A Confusion of Timelines. (Or: How does "A Feast for Crows" fit into the bigger picture?)

April 6, 2009 12:27 PM

I'm half-way through George R.R. Martin's "A Feast for Crows" and I have a question about the timelines of this book versus the eventual "A Dance with Dragons"? (POSSIBLE SPOILERS WITHIN)

Note: I'm only half-way through "Feast", so please be careful with spoilers :)

Question: Is "Dance" going to be told in parallel with "Feast"? That is, will Dance begin and end at roughly the same points in time that Feast begins and ends? Or will Dance pick up where Feast left off?

Why I'm confused: (info from wiki link)

1. Feast(draft) took place during the 5 years following "Storm",
2. Dance(draft) chronologically started after that.
3. Feast(draft) was too long and had to be split into 2 parts: what is now Feast(final) and Dance(final).

So is Feast(final) still taking place over those 5 years with Dance(final) following after it chronologically? GRRM says they're in parallel, with the books separated by character not chronology. If that's the case, then Dance(final) no longer takes place 5 years after Storm? Maybe all the Dance(draft) content is being pushed into the 6th book?

I may be over-analyzing this, but I think a lot of the problems I'm having getting into Feast is that I don't understand the big picture here and what I should be assuming is going on in the rest of Westeros. That, and the lack of my favorite characters.

posted by TimeTravelSpeed to Media & Arts (2 answers total)

Best answer: This post would seem to answer the question - it is simultaneous with Feast, but will cover periods past the end of Feast, possibly allowing for the resolution of some plotlines.
posted by never used baby shoes at 12:36 PM on April 6, 2009

Response by poster: I'm hesitant to read all that link since I'm not sure how much it reveals, but thanks for that snippit. Question answered.
posted by TimeTravelSpeed at 2:13 PM on April 6, 2009