A Dance With Dragons by George R.R. Martin
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Definitely a step up from "A Feast for Crows" (my review: "What a slog...") in that it is primarily told from the viewpoint of major characters, but the plot is still disturbingly bogged down: after five books in a seven-book series, the pieces ought to be staged for the climax, but it's very difficult to believe that's the case. My only thought is that a bold stroke would be to start the next book 5 years later, with the important viewpoint characters having walked the paths they're currently on and near the final crisis. It took the author 5 books to get us through Fall, there's no way that he can satisfactorily get through Winter and end with the first signs of Spring unless he changes something about his strategy.