciation of characters and places like 3 different ways to say Tyrell all in the same chapter, it doesnt get any better, Brienne has no less than 3 too!

Dotrice also seems to ignore grammar.

The Audio quality is very poor unlike the previous books, it sounds as though it was recorded in some sort of hollow container.

Some chapters there are no pauses, so its not immediately obvious that you are now listening to another.

Unfortunately as my title suggests i found this very frustrating, and, at times infuriatring. I wont be listening to anymore, so will have to find time to read the books.



Thanks for nothing Audible!

I've listened to the first three of these books on Audible and I really enjoyed them and the narration. However the narration given by Roy Dotrice in this installment is not consistent with his previous work. He pronounces place names differently and has given main characters completely different accents. It's very off putting and makes it feel somewhat unfamiliar. It has left me feeling such disappointment in this audio book.



5 stars to George R R Martin for another wonderful book.

This isn't as good as the first 3 books. Martin decided to split the narrative into two separate books, so Feast of Crows follows Jamie, Cersi, and Arya, but if you want to find out what Tyrion, Jon and Daenerys are up to you have to wait for A Dance with Dragons.  The big battles are over but there is still plenty of intrigue.  Some of the plot lines meander around to little affect, but the book does build to some suitable climaxes.  However you do need to also complete A Dance with Dragons to get the full picture of what is going on.

On the debate about the narration I'm a fan on Roy Dotrice, it's never going to be easy trying to find different voices for hundreds of characters, but he does give it a go.  He doesn't always get it right, and he has a tendency to make the younger female characters sound like they are 80, which I think is his age.

Poor old Roy has lost it! Accents, voice pitch and names change constantly and I for one cant keep up. As if the introduction of the new characters was not enough!? For me it was that strange i even used the internet to make sure i was listening to the correct book...I may give up, which is a shame because books 1-3 blew me away.