Game of Thrones books, ranked
It’s been more than a decade since the last of the Game of Thrones books was published. That was A Dance with Dragons in 2011. We know fans are anxious for The Winds of Winter, which will be the sixth book of George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series. While we wait for The Winds of Winter to be released (whenever that is going to be!), we ranked all five of the Game of Thrones books so far. We’ll update the ranking when the final two books of George R.R. Martins’s A Song of Ice and Fire are released.
I’ve been a big fan of Game of Thrones for more than a decade. I started reading the series when the show premiered on HBO, and I liked them so much I just had to read ahead. In some ways, I’m glad I did! It made the show a lot easier to digest, and I could easily see where the plot was going. With that said, it might have dimmed the experience of watching the shocking twists and turns play out on-screen, like Ned Stark’s end, The Red Wedding, Joffrey’s death, and some of the other major moments from the books that made it into the series.
We shared the list of books in A Song of Ice and Fire in order:
- A Game of Thrones (1996)
- A Clash of Kings (1998)
- A Storm of Swords (2000)
- A Feast for Crows (2005)
- A Dance with Dragons (2011)
- The Winds of Winter (TBD)
Let’s get the rankings started with A Feast for Crows.
5. A Feast for Crows
Year Published: 2005
A Feast for Crows is the fourth book of George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire. It’s a switch from the first three books because it only focuses on a handful of characters and excludes several fan favorites’ perspectives, including Jon Snow, Tyrion, and Daenerys. Their stories continue in A Dance with Dragons, which takes place during the same time period as A Feast for Crows.
In A Feast for Crows, which takes place after the War of the Five Kings, Cersei Lannister continues her quest for power following the deaths of her father, Tywin, and her son, Joffrey. Tommen takes the throne, and Cersei tries to steer him while dealing with threats from all sides, including the Tyrells, the Martells of Dorne, and others interested in power. The story also continues the stories of Arya and Sansa Stark, along with Brienne of Tarth who is on a special mission to find Sansa.
I think it’s common knowledge that A Feast for Crows is the weakest of the five books from A Song of Ice and Fire so far. It’s not that it’s bad, though! It’s still a very good book, as I mentioned, but it lacks some of the important characters and punch that was set up in the previous books. It continues the story, and I guess that’s part of the problem. After moving so many pieces on the chessboard in A Storm of Swords, the third book, Martin had so much ground to cover to get these characters into positions for future stories, and that was a massive undertaking.
The plot takes place at the same time as A Dance with Dragons, and if Martin were able to blend these stories in a better way, A Feast for Crows would have been a lot better. Without Daenerys, Tyrion, and Jon Snow, it was hard to deliver on what fans had come to expect.
Again, it’s not bad! It’s just different, and that’s hard when the other four books have more of what I like.