I _did_ struggle through it. The second book is worse – much worse – and while the third one moves a bit quicker it’s still very tedious. I felt much like I felt after reading the Silmarillion – bored out of my skull, glad that it was over, and determined never to engage in such self destructive behaviour again.

All the action seems to take place as the hero talking to people to catch up with what they’ve been doing except for one small sliver of the story, and even then the hero-will-not-shut-up. Granted it’s first person narration, but he manages to turn even a conflict on a mountain top into a philisophical debate. There is no character development, just an introduction to make it clear that the Avout are vastly superior with their ivory tower way of life, (ie teaching themselves kung fu from a book, awesome mutant plants to fill their every need, etc…) and the age of the central characters, many of whom are 18-ish, makes the position of authority they’re rapidly launched to feel like a Japanese RPG.

Beyond that, there’s no new ideas here. There’s his main ‘everyman’, a guy just smart enough to know how little he knows, the person with terminal Aspergers, an old guy who mysteriously knows what’s going on, a conspiracy involving more human co-operation than has thus far proven possible in real life, and his stock ‘just as smart as a man, but in possesion of mystical emotional intelligence and firey passion’ women.

Everyone should