I went back through my LJ. A Feast for Crows was the last book I read, and that was early 2006. If that's the last book, then Martin is sure taking his sweet time.

Anyway, I found it to be by far the worst book in the series. Between a sloppy plot contradiction no one in the story actually points out ((SPOILER)Jamie being originally reluctant to push Bran out the window and only did so upon Cersei's demands; later, these positions somehow switch people) and the mind-numbing boringness of some parts, I just could not care. There were quite a few chapters that just dragged on with repetitive and/or irrelevant crap. Nothing actually happens in it until the end. It's partially that Martin decided to focus on only the boring/annoying characters, and partially that there are so many boring/annoying characters that for some reason warrant being focused on so much.

My complaints about the rest of the series, summarized: Catelyn Stark's character was retarded to the point of being unrealistic. In the first book, (SPOILER)Edward's and Lady's deaths felt incredibly forced, as if those scenes were written as an afterthought to the rest of the story, or if Martin got there in the writing and all of a sudden decided he needed to kill someone. The "plot twists" were set up to the point of being predictable.

There are some good characters, which are the saving grace for the series (Tyrion, in particular), and the overall writing is fairly decent. I just don't see it rising anywhere near the level of a lot of the praises I see.