Basileus777
Member
The setup thing mostly belies the real issue, which is the bloat that took over the series. Both in terms of unnecessary chapters/POVs and increasing chapter length. These largely aren't the product of the stage the story is in, but GRRM's present day style and lack of editing pressure. There's no real evidence that GRRM is through with this and that the series is now a ball rolling down a hill. Those are the types of arguments people always use when they say he will write the next book so much quicker, and it never works out that way.I do agree that Dance did a nice job setting up multiple arcs to really "pop" in the next book. However it was quite a painstaking process to get there, which wasn't enjoyable to read during some parts. He put in a lot of work rolling a boulder up the mountain. Now it's poised to roll down and be entertaining but as stated earlier he hasn't let go of some bad habits (based on preview chapters). How that will work now that all the POV chapters are back is a mystery. Maybe that's what is delaying things: trying to find a chapter balance+him wanting to keep various travel or world building chapters whixh results in less plot advancement time...