This book is out and has been since last summer.  It had been almost five years since Martin had written the first novels of the “Song of Ice and Fire” series.  In this work, most of the main characters from the other books are not present, or if they are, they don’t do much.  Instead of catching up the reader on the characters that were not killed off in book three, Robb and Catelyn at their wedding and  Tywin Lannaster; you won’t find Jon Snow or Brandon Stark in this part of the ongoing story.  On his website, Martin explains that he is breaking this book up into two volumes, and “A Feast for Crows” is about the southern half of Westeros, where Brienne of Tarth spends page after page looking for Sansa Stark.  The book goes almost nowhere and at the end Brienne is left hanging from a noose.  I guess in four more years we will see if he died?  The next novel is supposed to cover the northern part of Westeros and it will be called “A Dance with Dragons”.  If you liked the first books, you will get past this one, and wait for the next, hoping that you get to find out what happened to the other characters; and that there is a point to “Crows” after all. I hope he writes more, and soon.