Was it a Feast or a snack?

[Wil]

I admit GM set up a lot of possibilities in Feast (Don't yall ferget that the Rose is now marching to King's Landing to free his daughter (and maybe fight the "faith"), or that a new fleet is supposedly on its way to Stannis, or that there's a new Villain in Old town, etc.). I just hope that ADWD provides more advancement of the big story in ADWD, instead of introducing more new points of view and more twists with no answers. I like mystery with action, not just suspense for the sake of suspense (I always thought Sherlock Holmes books were overrated). In the end I keep remembering that the story is about the fight with the Others (The battle on the Fist was great), and if that's not addressed, then it may be a while before we even introduce the strongest enemy (I don't want this series to reach 10, 11 books. That's too many). I know that's all taking place in the North (ADWD) but by the end of Feast we still hadn't heard any news about that coming down to the south, which means that anything that may happen with the Others probably won't happen till the end of the book (ADWD).
I don't want to lose track of the big picture because I'm busy reading about these, apparently, little stories.

 

[Koopa]

it arent little stories, the advancement of westeros and who is in charge is crucial in the fight against the others, if that is going to be necessary at all, cause i have a feeling these others may be evil but the god itself may be a neutral one, like rhollor seems to embody both the good and the bad, as well as with the seven.

 

[Werthead]

KB, I was actually referring to things that have happened in AFFC. Highlight if you don't mind spoilers:

House Karstark has sworn fealty to Stannis as King, the only northern House to do so. Stannis plans to march on Deepwood Motte and remove the Greyjoy forces from the castle to win their loyalty as well. House Umber has sworn fealty to Tommen and accepted Roose Bolton as their liege lord: remember that it is the Greatjon and the murdered Smalljon who we are basing our opnions of the Umbers on, but the Greatjon's uncles in ACoK who control the home castle are much more disreputable figures. The Greyjoy strength is more in strategic placement of their forces rather than overall numerical strength. They may abandon Deepwood Motte and Torrhen's Squre, but given a force can hold Moat Cailin against attack from the south with a small garrison, they will retain that stronghold to stop the Boltons and Freys entering the North and ending the last remnants of rebellion there.

Wil: from the sound of it your request for action in ADWD will be met with spades. Many hints can be gleaned from the appendix to ADWD, especially seeing the characters that Dany will be associating with. Similarly highlight for spoilers from the book itself, as these revelations are taken from spoiler chapters and chapters read out by GRRM at cons:

Qarth declares war against Meereen when Dany refuses to leave Slaver's Bay immediately and tries to get two Dothraki khals to attack the city. These khals are listed in the appendix for AFFC. Also, it looks like Jon Snow leads some of the Night's Watch in attacking Craster's Keep, where the murderers of Jeor Mormont holed up after killing Craster. Plus Tyrion is travelling through some very hairy territory with a military force with an attitude problem, Lord Manderly of White Harbour is playing a dangerous game with Davos as an unwilling pawn and Asha Greyjoy, severely pissed off with the world, 'gets embroiled in the affairs of the North' (which doesn't sound like it can end well). As for the Others...you forget Bran, whose storyline I think is going to lead to the secrets of this race.

All-in-all, I think ADWD is going to rock harder than AFFC, although possibly not as much as ASoS.

 

[Koopa]

okay, still i am guessing Stannis will soon control great parts of the north, the umbers can fall into his hands by taking the castle and imprissonning their lords, the boltons so far dont matter since their forces are south, as for the ironborn, so long as they have little forces in the north they are of no consequence either, since asha will probably make some sort of an alliance, that can be made with either stannis or the south, or not at all and then it in itself is most likely positive for the north, cause the ironmen will be holding that castle so that the south cannot pass it and thus not intervene, wich means the south is effectively cut off from the north, while the north itself can regroup itself, and if necesarry take the castle from the northside(wich is said to be possible)

 

[Werthead]

There is a more straightforward way of avoiding Moat Cailin, which is to go by sea. Unfortunately, no-one in the South really has any strength at sea in the region. The Redwynes are on their way home, the Greyjoys prowl the west coast and the Vale's fleet is likely too small. So the other forces are indeed stuck below Moat Cailin, unless the other Northern forces under Ramsay Bolton forces are numerous enough to dislodge the Greyjoys from the north.