Friend told me he looked up some of the reason why one of the books gets not so great reviews, and IMO it sounds more like an irritant than a problem i.e. a particular story development takes a loooong time to provide for the audience

Also, I hope (and expect) to see more lands and kingdoms open up. I expect we find more about kingdoms on the Dothraki continent that are not Dothraki, I hope that we discover cultures north of the Wall, and I think there's the small foreshadowing that we're going to be introduced to entirely new regions like Valyria or where Shae comes from or other places