A fantastic story, great characters, interesting plot... this book has everything to be a great book by all standards. But it is unfortunately poorly written. Starts off really slow, and does a weak presentation of the setting to the reader. So unless you have some patience (like 100 pages kind of patience) you will give it up. Nevertheless, after that part is through it gets amazingly good and, before you know it, you are entangled and happy about it! The painful "poetry verses" at beginning of each chapter tend to take away a little of the awe, but once you've fell for it, this and the occasional jarring sentences uttered by some characters, wont stand in the way of having fun. If you enjoy fantasy, you wont regret reading it!