ADWD suffers from the same problems as the fourth book, maddening wheel spinning and narrative dead ends when it feels like things should be moving ten times faster than they are. The majority of the characters at the end of the book are more or less in the same position that they were in at the beginning of A Feast for Crows.
Dany's chapters being the biggest culprit yet again, I like her character but it's blindingly obvious where her story is going and it is not going to end Mereen, where she has been stuck for three books, and now she is wandering, again. The characters there and their court are a tedious, pale comparison next to the enthralling Kings Landing court scenes. Also quite frustrating that the enormous battle starts just as the book ends, both at Mereen and at Winterfell, literary blue balls of the highest order!
I was even disappointed with Tyrion's chapters, yes he's still a lot of fun to read but apart from giving Prince Aegon a nudge towards Westeros his many chapters had zero impact on the plot. It seems to me that the ideal solution would've been to get Tyrion into Dany's court as early as possible, it would've hugely benefited both of their storylines... Dany was sorely missing a bit cunning in her posse and Tyrion's best stuff has always been his conniving and plotting at court. You can bet he'd have got her moving towards Westeros a lot quicker as well.
Quentyn Martell chapters were utterly pointless. He's a boring, lifeless character doing boring things for four chapters before he dies a pointless, death. Ned's death matters because we've got to know him, and it's a pivotal plot event. The same is true of the Red Wedding deaths, and Joffrey. Martell on the other hand isn't anyone we give a shit about. Aside from the events of the last page or three of his last chapter would anyone have noticed had they not been included? And those events could easily have been handled half a dozen ways. More chapters in Dorne regarding the Prince and Myrcella would've served the story better.
I loved Arya's chapters, was desperate for more than meagre few we got. Never would've predicted her story would go that way, her becoming a Faceless Man Assassin/Ninja/Badass is very cool. Her chapter with the insurance salesman was probably my favourite bit of the book. Can't wait to see how she comes into the main plot in the final books. Can see her being the one to kill the restored Cersei in the most painful way possible
Jon's stuff was great again, I could read a whole series about the Wall and his time on it. But, I really don't get why Jon makes that decision right at the end, it seems entirely inconsistent with his choices up to that point.
He did nothing when he father was captured, called a traitor and murdered, when his brother was crowned and marched to war, when the majority of his nearest relatives were slaughtered, when he knew his sister was being married off to an evil twat, and yet he's all up for breaking his vows and marching on Winterfell because Ramsey offed some King he didn't really like and called him some names? He even said he didn't have "Arya" anymore in the letter didn't he?
I did love Jon getting Julius Caesar'd at the end though, I was a bit shocked and didn't see it coming despite the clues and it follows Martin's pattern of severely punishing characters who think with their hearts instead of their heads. No way is he dead either, Melisandre's chapter was there basically just to say Jon is actually Azor Ahai, he'll be back.
I did like Bran's chapters as well, they were very weird but very interesting, left me desperate to see where his story is going. Is he going to become some sort of weird, all-seeing man-tree/flashback machine for the rest of the series?
Yet again, I end up sympathising with a character I should hate, I felt really sorry for Theon. He's even managed to create an even worse c*nt than Joffery in Ramsey Bolton. What an evil twat, heh.
The epilogue was flat out terrible, probably the stupidest plot twist in the whole series. Varys appearing out of no-where with no build up earlier in the book and becoming a monologuing, super evil Bond villain with an army of evil children and then pointlessly explaining his master plan to a dying man was cheap, lazy, inconsistent with his character and poorly written. I know it's good for the story, because the Lannister's were getting far too competent and good and we need crazy bitch Cersei back in power, but the way he came up with it was like something out of another story all together.
There are more very annoying instances of Martin 'cheating' with his own POV format, gone is the clean and elegant system of providing us with POV characters who are actual characters developing and changing as the story unfolds. Instead we get POV characters that function entirely as exposition-bots and info-dumps. Areo Hatoa isn't there for one chapter because we give a shit about his story. He's there because Martin needs to convey one bit of information and he can't be bothered to find a way to do it and fit it in with the rest of the chapters. Barristan Selmy isn't featured as a POV character because the author wants to tell us his tale and use that tale as a way to unveil the plot; no Selmy is featured as a POV character after 90% of the book is done for two chapters because the author has no other way to convey the information he wants to convey.
