To be honest I think the Meereen part of Dany's arc is necessary for her development as a character. Problem is it's so poorly written and realized that's all a bit of a shambles. There would have been nothing wrong with halving the number of chapters she had (and thus keeping her number of chapters to around the same as in ACoK and ASoS) and removing some of the incredibly boring Essos politics.
It's all just so far removed from where the real action (and characters people give a damn about) that it's hard to really stay focused. Anyway, that should be more or less wrapped up now, after probably 4-5 more chapters of Barristan Selmy's chapters. I can see her chapters being some of the most interesting in the coming book as(along with Barristan's, Tyrion's and Victarion's).. probably Arya's too, since she must be nearing her return from Braavos pretty soon.
By contrast if we're going further and further north in Westeros, I can see Jon's and Bran's chapters being a huge drag. The final conflict with the Others is inevitable of course, but I suspect we're going to be treated to some super boring exposition about their origins well before that in the next book. Oh well.
On another note, has anyone read the "Dunk and Egg" stories? I'd like to just buy the 3 stories as a single book, but they seem to be spread out amongst a bunch of story collections I otherwise have no interest in. Reading through the asoiaf wiki pages, some of the history seems quite interesting. Particularly the stuff about Bloodraven, who of course has a big part to play in Bran's current and coming chapters.
