In the Acknowledgements, George RR Martin says this books was "three bitches and a bastard" and I am forced to agree with his own assessment. I've been a fan since before book 2 was released. Every time the next book would come out, I would re-read the entire series to get ready for it, so I certainly don't take this review lightly. So here is what I think the "Three bitches and a bastard" were.

Number 1

Character development. The best part of this series for me is the characters, their realism and how they change and move with the story. Even the minor characters came alive. Dance is a major step back I feel. I just finished the book and very few if any minor characters even come to mind. But worst of all, some of the main characters are out of character, stagnant or becoming less dimensional. The worst is Dany. She's gone through too much in life to start acting like some dumb starry-eyed teenage girl. Where is that fiery dragon blood? George martin could have really taken Tyrion to a whole new level after what happened at the end of storms, yet Tyrion seems to have turned into just a weaker boring shadow of his past.

Number 2

The plot. Like many people have said, it hardly moved. I can handle a slow moving plot if the characters move, evolve and are engaging, but that also fell flat.

Number 3

Cliffhangers. Was anything resolved? Before reading the book, I imagined that the heart of this book would actually be about the resolution of all the cliffhangers that were left at the end of the book. The cliffhangers should have been around the middle of the book and the last half would have been the satisfying conclusion. Instead it feels like we simple got 1000 pages of setup that I thought was already mostly set up.  Too many fake deaths and cheap shock scenes feel like the author is doing everything in his power to keep you interested.

And the" bastard": The passion

In George Martin's blog, he talks about Dance of dragons being 'Kong' and him beating or knocking down Kong. When I saw that, I thought to myself, the passion and  the excitement has to be long gone. It honestly feels like that too. You can tell he did everything in his power to make this book 'not suck', but in doing so, he may have forgot to try to make it great like the first three.

In my opinion, George Martin is playing scared. Something happened after storm of swords that shook his confidence. It's not so much that he has 'writers block' or he is just milking it for money,  but he is scared to give himself more issues with the type of conclusions a storm of swords gave. And the fact that he is much older, much more famous and has created an entire universe of this world in other products, makes him even more scared. So what he does is stop at the point where it's just about to get good so he has 5 extra years to make sure the next step works.

The Good

The book was still entertaining in parts. I liked some of the earlier Davos and Bran chapters. The Reek chapters felt like the old George Martin! I loved them. It had a full arc since it really wasn't crucial to the constrained plot. Maybe, just maybe if George Martin  decides to finally let loose and find the passion of the first 3 books, the series may be saved. If he continues to play scared and keeps trying to battle 'Kong', he will surely lose.
In the Acknowledgements, George RR Martin says this books was "three bitches and a bastard" and I am forced to agree with his own assessment. I've been a fan since before book 2 was released. Every time the next book would come out, I would re-read the entire series to get ready for it, so I certainly don't take this review lightly. So here is what I think the "Three bitches and a bastard" were. Number 1

Character development. The best part of this series for me is the characters, their realism and how they change and move with the story. Even the minor characters came alive. Dance is a major step back I feel. I just finished the book and very few if any minor characters even come to mind. But worst of all, some of the main characters are out of character, stagnant or becoming less dimensional. The worst is Dany. She's gone through too much in life to start acting like some dumb starry-eyed teenage girl. Where is that fiery dragon blood? George martin could have really taken Tyrion to a whole new level after what happened at the end of storms, yet Tyrion seems to have turned into just a weaker boring shadow of his past. Number 2

The plot. Like many people have said, it hardly moved. I can handle a slow moving plot if the characters move, evolve and are engaging, but that also fell flat. Number 3

Cliffhangers. Was anything resolved? Before reading the book, I imagined that the heart of this book would actually be about the resolution of all the cliffhangers that were left at the end of the book. The cliffhangers should have been around the middle of the book and the last half would have been the satisfying conclusion. Instead it feels like we simple got 1000 pages of setup that I thought was already mostly set up. Too many fake deaths and cheap shock scenes feel like the author is doing everything in his power to keep you interested. And the" bastard": The passion

In George Martin's blog, he talks about Dance of dragons being 'Kong' and him beating or knocking down Kong. When I saw that, I thought to myself, the passion and  the excitement has to be long gone. It honestly feels like that too. You can tell he did everything in his power to make this book 'not suck', but in doing so, he may have forgot to try to make it great like the first three. In my opinion, George Martin is playing scared. Something happened after storm of swords that shook his confidence. It's not so much that he has 'writers block' or he is just milking it for money,  but he is scared to give himself more issues with the type of conclusions a storm of swords gave. And the fact that he is much older, much more famous and has created an entire universe of this world in other products, makes him even more scared. So what he does is stop at the point where it's just about to get good so he has 5 extra years to make sure the next step works. The Good

The book was still entertaining in parts. I liked some of the earlier Davos and Bran chapters. The Reek chapters felt like the old George Martin! I loved them. It had a full arc since it really wasn't crucial to the constrained plot. Maybe, just maybe if George Martin  decides to finally let loose and find the passion of the first 3 books, the series may be saved. If he continues to play scared and keeps trying to battle 'Kong', he will surely lose.