I finished A Dance with Dragons, the companion volume to A Feast for Crows (the timelines and stories overlap). I must say I found it much heavier going than I expected, it was unrelievedly grim, even by GRR Martin's standards. The Daenerys storyline has never been my favourite either, so the extra emphasis on that weighed heavily on me, I guess. By the end I was too fatigued to really care anymore and the (possible) demise of a major character (hardly unexpected) left me cold. In comparison I found the similar demise of a major character at the end of Memories of Ice was vivid and traumatic.

Although several plotlines were partially resolved in ADWD, nothing much really happened, just shuffling around of players for (maybe) an epic finale.I was disappointed to discover that my interest in what might happen next has diminished sharply. 3.5* really (rounded up for good times earlier in the series)