A Dance with Dragons

This installment was far superior to the previous, though I'm not certain how I feel about where things ended with most of the characters. I do really enjoy the ever more intricate web Martin is weaving–the plots within plots, twists, crazy secrets revealed. However, I would've like a little more payoff in this book, to see at least one really awesome thing happen to at least one of my favorite heroes instead of more betrayals. I am intrigued to see where Martin takes this series next, and fervently hope I will not have to wait 6 years to find out (though I know this is a slim hope).

**Edited to Add**

Now that I've had more time to think on this, I've actually downgraded my rating by one star, because for all the pages, not a whole lot actually happens to move the plot forward. When will everyone finally get to where they're going? The whole book was spent on ships and in marches. I get it, GRRM, war takes time, politics is messy, yadda yadda. Now can you move your characters forward, please? And for the love of all that is holy, can the Stark children PLEASE know that the others aren't dead so they can stop making assinine decisions based on this mistruth?