Almost done with Storm of Swords but I think this is my personal favorite of the three. There's just so many big and little awesome moments.
Yeah Storm of Swords is easily the strongest book. And I think they did a lot of that stuff well in the show too - season 4 was easily the strongest.
I'm a little bummed to see that the Dany stuff has become as dreadfully boring as it has become in the show though.
Yeah her story is really quite dull unfortunately. Purely speculation, but it's almost like the story kept expanding and GRRM kept thinking of new characters and ideas to bring in, and so he needed to stretch Dany's story out for longer.
My landlord told me how AFFC is structured so I'm hoping the new main characters are as good as the ones that will be absent.
I'd be interested to hear what you think. AFFC is shorter than the others, while ADWD is longer (I think) so it ends up averaging out. Personally, despite some flaws (and some absent characters), I really like AFFC, as some of the plot lines felt very focused and there was some build up and great climax at the end.