I've read "A Feast for Crows" parallel to "A Dance with Dragons", so I was able to forget about the fact that only one half of the (really huge) character cast even appeared in this book. What we got was interesting enough, even though several readers complained about the contents and the several new characters. I can only agree about the introduction of Areo Hotah or Arys Oakheart as point-of-view characters being unnecessary, since it would have been more interesting to read about the Dorne storyline from Arianne's view, but that's mostly the only thing I can criticize about the novel's quality. I loved Brienne's chapters in contrast to many other people nearly as much as Cersei's, and Samwell and Arya had several badass moments which had me crying out "Yay!" Jaime's storyline was disappointing, as was the entire Dorne plotline, but all in all, I consider this to be a successful sequel.