The book is well written. Martin's writing skills have greatly improved since he first started writing the series. But that's about as high as my praise goes.
Jon: Of the main three characters, his chapters were the best in the book, but grew repetitive as the book went on. How many chapters do we need to see of him giving land and position to wildlings and pissing off his "brothers?" His interaction with Melisandre was interesting and I wish more had been done with that.
The only thing that saddens me about Jon's "death" is that I fear we won't have his POV chapters in the future. I really wanted to see his reaction to finding out about his parentage and maybe even seeing Arya one last time. Still, it's fairly obvious his role in this story is not yet done. There is a small chance he survived the stabbings of his brothers if someone like Tormund or even the giant intervened. Another option will be Melisandre giving him the kiss of life in which case he and Catelyn will finally have something to bond over! But more likely as the book heavily hinted (or hit you over the head), he'll live on through Ghost. It was the prologue where I knew he was doomed. It served to reinforce that a warg transfers part of himself to another when he or she dies (later reinforced again in a Bran chapter). That's all that really happened. So either Jon or Bran were in trouble, and Jon was more likely.
I'll miss the Jon POV if it is gone as it was one of my three favorites. And I dread chapters and chapters of Sam complaining about how craven he is but finding his courage and thinking, "Look Jon, I can be brave."
Dany: I've never really liked Dany. This book has made me dislike her even more. A good portion of the book revolves around her. I found none of her chapters interesting. The Mereneese characters are all terrible. The dragons were pretty awesome in one chapter in the book (but it's not one of Dany's!).
Dany's chapters are boring and feel like filler. We're just marking time until something happens to get her out of Mereen. In the meanwhile he's a bunch of crappy characters with weird names.
I was hoping we'd see her head to Westeros by the end of the book, that could possibly lead to something interesting in the future, but alas not. But hey! We get the long awaited return of a Dothraki horde to look to forward to!
Dany is the most invincible character in the series for the time being. There's no way she can die yet which added somewhat to the boredom. I would have been incredibly surprised if Martin had killed her. Surprised and pleased.
Tyrion: The book's greatest sin for me. Along with Jon and Arya, Tyrion's chapters have always been my favorite. In this book, his chapters were as bad as Dany's. I guess Tyrion is just best when he has interesting characters around him. The interesting characters are all either dead or have abandoned him. Martin's skill for creating interesting characters seems to have vanished. The new characters introduced in this book are mostly boring individuals (more on the later) and the returning characters Tyrion gets paired with are some of the series most boring (Jorah Mormont. TV Jorah is so much better than book Jorah). This is the first book in the series where I have not looked forward to Tyrion chapters and my dislike of his chapters started early, maybe because they're somewhat linked to Dany.
Like Dany, many of his chapters just seem like filler. When AFFC and ADWD was one book, Tyrion only had four chapters. It would probably have been better if it stayed that way.
Reek/Theon/various other chapter titles: Not bad. His chapters were interesting and gave us access to some twisted characters. Although maybe a bit too dark and twisted. "Reek!!! Eat out Jeyne Poole!"
Davos: What the fuck? His first chapter his pointless and only serves to impart that Jon's mother may have been some fish bitch. Unlikely as it seems that Jon must have some ties to Dorne per Edric Dayne's story in ASOS. Whether his mother was Ashara Dayne (unlikely now based on a Barristen chapter, but it appears Ned did knock her up), or he was born in the Tower of Joy. The fish story seems unlikely. Then you get his other two chapters which are really good. Then the third chapters ends on an incredibly awesome note, but that's it! And it's still pretty eary in the book. We don't get to see Davos's adventures on Skagos looking for Rickon. Instead we get a bunch of other pointless chapters with Dany and Tyrion.
Quintyn: Not a bad character. His companions are pretty thin character wise (but so are most of the series new characters). His last chapter gives us the book's best scene with dragons.
Griff(s): Figured out young Griff's identity almost immediately. Not sure what to make of him. Don't really have anything invested in him. Might be a good character, might not. Connington, don't care much for his character but I'm interested in what he knows of the past (which in this book is far more interesting than the present).
Barristen: The only really good character in Dany's chapters. Glad to get some insight into him. Wish he'd abandon her though and do something else, but that will probably never happen. He'll find her. I wish his chapters had dealt more with his memories of the past. As mentioned above, the past is far more interersting than the present in the book.
Asha/Victarion: This is getting long and no one is probably reading by this point. I never really liked the Greyjoy characters are chapters. Fuck Damphair! They weren't bad in this book, but based on Asha's ending there will be plenty more Greyjoy shenanigans in the next book. That makes me a sad panda.
Melisandre: Why she only get one chapter!?
Jaime: Him too. I understand why that chapter was in there, but it was odd. He's not dead, but probably not in a good place.
Cersie: Have we seen the start of Cersie's rehabilitation as a character?
Epilogue: The only truly shocking part of the book for me. I knew Kevan was going to die (it's tradition), but I was shocked at how and by who. Got poor ole Pycelle too, and it revealed a great deal about Varys.