When I was reading the first book I was almost jumping up and down when Ned Stark was killed because I thought it was such an out of this world move by an author to kill off his apparent main character (and kill him slightly off stage too). But after that I thought he started killing off too many characters, including most of the Starks and Lannisters.
The first couple of books are more like a really long prologue now. Who really is left now? Jaime, Jon (who is too emo for my tastes), Sansa (who almost everyone hates but I hope will become a really strong woman when she's grown up), the younger Stark girl (name forgotten at the moment), Tyrion (who seemed completely broken at the end of book four), and Dany (who has lost her focus out in the desert).
That female knight who apparently died at the end of book four was interesting but spent too much time in book four being depressed and wandering around without much focus.
I will admit that it has been a long time since I read the series so I will start reading it again in the next week to see who I am missing. Maybe if I read all the books in rapid succession it will give me a different perspective. I think the problem is I find the north and Dany bits much more interesting than the south bits and book four was all boring south bits? I can't remember at the moment. Will go re-read.