I had an unreasonable idea that due to the popularity of the author, the writing would be better than average but that is far from the case. The narration is so heavy-handed it leaks over into the characters and they have no voices of their own. The dialog is often informational past the point of sense, leaving me wondering why anyone would go to the trouble of explaining these things in any conversation. And for that matter, who the hell talks like these characters? No explanation is given for the random encyclopedic knowledge of the characters on subjects outside their expertise. There is a great deal of exposition but some of the detail is irrelevant and has a professorial tone that prevented me from becoming engrossed in the story. The strange inhumanity of the characters didn't help matters either. It's as though every couple pages the story is paused for a wikipedia popup.

Ultimately, I just couldn't finish this. It's been a while since I've come across such awkward and poorly incorporated descriptive paragraphs. It's really not worth the effort.