** spoiler alert ** 
 This book already has received thousands upon thousands of reviews, so if you don't want to read another review meant to defend this book, don't continue doing so. Fair warning. 
 I enjoyed this book far more than many other fans of this series seemingly did. The reason has perhaps been my preparation for it - I already knew AFFC and ADWD were not as popular with readers as the first three volumes, so I decided to use a variable reading order, including chapters from both books in their respective timelines. You can find plenty of those on the web. 
 My major complaint includes the awful translation as I read the book in German and struggled to continue reading due to several mistakes and typos I would never forgive any author for. But this was the translator's work, not GRRM's, so I try not to judge him for what feels like a crime to the book. It is still difficult to bear when every second question mark is replaced by a simple full stop. Argh! When I ask someone how he is, I would of course write: "How are you." Of course. Not to mention all those missing words (sometimes even sentences!) and the translator's inability to remember if it's 'Lennister' or 'Lannister' in the german version). And don't even make me talk about the difference between "das" and "dass" in German! Translators of such popular book series should be capable of knowing this difference, yet they did not with this one. 
 Back to the book itself. I understand why many readers were frustrated with it, especially with the ongoing Meereen plots and the thousands of new characters Martin seems unable to find a purpose for. I tend to disagree with this opinion. It's not only a story about the Iron Throne and the dangers represented by the Others or the dragons, it is also a story about characters and an immense setting Martin concentrates hugely on during this part of the series. He used books four and five mainly to delve deeper into the known world, presenting Dorne, Volantis (and a lot of Essos as well), Braavos, White Harbor, the Dreadfort and the Iron Islands with their power struggles. We had the aftermaths of ASOS: Tyrion dealing with his guilt over causing Tywin and Shae's deaths; Cersei becoming mad due to her inability to distinguish between good and evil; Daenerys struggling with her attempt to rule Meereen (and, seriously, she would have been a child to believe in her ability to conquer the Seven Kingdoms, which is why her character gained my full respect for her decision to stay in Meereen); Jon trying to be as good a Lord Commander as he could possibly be. It was as much about the developments of their characters as it was about the preparations for huge battles like the upcoming Battle of Winterfell or the Battle of Meereen, which will most likely lead to larger events - such as Daenerys finally sailing for Westeros which I am sure will not happen before ADOS. It could feel kind of long, I will agree about that. Daenerys had way too many scenes with Daario, Quentyn's voyage had no need to be described so explicitly, Tyrion's depressive mood and playing cyvasse for hundreds of pages as well as those endless lists of food might have been hard to bear. But there are a lot of characters and places to be explored, and Martin would never have reached this if not by calming down the story. I was fine with most of his decisions. But as I said, this is a review about defense, so I try to negate those complains I still have about ADWD (for example Daenerys' character development which felt rather non-congruent with her behavior in earlier volumes, or choosing Areo as a POV character of Dorne which I still cannot understand). 
 I gave this a four-star-rating, since it still belongs to one of the most divisive, most discussed and most loved book series, and since I have fallen in love with the book and Martin's characters. Now if only "The Winds of Winter" was released before GRRM will be one hundred years old!