Wow. I'm actually very surprised at how bad this book is, since it came so highly recommended to me. As many reviewers have already pointed out, it is poorly written, the character development is minimal and the 'plot' is very confusing. On top of that, the dialogue is pathetic, and the over-reliance on magic and gods gets very tiresome. The books really comes across as juvenile or awful fan fiction and that becomes very grating, very quickly. Finally, it may seem like I'm being pedantic, but the silly character and place names does not help in taking this rubbish seriously.Overall this is a children's cartoon, not an epic film.