If you pre-ordered a Dance with Dragons like me, you might also be waiting for it to be delivered. While you internally debate the value of thriftiness in pre-ordering it (48% off!) versus more immediate gratification, you can instead read this spolier-free Q&A interview with George R.R. Martin about the book and the rest his series, A Song of Ice & Fire.
The aspects of Martin’s work that have endeared him to fans are abundant here—rich world building, narrative twists and turns, and gritty depictions of the human struggle for power. Characters who were sorely missed in Feast—Daenerys Targaryen, Tyrion Lannister, and Jon Snow—make up more than a third of the novel, and Martin is wise enough to give us at least a chapter from (almost) everyone else.