Review:
In an uneven series, this is a good one, better than the 4th book, which was a not-so-good one.
Reading the series entirely in sequence in a few weeks, I noticed a few things.
1) The character sprawl is totally out of control, so much that the author had to use two books to tell the story of a few weeks or months. That's nuts, and hurts the books, because there are a lot of characters that are, simply, not very interesting.
2) This story seems to be about 40% done, which means another gazillion years waiting for it to end.
3) Unlike in star trek, here even is bad, odd is good.
4) If I had the time, I am sure I could find trends in word and expression usage. Neep and nuncle, leal and "The bastard of" are on the rise.
5) I don't regret reading it but ...
6) The situation, after thousands of pages, is completely unresolved, and it's becoming a bit grating to move the actual plot so slowly, even with all the things that are happening. It feels like noise.
