A Dance with Dragons switches over to the characters that aren't covered in Book 4. It essentially split up so Martin could better focus on the events of one general area before moving to the next. Book 5 and Book 4 take place over the exact same period of time.I'm around 400 pages on the fourth book, but unfortunately, a lot of my favourite characters don't have PoVs in this one. However, it's made up for by the introduction of new characters with PoVs, or old characters who haven't had any yet. I will admit, though, it is a bit slow. Might be I'm still too early on, though.