although i admire the author's use of language, and do admit he's a very good writer, i had a rather hard time with this book. i usually read about a book a week (generally not fluff), and it took me almost a month to get through 2/3 of it. i had a lot of trouble keeping track of all the characters -- i actually made a series of "family trees," trying to figure out how everyone in the book was connected. that helped, but didn't make the book any more fun to read. (the author should have included some sort of chart or legend in the book -- i kept looking for one every time he introduced a new character). maybe the ending makes the whole book worthwhile -- i don't know. i gave up before i finished. maybe if i had read the first book of the trilogy, i would have gotten more out of it. as it is, i've moved on to books that are a pleasure to read, rather than a chore.