For better or for worse, I'm the kind of person who has to finish a book or movie once I start it. While I usually take less than a week to read a book, it took a few months to plod through 300 pages of this 600 page book, as I had to force myself to read it. Eventually I made the rare decision to cut my losses and give up.As others have mentioned, there are simply too many characters, minimal character development and a glut of never-ending backstory. Neville definitely could have used a good Editor to sharpen the plot and the writing. There are glimpses of an interesting plot throughout the book, which is why I read as much as I did, but it gets bogged down in the details.