A song of Ice and fire discussion (spoilers incl A Dance with Dragons)

[Albertosaurus Rex]

I'll second what Joost said. You have to realize that there was a publication gap of five years between A Storm of Swords and A Feast for Crows, and six years between A Feast for Crows and A Dance with Dragons. Expectations for AFFC were sky high, but it has less story progression than the book preceding it and some of the mord popular characters weren't in it. I myself only discovered A Song of Ice and Fire a couple of years after AFFC came out, so I could go straight from ASOS to AFFC and wasn't disappointed in the least.

Another way to look at it is the structure of the series. George R. R. Martin originally envisioned the series being a trilogy consisting of A Game of Thrones, A Dance with Dragons and The Winds of Winter. While the number of books has grown, there is still a clear three-act structure. The first book turned into A Game of Thrones, A Clash of Kings and A Storm of Swords. You can see that in ASOS, some storylines end and others are set to develop in new ways.

So then there's A Feast for Crows and A Dance with Dragons which form the middle act. Apart from the slightly awkward structure, comparatively little begins or ends, a common symptom of the middle act - which is of course not to say that nothing of consequence happens. However, it appears the stage is now set for the mother of all finales, also expanded to two books: The Winds of Winter and A Dream of Spring.