[MSBorba]

The decision to split the book, not chronologically (as Martin has stated he preferred), but based on region/POV, I believe puts too much pressure, even for a genius like Martin.

Here is an author who has completed a book, albeit, too big. Instead of a clean cut, the publisher convinces Martin to divide it up by region/POV. So he does just that. The problem is Martin's POV's for the first three novels were simply genius, how he was able to maintain multiple plots and sub-plots, while moving the story forward through time.

So Martin has to shuffle all these masterfully-placed POV's, so that he could divide the book regionally/POV. Then he is expected to do the same with Dance with Dragons, to tell Dany's and the rest POV's. In my humble opinion, these two up-coming books, A Feast and A Dance, will be broken, to a certain extent.

Broken, not from a story flow, because one can just as easily read each POV, one-at-a-time and enjoy Martin's story. Broken because each POV has little clues as to what is taking place elsewhere in Martin's world. Instead of being able to follow these clues and plot leads as intended, we will be forced to wait for Dance with Dragons. Like I said, I don't believe even Martin himself can possibly make this work for me, especially since he had very little time to shuffle the POV's.

The bottom-line: I feel cheated not to be able to flow through the story, as the author intended....not as the publisher preferred.