I re-read this for the first time since reading A Dance with Dragons back when that came out, and it seems to me that Martin really did accomplish what he set out to do: these two books are best read back-to-back. In fact, there was a part of me that was wondering if there might not be an excellent way of overlapping the two books and reading them concurrently. Obviously, Martin's writing process with years between Feast and Dance didn't help things, but going back and reading it, you can really find ways that the two work together. For instance, the first time through, (view spoiler)[when we're down in Dorne and there are references to Quentin Martell, he was easy to ignore because he was "off screen" and otherwise unknown. Martin throws out so many names of people and places, and Quentin felt like that. But of course, he's an important character in Dance. So, you know, it might have been nice to know that at the time. (hide spoiler)]